MA, University of Connecticut
BA, College of William & Mary
Get In Touch
Alfond Hall 426 | 207-893-7923 | mlaughra@sjcme.edu
For Michelle Laughran, the study of history should be interdisciplinary, since “the past includes everything.” Professor Laughran’s research investigates the impact that epidemic diseases like the plague had on Italian renaissance society; in the process, this ongoing project has led her also to examine the history of the body, medicine, prostitution, cosmetics, and costume, among other topics. Professor Laughran’s most recent history course focused on the history of fairy tales.
Publications
"‘Grandissima Gratia': The Power of Italian Renaissance Shoes as Intimate Wear," coauthored with Andrea Vianello, in Ornamentalism: The Art of Renaissance Accessories (University of Michigan Press, 2011).
"Medicating with or Without 'Scruples': The 'Professionalization' of the Apothecary in Sixteenth-Century Venice," in Pharmacy in History 45 (2003): 95-107.
"Oltre la pelle. I cosmetici e il loro uso" ("More than Skin Deep: Cosmetics & Their Use in Italy from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period") in Storia d'Italia: Annali. La moda (Annals of Italian History: History of Fashion), (Turin: Einaudi, 2003), pp. 43-82.
Presentations
Michelle Laughran, “The Plague,” in Venetia 1600: Births and Rebirths [exhibition catalog] (Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia, 2021).
Michelle Laughran, “‘When God’s Majesty Publicly Scourges a People’: Combatting Plague in Sixteenth-Century Venice,” in Art, Faith and Medicine in Tintoretto's Venice [exhibition catalog] (Marsilio Editori, 2018).