Dr. Eichbauer is Professor of Medieval History with a research specialization in legal
history. She is also the Co-Director of FGCU’s Gulf Scholars Program.
As a Professor of Medieval History, her research specializes in legal and ecclesiastical
history from c.1000 to c.1500, and focuses, in particular, on legal pluralism and
the evolution of legal principles. She is particularly interested in the dissemination
of legal knowledge; the interpretation of law; and the ways in which social, political,
and intellectual developments and trends shaped both during the height of the medieval
period. By examining the larger processes linking law to the world in which it functions,
my hope is to show new ways of thinking about current issues. She has published articles
in legal history journals and has published works with Cambridge University Press,
Routledge, Brill, and Ashgate. She was also a fellow for the American Council of Learned
Societies from 2016 to 2018.
As Co-Director of the Gulf Scholars Program (initial funding provided by the National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), her and Co-Director Dr. Heather
Skaza-Acosta work with faculty, campus partners, and community partners to develop
curricular and co-curricular opportunities engaging students in disciplinary research,
community-engaged research, and service experiences to foster conscientious leaders
in Southwest Florida through intercultural knowledge and competencies that lead to
solving the region's “wicked problems”.
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Education
Toggle Education
- PhD., History, The Catholic University of America, 2010
- M.A., History, The Catholic University of America, 2004
- M.A., Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2000
- B.A., History, Western Michigan University, 1998
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Research and Teaching Interests
Toggle Research and Teaching InterestsTeaching Interests: Law, Politics, and Religion
Research Interests: Legal History and Ecclesiastical History
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Courses Offered
Toggle Courses Offered
Courses Offered
- EUH 2021 Medieval European History
- EUH 3121 Fall of the Roman Empire and Barbarian Kingdoms
- EUH 3122 Feudal Society, 1000–1400
- EUH 3142 Renaissance and Reformation
- EUH 4124 The Crusades
- EUH 4180 Age of Inquisitions
- EUH 4920 Topics Mdvl & Early Mod Hist
- EUH 6126 Readings in Medieval History
- EUH 6184 Mdvl Ecclesiology and Law
- HIS 6004 Teaching History at the College Level
- HIS 6937 Academic Writing and Editing
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Publications
Toggle Publications
Books
- The Sources of Medieval Canon Law: A User's Guide. Edited by Danica Summerlin and Melodie H. Eichbauer. Routledge, under contract. Submission
date 1 April 2026.
- Law in a Culture of Theology: The Use of Canon Law by Theologians at the University
of Paris in the Twelfth Century. Routledge, 2025.
- Cambridge History of the Papacy , 3 vols. Edited with Joëlle Rollo Koster, Robert A. Ventresca, and Miles Pattenden
(Cambridge University Press, 2025).
- Vol. 1: The Two Swords
- Sections: Christendom and Empire; Crises, Schisms, and Dissent; Reformations and Revolutions;
Theopolitics and Religious Diplomacy; Inter-faith relations: confrontation and dialogue
- 2: The Governance of the Church
- Sections: The Pope within the Church; The Roman Curia; Canon Law; Finances; Papal
States
- 3: Civil Society
- Sections: Spaces, liturgies, travel; Women, gender, sexuality; Science, medicine,
technology; Education, culture, arts
- Medieval Canon Law, 2nd edition. An expanded and revised version of the First Edition by James A. Brundage
(The Medieval World; Routledge, 2023).
- Editor, A Cultural History of Genocide, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages (Bloomsbury Academic Publisher, 2021). Contributors: Jonathan Elukin, Edward Schoolman,
David Bachrach, Bernard S. Bachrach
- Edited with Danica Summerlin, The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1250 (Medieval Law and Its Practice, 26; Brill, 2018). Contributors: John Ott, Mia Münster-Swendsen,
Melodie H. Eichbauer, Jason Taliadoros, Greta Austin, Danica Summerlin, Stephan Dusil,
William North, Kathleen Cushing, Louis Hamilton, Bruce Brasington
- Edited with Kenneth Pennington, Law as Profession and Practice in Medieval Europe: Essays Dedicated to James Brundage (Ashgate/Routledge, 2011).
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
- "Physicality of Working with Paratexts and Commentaries.” In The Sources of Medieval Canon Law: A User's Guide. Edited by Danica Summerlin and Melodie H. Eichbauer. Routledge, under contract. submission
date 1 May 2025.
