William Eamon | New Mexico State University (original) (raw)

William Eamon is a Regents and Distinguished Achievement Professor of History Emeritus at New Mexico State University. Professor Eamon was also the founding Dean of the Honors College. Eamon joined the faculty of the Department of History at NMSU in 1977. His research focuses on the history of science and medicine in Renaissance Italy and Spain, and on science and popular culture in early modern Europe. He likes to view the past through the eyes of actors on the margins of social and intellectual life. He has written about the 16th century “professor of secrets” Leonardo Fioravanti, a surgeon who founded an alternative medical movement; and about astrologers, alchemists, charlatans, and natural magicians as well as naturalists and explorers.

Eamon is the author of 'Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture' (Princeton, 1994); 'The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine, and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy' (Washington, 2010); and over 50 articles on various aspects of early modern science and medicine. He is also the coeditor (with Victor Navarro Brotòns) of 'Beyond the Black Legend: Spain and the Scientific Revolution / Más allá de la Leyenda Negra: España y la Revolución Científica' (Valencia, 2007).

Eamon has received numerous grants and awards for his research. In addition to funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the Renaissance Society of America, he was a Mellon Faculty Fellow at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin. In 1994-95, he was a Villa I Tatti Fellow at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy. In 2004-2006, Eamon held the S.P. and Margaret Manasse Research Chair in the College of Arts and Sciences; and in 2007 received NMSU’s Award for Exceptional Career Achievement in Creative Scholarly Activity. Eamon was named a Regents Professor in 2003 and Distinguished Achievement Professor in 2012.

Professor Eamon has lectured widely to both specialists and the general public. He has addressed audiences in Barcelona, Oxford, Cambridge, Florence, London, Heidelberg, Geneva, and Los Angeles; has taught at Harvard, Würzburg, and Valencia; and has lectured at UC-Berkeley, Universidad Complutense (Madrid), Indiana University, the Huntington Library, the Getty Library, the University of Michigan, Notre Dame, the University of the West Indies, and numerous other venues. In 2005, he gave the Church Memorial Lecture at Brown University.

Current Research Projects:
Professor Eamon is currently working on a book, 'Science and Everyday Life in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1750' (under contract with Cambridge University Press), a book about how ordinary people reacted and engaged with the momentous scientific changes in early modern Europe, commonly called the Scientific Revolution.

Teaching:
Professor Eamon occasionally teaches a course on the history of magic and witchcraft in medieval and early modern Europe in the Honors College.

Blog:
On my blog, “Labyrinth of Nature,” I post occasional thoughts and reflections on various aspects of the history of Renaissance science and medicine. My blog may be found on my personal web site, WilliamEamon.com.
Address: Department of History
Box 30001 MSC 3H
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88003

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