Sharon Farmer

During the 2013-2014 academic year I intend to complete a monograph that will expand our understanding of Mediterranean immigration into medieval Northern France by examining the origins of the Parisian silk industry during the thirteenth century.   The first scholarly examination of the origins of the silk cloth industry in late thirteenth-century  Paris, this monograph will also provide the first book-length case study of the role that skilled Mediterranean artisans played in transforming the material culture of Northern France during the age of the crusades. Its discussion of women’s role in the silk industry will shed important light on gendered differences between the Northern French silk textile industry, on the one hand, and the linen and wool industries on the other.   Its discussion of the role of Jews and Jewish converts in the Parisian silk industry will transform our understanding of Jewish economic activity in Northwest Europe at this time.

I will participate in the weekly seminar of IEA, and am prepared to give a presentation to that semimar whenever asked to do so.  In March, I will give a presentation in Didier Lett’s seminar on “Famille, parenté et genre au Moyen Âge (XIIe-XVe siècles),” at the Université de Paris 7, on the role of women in the three Parisian textile industries – silk, wool and linen.