Larissa Taylor

Larissa found her life's passion, ancient and medieval history, after reading a historical novel. She attended Wellesley College and received her BA from Harvard University, followed by her doctorate from Brown University. Before coming to Colby in 1994, she taught at MIT, Wellesley, Harvard, and Assumption College. At Colby, she is Professor of History with affiliations to Science &Technology Studies and French. She has lived several years in France and a couple in Italy, exulting in the culture, food and wine.

Her publications include Soldiers of Christ: Preaching in Late Medieval and Reformation France, which won the John Nicholas Brown Prize for a first book in Medieval Studies; Heresy and Orthodoxy in Sixteenth-Century Paris; Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period; and The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc (Yale, 2009, 2010). The latter has been translated into Italian as Giovanna d'Arco e la Guerra dei Cent' Anni (Bruno Mondadori, 2010) and Dutch as Jeanne D'Arc (Veen Media, 2015). She also served as editor-in-chief of The Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage (Brill, 2009).

Larissa is currently working on a long-term project entitled "The History of Fear from Ancient Egypt to Victorian England."

She is President Emerita of the American Catholic Historical Association. Larissa is a passionate advocate of animal welfare/rights.