Sharon Kinoshita is a professor of

medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

, and co-director of the UCSC Center for Mediterranean Studies at UC Santa Cruz. In 2016, she published a new translation of

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...

's 'Description of the World', from the Franco-Italian 'F' version of the text. In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academic of America.

Expertise

Kinoshita has published extensively on a range of Mediterranean medieval topics, including medieval French literature,

Marie de France Marie de France (floruit, fl. 1160–1215) was a poet, likely born in France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court of Kin ...

, the values of feudal society, the mid-12th century ''

chanson de geste The , from 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poetry, epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly ...

'' ' Prise d'Orange', the

crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

feminist criticism Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or more broadly, by the politics of feminism. It uses the principles and ideology of feminism to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to an ...

Chrétien de Troyes Chrétien de Troyes (; ; 1160–1191) was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on King Arthur, Arthurian subjects such as Gawain, Lancelot, Perceval and the Holy Grail. Chrétien's chivalric romances, including ''Erec and Enide'' ...

courtly love Courtly love ( ; ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies b ...

, and the writing and life of Marco Polo. Kinoshita's 2006 book, ''Medieval Boundaries'', was awarded an Honorable Mention as a contender for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies by the Medieval Language Association. The book explores representations of cultural contact between “France” and the Islamic and Byzantine worlds. In 2021, Kinoshita delivered the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

plenary at the

International Congress on Medieval Studies The International Congress on Medieval Studies is an annual academic conference held for scholars specializing in, or with an interest in, medieval studies. It is sponsored by the Medieval Institute at the Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, ...

Kalamazoo virtual conference, on “Marco Polo and the Diversity of the Global Middle Ages”.

Publications

* Translator, ''Marco Polo, The Description of the World''. Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 2016. * Co-editor, with Peregrine Horden, ''A Companion to Mediterranean History''. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. * Co-author, with Peggy McCracken, ''Marie de France: A Critical Companion''. Gallica. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2012. * Author of ''Medieval Boundaries: Rethinking Difference in Old French Literature''. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. * Author of “Crusades and Identity.” Cambridge History of French Literature. Ed. William Burgwinkle, Nicholas Hammond, and Emma Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. pp. 93–101 * Author of “Cherchez La Femme: Feminist Criticism and Marie De France’s ‘Lai De Lanval.’” Romance Notes, vol. 34, no. 3, 1994, p. 263.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinoshita, Sharon University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Women medievalists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people