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21 Sep 16

Alex Novikoff teaches medieval history at Fordham University, where he also serves as the undergraduate chair of the Center for Medieval Studies. His research simultaneously embraces the scholastic culture of the High Middle Ages, Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, and the many interconnections between pedagogy and performance practice. His first book, The Medieval Culture of Disputation: Pedagogy, Practice, and Performance (Pennsylvania, 2013), traces the origins of scholastic disputation from the rhetorical traditions of antiquity and the dialogue genre of the early Middle Ages through the creation of an international network of university-educated scholars and debaters. Throughout, Novikoff demonstrates how the formal practice of debate contributed not only to learning within the universities, but also to various forms of cultural production beyond the ivory tower, as scholars strove to carry their pedagogical techniques into the wider world. Novikoff was the Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow at the Academy in fall 2016.

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