- "That Which is ‘Hers’ in 12th Century Northern French Canonical Collections and Libri
penitentiales: Body, Children, and Property,” in Women and Gender in Medieval Canon Law, eds. Greta Austin and Gisela Drossbach. Turnhout: Brepols, under contract. submission
date 31 January 2025.
- "Gratian's Decretum: The Transmission and Fluidity of Legal Knowledge in the Twelfth Century," Cambridge History of the Papacy, Vol. 2: The Governance of the Church, pp-385-405. Edited by Joëlle Rollo Koster, Robert A. Ventresca, M. H. Eichbauer,
and Miles Pattenden (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
- Gunnels IV, Charles, … Melodie H. Eichbauer, “Undergraduate Research Experiences Grow
Career-Ready Transferable Skills,” Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research (SPUR) 8, no. 1 (Fall 2024): 15–25. https://doi.org/10.18833/spur/8/1/1.
- Lecher, A. L., Melodie H. Eichbauer, Kimberly Schneider, and Latika Young, “A Regional
Ecosystem That Helps Undergraduate Research Flourish,” EOS, 19 October 2023. https://eos.org/science-updates/a-regional-ecosystem-that-helps-undergraduate-research-flourish.
- Chastain, Jaclyn*, Santiago Luaces*, Melodie H. Eichbauer, and Charles Gunnels IV*,
“Benefitting Historically Excluded Student Populations Through Targeted Undergraduate
Research Programming,” Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research (SPUR) 6, no.3 (Spring 2023): 4–8. https://doi.org/10.18833/spur/6/3/5. Named Best Paper for the 2022–2023.
- “The Shaping and Reshaping of Relationships between Church and State from Late Antiquity
to the Present: A Historical Perspective through the Lens of Canon Law,” Religions special issue “Catholic-Church State Relations in Global Transition,” edited by Jo
Renee Formicola (2022).
- "The Uniqueness of Prima Causa in MS Sankt Gallen 673," in Generating and Transferring Legal Knowledge in the 12th Century The Manuscript Saint
Gall, Stiftsbibliothek 673, eds. Stephan Dusil and Andreas Thier (Medieval Law and Its
Practice; Medieval Law and Its Practice, Leiden: Brill, 2022).
- "Introduction," A Cultural History of Genocide, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages, ed. M. H. Eichbauer (London: Bloomsbury Academic Publishers, 2021), 1–30.
- "Legal theory amid practice: Property and tithing rights in the summa of Stephen of
Tournai," Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, 17–23 July 2016, Paris, eds. Franck Roumy et al. (Monumenta iuris canonici, Series C: Subsidia, 16 (Vatican
City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2021).
- "Legal Authorities and their Legislative Priorities: The Treatment of Leprosy in the
Sources of Canon Law," Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistische Abteilung 106 (2020): 153–195.
- "A Desire for the Latest and the Greatest: Papal Decretals and Roman Law in the Collectio decem paritum," Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law n.s. 36 (2019): 195–208.
- "Law in Service of a Community: Property and Tithing Rights in Gratian's Decretum and Stephen of Tournai's Summa," in The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1250, eds. M. H. Eichbauer and Danica Summerlin (Medieval Law and Its Practice, 26; Leiden:
Brill, 2018), 69–88.
- with Danica Summerlin, "Introduction," in The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1250, eds. M. H. Eichbauer and Danica Summerlin (Medieval Law and Its Practice, 26; Leiden:
Brill, 2018), 1–22.
- with Edward Peters, "Canon Law," in Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195396584-0033.
- "The Bishop with Two Hats: Reconciling Episcopal and Military Obligations in Causa
23 of Gratian's Decretum," in Civilians and Warfare in World History, eds. Nicola Foote and Nadya Williams (Cass Military Studies; London-New York: Routledge,
2017), 120–139.
- "Rethinking Causae 23–26 as the Causae hereticorum," Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistische Abteilung 101 (2015): 86–149.
- "Medieval Inquisitorial Procedure: Procedural Rights and the Question of Due Process
in the Thirteenth Century," History Compass 12, no. 1 (2014): 72–83.
- "Gratian's Decretum and the Changing Historiographical Landscape," History Compass 11, no. 12 (2013): 1111–1125.
- "From the First to the Second Recension: The Progressive Evolution of the Decretum," Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, New Series, 29 (2012): 119–167.
Editorial Appointments:
- Executive Editor, Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law
- Editor, The Medieval Review
- Executive Editor, The Florida Undergraduate Research Journal
Dr. Eichbauer's Faculty Page
