Sara M. Butler

Sara M. Butler earned her honors B.A. in history from York University (1995), her M.A. from the University of Toronto (1996), and her Ph.D. from Dalhousie University (2001), where she worked with C.J. Neville. She spent twelve years at Loyola University New Orleans, attaining the rank of Gregory F. Curtin, S.J., Distinguished Professor, before joining Ohio State University as the King George III Chair in British History in autumn of 2016.

Sara's research interests lie in the social history of the law in medieval England. She has written on subjects such as marital violence, divorce, forensic medicine, suicide, abortion, coverture, medieval malpractice, and most recently juries of matrons. In 2007, Sara was awarded the Sutherland prize by the American Society for Legal History for her article, “Degrees of culpability: Suicide verdicts, mercy, and the jury in medieval England,” (Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 36.2, 2006). In 2016 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Sara regularly contributes to the blog "Legal History Miscellany." See her contributions here: https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/author/butlersm16/