The Team
Prof. Tamar Herzig
Principal Investigator
Professor Tamar Herzig (PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2005) is the Konrad Adenauer Chair in Comparative European History at Tel Aviv University, where she also directs the Fred W. Lessing Institute for European History and Civilization. Her research interests lie at the intersection of social, religious, and gender history, with a particular emphasis on the persecution of marginalized groups in Mediterranean Europe. Her earlier work has explored inquisitorial networks, the gendering of demonological notions, religious dissent, the policing of sodomy, religious conversion, and Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations. She is the author of Savonarola’s Women: Visions and Reform in Renaissance Italy (Chicago, 2008; Italian edition published by Carocci in 2014); ‘Christ Transformed into a Virgin Woman’: Lucia Brocadelli, Heinrich Institoris, and the Defense of the Faith (Storia e Letteratura, 2013), and A Convert’s Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy (Harvard, 2019), recently published in Italian (Viella, 2023) and Hebrew (Magnes, 2023). This book was awarded honorable mention for the Renaissance Society of America’s Gordan Book Prize and won the American Historical Association’s Dorothy Rosenberg Prize. In 2019, Herzig won the Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research for her work on religious conversion and in 2021 she received the Michael Bruno Memorial Award for her notable contribution to the study of Renaissance history. Her article, “Slavery and Interethnic Sexual Violence: A Multiple Perpetrator Rape in Seventeenth-Century Livorno,” American Historical Review 127:1 (2022), pp. 94-122, was awarded Article of the Month by the Mediterranean Seminar and the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender Best Article Award for 2022. In 2023, Herzig received the Fiuggi Storia Europa prize at a ceremony held at the Italian House of Deputies and in 2024 she was co-winner of Cherasco International Prize in History.
Dr. Joseph Jackson-Eade
Postdoctoral Researcher
I am an Early Modern historian interested in communication, empire, and (dis)information, with a special focus on the Iberian worlds and their archives—spaces of intense multilingual contact and friction, and among the richest repositories of “entangled archivalities” in the sixteenth century.
In 2024, I completed my PhD in History at the University of Bologna under the supervision of Prof. Giuseppe Marcocci (Oxford) and Prof. Jorge Flores (Lisbon). My research focused on Portuguese imperial correspondence produced between 1500 and 1530, showing how emerging networks of multilingual agents—interpreters, scribes, messengers—distinctively shaped Iberian imperial spaces, both locally and globally. I argue that these agents’ tortuous trajectories and multifaceted rhetorics deepen and complicate our understanding of early modern imperial statecraft.
As a postdoctoral fellow in the FemSMed project, I trace the dispersion of female enslavement and trafficking via Lisbon to Southern Spain, and from there to other parts of Mediterranean Catholic Europe. Through extensive paleographic work and detailed data aggregation from Portuguese and Spanish Inquisition archives, I work on revealing these enslaved women's often tormented sociabilities, and the articulation of their social networks across Counter-Reformation Iberia and beyond.
Dr. Michele Santoro
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Michele Santoro received a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) in Historical, Geographical and Anthropological Studies in a joint degree from the University of Padua and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. His expertise extends from the institutional and juridical frameworks of the Venetian maritime domain to the socio-political history of the Early Modern Mediterranean. Previously, his research focused on the social and institutional history of the Adriatic coast, on issues of illicit activities such as banditry and piracy, captivity, and contraband, and the early developments of the Venetian secret services in Istanbul. As a postdoctoral researcher at FemSMed, his research will focus on the dynamics of patronage and the enslavement of women in the Venetian maritime domain.
Publications:
“Letters, Patrons and Spies. The Venetian Postal System Within the Lands of the Sultan (16th -17th Century),” in Postal History: Multidisciplinary and Diachronic Perspectives, June 20-22, 2024, ed. by Bruno Crevato-Selvaggi and Raffaella Gerola, Istituto di studi storici postali “Aldo Cecchi", Prato, 2026, 111-138.
“Reti clientelari e trasmissione di informazioni: le Bocche di Cattaro tra Venezia, Roma e Costantinopoli (sec. XVI-XVII)”, in Dimensioni istituzionali del commonwealth veneziano (secoli XIV-XVII), ed. by Ermanno Orlando and Gherardo Ortalli, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venezia, 2024, 397-413.
“Le Bocche di Cattaro nel dominio veneziano. Un bilancio storiografico (1420-1797)” Studi Veneziani, 85/86 (2022): 275-298.
“La Marinarezza bocchese. Traffici e pratiche culturali tra i marinai delle Bocche di Cattaro (secoli XV-XVII),” Incroci di sguardi. Lo stato da mar nello sguardo degli altri/gli altri nello sguardo dello Stato da mar e altri contributi, ed. by Bruno Crevato Selvaggi and Despina Vlassi, Roma/Venezia, Deputazione dalmata di storia patria/La Musa Talìa, 304-331.
