Heather J. Tanner
Professor
My primary academic interests center around how noble and royal women and men exercised power, particularly in the tenth through mid-thirteenth centuries, in northern France, Belgium, and England. This has led me into the study of lordship, feudalism, administration, law and custom, as well as emotions and rituals. I have published fourteen articles and books chapters, and given over thirty conference presentations. My first book, Families, Friends and Allies: Boulogne and Politics in northern France and England c. 879-1160 (E.J. Brill Academic Publishers, 2004) offered a new model of political development for northern France (rather than feudalism). I edited and co-wrote the introduction to Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power: Moving Beyond the Exceptionalist Debate (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019) that stemmed from an international conference I organized. My second book – Lordship and Governance by the Inheriting Countesses of Boulogne, 1160-1260 (Arc Humanities Press, 2023) demonstrates that the extension of feudalism and more centralized government did not curtail elite women's access to and use of power into the mid-thirteenth century. I am currently working on two projects. The first is a project with Elisabeth van Houts (Cambridge University) on "women on the move" for the Global Flanders project. Historians and archeologists who specialize in medieval Flanders are working together a new interpretation of medieval Flanders as an important part of social, economic, political, and cultural networks in Europe. I am also working on an article on Matilda-Theresa, countess of Flanders (d. 1216), co-editing the volume which stems from the second Beyond Exceptionalism conference, and organizing the third Beyond Exceptionalism conference (summer 2026).
I have won several prestigious fellowships including a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and the Coca-Cola Critical Difference grant. I was also awarded The Susan Hartmann Mentoring and Leadership Award for outstanding mentoring and leadership on behalf of women, or other historically underrepresented groups at the university.
While history is a passion, I also love cooking, music, dancing, reading (especially mysteries and S.F.), and hanging out with my family and friends. I’m a Navy brat who has moved 40 times; which means I went to 5 elementary schools, 4 junior high schools, and 3 high schools. I started college at George Mason University, then went to Ventura College for a semester, and finished up at UC Santa Barbara. I worked for 2 years in the insurance industry before returning to graduate school at UC Santa Barbara. Before coming to Ohio State Mansfield, I taught at Bates College, U. of Oregon, and Lake Forest College.
Research publications:
“Anger, Violence, and the Exercise of Power in High Medieval French Chronicles,” in Gender, Memory, and Documentary Culture, edited by Laura L. Gathagan and Charles Insley, 198-214. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2024.
Heather J. Tanner, Lordship and Governance by the Countesses of Boulogne, 1160-1260 (ARC Humanities Press, June 2023)
Heather J. Tanner, editor, Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100-1400: Moving Beyond the Exceptionalist Debate (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)
Heather J. Tanner, “Matilda of Boulogne: The Indispensable Partner.” In Norman to Early Plantagenet Consorts, edited by Aidan Norrie, Carolyn Harris, J. L. Laynesmith, Danna R. Messer, and Elena Woodacre, 99–118. New York: Palgrave, 2023.
Heather J. Tanner, “The Twelfth-Century Norman and Angevin Duke-Kings of England and the Northern French Nobility,” Anglo-Norman Studies 45 (2022): 153-168.
Heather J. Tanner, “Women’s Legal Capacity – Was the thirteenth-century a turning point?” in Paradigm Shifts During the Global Middle Ages and Early Modern Age, ed. Albrecht Classen, ASMAR (Turhout: Brepols, 2019), 81-96.
Heather J. Tanner, Lois L. Huneycutt and Laura L. Gathagan, “Introduction” in Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100-1400: Moving Beyond the Exceptionalist Debate, ed. Heather J. Tanner (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019), 1-18.
Conference Organizer
Beyond Exceptionalism II (11-13 July 2022, John Rylands Library, Manchester, England)
Conference/research Papers
“The Origins and Evolution of the Honour, 11th to early 13th century” annual meeting of the International Congress of Medieval Studies, May 2023.
“The Early Angevin Kings and the Northern French Nobles,” annual meeting of the Battle Conference in Anglo-Norman Studies, July 2021.
“Anger, Violence, and the Exercise of Power in High Medieval French Chronicles – Was there a double standard for noble men and women?” Gender, Memory and Documentary Culture, 900-1200, conference co-sponsored by the John Rylands Research Institute and the Haskins Society, June 2019.
“Charters – the formulaic elements as a window into northern French nobles’ legal mentalité” annual meeting of the International Congress of Medieval Studies, May 2019.
Awards/Honors
College of Arts and Sciences Mid-Career Faculty Excellence Award, April 2023