“Il senso del rischio: alle origini della quarantena”, Quaderni di Parentesi Storiche, 6 (2020): 38-43.
“Legenda o Prokletom Kamu”, Matica, 79 (2019): 173-182.
Nil Abend
Doctoral Researcher
Nil Abend is a Doctoral candidate at the School of Historical Studies at the Tel Aviv University. He holds a BA in Islamic and Middle East Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an M.A. in Middle Eastern and African History form Tel Aviv University. In 2023-2024, he was a visiting fellow at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies in Bonn (BCDSS). His doctoral thesis, written under the joint supervision of Profs. Camilla Adang, Miriam Eliav-Feldon, and Tamar Herzig, analyzes the role that conversion has played in the relationship between enslaved people, their masters, and secular and ecclesiastical authorities in the 17th-century Western Mediterranean. It focuses on Christian and Muslim people owned, kept, sold, and bought by Jewish masters living under both Muslim and Christian rule and on the ways and mechanisms by which conversion and confessional affiliation were used by these three actors in relation to one another. Through the life stories of these enslaved women and men, the dissertation brings into discussion some analytical and conceptual frameworks, such as asymmetrical dependency, agency and interagency, and intersectionality. By so doing, the dissertation aims to fill a lacuna in scholarship regarding the lives of enslaved Christians and Muslims owned by Jewish masters in general, and the experiences of domestic female slaves in particular.
Eynav Ovadia
Doctoral Researcher
Eynav Ovadia is currently a doctoral candidate at Tel Aviv University’s School of Historical Studies. She obtained her Master’s degree from Lindenwood University. Her M.A. thesis, completed under the direction of Profs. Steven Cody, James Hutson, and Sarah Cantor, is entitled Flowering in the Springtime: An Iconographical Analysis of Boticelli’s Primavera and explores the use of the Primavera as a didactic guide to female sexuality and sensuality within the context of marriage. The thesis includes an analysis of both visual imagery and archival documents from fifteenth-century Florence. Eynav’s doctoral dissertation, written under the supervision of Prof. Tamar Herzig within the framework of the ERC project FemSMed, explores the intersection of enslavement and prostitution in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Lisa Molina
Doctoral Researcher
Lisa Molina is a doctoral student at the School of Historical Studies at Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral dissertation examines enslavement and material culture in the early modern Mediterranean. She completed her M.A. at Tel Aviv University in June 2026. Her master’s thesis, written under the supervision of Prof. Tamar Herzig, explores the sartorial impact of enslaved Black African women and children on elite women’s fashion in early modern Italy. She also co-authored an article titled "Enslaved Women and Needlework in Early Modern Italian and French Courts" with FemSMed alumni fellow Yasmine Segol, which has been accepted to publication in the journal Storia delle donne.
Alice Sanna Bucci
Doctoral Researcher
Alice Sanna Bucci has completed her M.A in Historical Sciences at The University of Bologna in July 2026. Her MA thesis, written under the supervision of Prof. Guido Bartolucci and Prof. Giulia Bonazza, focuses on "Female Slavery at Court, with Particular Reference to the Courts of Mantua, Florence and Ferrara between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries". Her doctoral dissertation, written under the supervision of Prof. Tamar Herzig, examines the presence of enslaved females in the port cities of Ancona and Venice from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and analyzes the social and cultural implications of their hitherto unexplored presence.
Eliah Jaffe
Graduate Researcher
Eliah Jaffe completed his B.A in History (Summa Cum Laude) at Tel Aviv University and is currently writing his MA on the phenomenon of female enslavement in France toward the end of the Old Regime. He is particularly interested in studying the daily lives of enslaved women and their integration into their social environment.
Mia Joskowicz
Digital Humanities Researcher
Mia Joskowicz is developing the digital humanities frameworks for FemSMed. Currently a doctoral candidate at Tel Aviv University’s School of Historical Studies, her research focuses on the history of Mathematics in early modern Europe. She holds an MA in History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas and a BSc in Computer Science and Statistics, both from Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Inbar Strul-Dabull
Research Fellow
Dr. Inbar Strul-Dabull is a historian of early modern Italy. Her research explores gender, education, and charitable institutions. She obtained her PhD, with a dissertation on “Gender and Charity in Medicean Florence: Montalvo’s Educational Institutions as a Case Study” from Tel Aviv University in 2024, and went on to pursue her postdoctoral research in Florence, Italy, as Beatrice Solomon Fellow at the Medici Archive Project.
Trained as an Urban and Regional Planner (M.Sc.), Dr. Strul-Dabull brings a unique spatial perspective to her historical research. Her work has been recognized through various competitive awards, including the Chutick Scholarship for Outstanding Women Doctoral Students, the Foundation for Higher Education & Culture, and the Thomas Arthur Arnold Fund for Excellence in History.
As a Research Fellow at FemSMed, Dr. Strul-Dabull leads the development and management of a comprehensive digital repository on female enslavement in Mediterranean Catholic Europe. She applies advanced digital humanities methodologies for transforming fragmentary historical evidence into structured, searchable data, enabling cross-referencing and pattern identification across previously disconnected archival sources. This endeavor aims not only to preserve and organize crucial historical evidence, but also to recover the experiences of women and girls who have been systematically marginalized in conventional historical narratives.
Dr. Katherine Aron-Beller
Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Katherine Aron-Beller FRHistS completed her PhD at the University of Haifa and has served as Visiting Assistant Professor at the George Washington University and as Senior Lecturer at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University and the Overseas School of Tel Aviv University. Her areas of expertise include the Papal Inquisition and Jewish-Christian relations in the early modern era. Her research as part of the FemSMed project involves uncovering the voices of enslaved women who were interrogated by the Roman Inquisition and were lodged within the Houses of Catechumens in Italian cities. These female voices, presence and positions will add to the crucial but scarcely known studies on enslaved women and intercommunal relations in early modern Europe.
Book Publications:
Katherine Aron-Beller, Christian Images and their Jewish Desecrators (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024).
https://www.pennpress.org/9781512824100/christian-images-and-their-jewish-desecrators/
Katherine Aron-Beller and Christopher F. Black (eds.).The Roman Inquisition: Centre versus Peripheries (Leiden: Brill, 2018).
https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/34442?language=en
Katherine Aron-Beller Jews on Trial: The Papal Inquisition in Modena 1598-1638 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011).
https://www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781526151629/9781526151629.xml
Relevant Article Publications:
Katherine Aron-Beller “The Practicing Jew in Early Modern Inquisitorial Strategy,” in Bernard Dov Cooperman, Serena di Nepi and Germano Maifreda (eds) Jews and State Building: Early Modern Italy and Beyond (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 182-204.
Katherine Aron-Beller “Sodomy and Homosociality among Jewish and Christian Men: The Proceedings Against Lazarro de Norsa (Modena, 1670),” Quest 24 (2023): 61-86.
https://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/5-Q24_Aron-Beller.pdf
Katherine Aron-Beller “Christians in Jewish Houses: The Testimony of the Inquisition in the Duchy of Modena in the Seventeenth Century,” Religions 14 (2023): 614-628.
Katherine Aron-Beller, Sopra l’imputatione del delitto di sodomia con christiano: The proceedings against Lazarro de Norsa (Modena, 1670)," in Denise Bezzina and Michael Gasperoni (eds.) Genesis, XX/1 Mascolinità mediterranee (secoli XII-XVII) (2021):65-93.
Didi Atsmon
Research Manager
Didi Atsmon is the research manager of FemSMed. She holds a master’s degree (Summa cum laude) in history from Tel Aviv University. Her M.A. thesis, Dark Matter: Aesthetics and Enslavement at the Court of Isabella d’Este, explored how enslaved African children were used as exotic possessions to display taste and assert power in 15th- and 16th-century Mantua.
FemSMed Alumni
Dr. Benedetta Chizzolini
Postdoctoral fellow during the academic years 2024/2025 and 2025/2026
Dr. Benedetta Chizzolini completed her doctoral studies in Early Modern History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (joint degree with the University of Padua) in 2024. Her doctoral dissertation, entitled: “Between Cure and Control: Doctors, Convicts and Slaves of Tuscan and Papal Galleys (1571-1771)”, investigates the theories and practices of medical vigilance enacted towards galley slaves and convicts in 16th-18th century Italy and joined FemSMed in October of that year. Between July 2021 and July 2023, she was a research assistant at the Institute for Medical Humanities of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Drittmittelproject „Vigilanz als Ideal, Strategie und Methode in der medizinischen Kultur der Vormoderne“ of the SFB 1369 „Vigilanzkulturen: Transformationen. Räume. Techniken“ (LMU- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). Between July 2023-December 2023 she held a Rolf und Ursula Schneider-Stiftung at the Herzog August Bibliothek -Wolfenbüttel Forschungs- und Studienstätte für europäische Kulturgeschichte (Wolfenbüttel, Deutschland), and then a Max-Weber-Stiftung at the Deutsches Historisches Institut of Rome. In 2024, she was an Eva Schler Fellow at the Medici Archive Project in Florence, Italy. Benedetta’s research interests include the history of slavery, history of labor, history of sexuality, gender history, social history, and the history of medicine. Within the framework of FemSMed, her postdoctoral research investigated the social and cultural implications of the presence of female domestic slaves exploited for sexual purposes in the conceptualization of filial, romantic and consanguineous kinship; as well as the agency of female slaves in early modern Catholic societies.
As a postdoctoral fellow of the project, she published the following articles:
Chizzolini, Benedetta. (2026). “Missione e battesimi di schiavi e schiave nel Bagno di Livorno (fine XVII-inizio XVIII secolo)," in Riforma e Movimenti religiosi. Rivista della società di studi Valdesi, 19/giugno, 5-36.
Chizzolini, Benedetta. (2025). "Moral Transgression and Enslavement in Early Modern Livorno (17th-18th Centuries)." Dimensioni e problemi della ricerca storica 25(2), 167-187.
Chizzolini, Benedetta. (2025). "Enslavement and Female Agency in Early Modern Livorno." Slavery & Abolition 47 (2): 260–279.
Chizzolini, Benedetta, Gadebusch Bondio, Mariacarla. (2025). "The Medical Examination of Enslaved Persons Through the East and West Mediterranean Between the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Centuries." Social History of Medicine 39 (3): 665–682.
Chizzolini, Benedetta, ״Navigating Ambiguities: Fluid Identities and Legal Nuances among Galley Rowers (Great Duchy of Tuscany, 16th–18th centuries).״ Journal of Global Slavery 10 (2025): 53–79.
Her book, Between Cure and Control: Doctors, Convicts and Slaves in Tuscan and Papal Galleys (16th-18th Centuries) was published by De Gruyter in 2025.
Chizzolini, Benedetta, “Medicare, osservare, controllare: Medici e galeotti a Livorno tra XVI–XVIII secolo,” in Jake Dyble, Alessandro Lo Bartolo, Elia Morelli (eds.), Il teatro della Turchia- Visioni del Vicino Oriente in età moderna (Rome: Carocci, 2024).
Chizzolini, Benedetta, “The “Taglio degli schiavi”: Evaluating the Value of Galley Slaves in Early Modern Livorno (17th- 18th centuries)” – Blog post in the Medicine and the Making of Race blog (King’s College London), 2024.
Chizzolini, Benedetta, “Circa il peccato aborrito dalle bestie: Rappresentazioni, discorsi e strategie punitive nelle galere pontificie (XVI-XVIII secolo),” in Clorinda Donato, Vincenzo Lagioia, Ulf R. Hansonn (eds.), Non con l’autorità ma col far vedere le cose: Identità e rappresentazioni nel Settecento (Rome, Viella, 2025), 83-98.
Yasmine Segol
Graduate fellow during the academic year 2024/2026
Yasmine Segol has completed her B.A in History (Summa Cum Laude) at Tel Aviv University. During her fellowship, she completed her M.A. thesis on "Enslaved Women in the French Court: Forced Migration, Craftsmanship, and Representations (1533-1715)", under the supervision of Prof. Tamar Herzig. Her thesis deals with the case of enslaved women in Catherine de Medici’s court in sixteenth-century Paris. She also co-authored an article titled "Enslaved Women and Needlework in Early Modern Italian and French Courts" with FemSMed fellow Lisa Molina, which has been accepted to publication in the journal Storia delle donne. In addition, during her fellowship, she developed and maintained the FemSMed project website.
Dr. Aaron Stamper
Postdoctoral fellow during the academic year 2024/2025
Dr. Aaron Stamper is a social, religious, and sensory historian specializing in interreligious relations, race, and gender in late medieval and early modern Iberia and the Mediterranean. In 2023, he completed his PhD in History at Princeton University under the direction of Prof. Anthony Grafton. His dissertation project was the first comprehensive sensory history of early modern European conquest and colonization, from the reign of the Spanish Catholic Monarchs (r. 1474-1516) to the final expulsion of Granada’s converted Muslims– referred to as Moriscos–in 1609-1614. His work has been supported by the U.S. Fulbright Research Award and the Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship. Aaron was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the European Research Council fundedproject, “Female Slavery in Mediterranean Catholic Europe, 1500-1800” (FemSMed), at The Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies at Tel Aviv University. His research for the project drew from Spanish archives to recover the lived experiences of enslaved Morisca women during the 16th and 17th centuries. Their voices, he shows, add to a crucial but scarce scholarly literature on the enslavement of minority women and their roles in shaping collective identities and intercommunal relations in early modern Spain, the Mediterranean, and Europe.
Publications:
Stamper, Aaron. “Melodies of Doves, Clamor from the Towers: The Dawn of Granada’s Sonic Conversion.” Sixteenth Century Journal 53, no. 3 (Autumn 2022): 743-765.
Stamper, Aaron. “Review of Hearing the City in Early Modern Europe, edited by Tess Knighton and Ascensión Manzuela-Anguita.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 78, no. 2 (June 2019): 227-245.
Stamper, Aaron. “A Muslim in Europe A Christian in North Africa: Experiencing the Early Modern Mediterranean.” The Spain-North Africa Project Bulletin, December 29, 2019