College of Arts and Humanities
Philosophy, History, Law, and Society
David Davis, PhD
- Professor of History
- Director, Graduate Programs, College of Arts and Humanities
Education
- PhD, History, University of Exeter
- MA, History, Cardiff University
- BGS, General Studies, University of Texas at Tyler
Courses Taught
- Western Civilization I
- Western Civilization II
- The Medieval World
- Renaissance and Reformation
- Tudors and Stuarts
- Studies in British History
- Early Modern Europe
- Blood & Fire: Religion, Science, and Medicine, 1000–1700
- History of Medicine
- The Philosophy of History
- Readings in European History
-
King Arthur in History and Art
Teaching Focus
Dr. Davis teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels, specializing in medieval and early-modern British history and offering courses that focus upon intellectual, cultural, and religious history as well as the history of science. He regularly teaches the Western Civilization I and Western Civilization II sequence, and he teaches in the Honors College at Houston Christian University.
Publications
Books
Experiencing God in Late Medieval and Early Modern England (Oxford University Press, 2022)
From Icons to Idols: Documents on the Image Debate in Reformation England (Pickwick, 2016)
Seeing Faith, Printing Pictures: Religious Identity in the English Reformation (Brill, 2013)
Articles / Chapters
“Visual Culture and Reformation Bibles,” in The Oxford Handbook for the Bible and the Reformation, eds. Jennifer McNutt and Hermann Selderhuis (forthcoming, Oxford University Press)
“Royal Supremacy and Religious Tolerance in Early Modern England,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Church and State, vol. II, ed. Shannon Holzer (Palgrave, 2023)
“Reforming the Holy Name: The Afterlife of the IHS in Early Modern England,” Journal of Early Modern Christianity (2021)
“‘Rapt in Spirit’: The Ritualizing of Divine Revelation in Early Modern England,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (2018)
“Godly Visions and Idolatrous Sights: Images of Divine Revelation in Early English Bible,” in Illustrated Religious Texts in the North of Europe, 1500-1800, eds. Feike Dietz, Adam Morton, Els Stronks, and Marc Van Vaeck (Ashgate 2014)
“‘The Means of Justification’: A Catholic Letter on the Image Debate in Reformation Britain,” Reformation and Renaissance Review (2013)
“English Printing Before the King James Bible: A Reconsideration” in The KJV at 400: Assessing its Genius as Bible Translation and its Literary Influence, ed. David Burke (Society of Biblical Literature, 2013)
“‘The vayle of Eternall memorie’: Sixteenth Century Woodcuts and the Representation of Queen Elizabeth,” Word and Image (2011)
“Images on the Move: The Virgin, the Kalender of Shepherds, and the Transmission of Woodcuts in Tudor England” in Journal of the Early Book Society (2009)
“Regarding Men: The Insufficiency of the Current Early Modern Witchcraft Paradigm,” in ERAS Journal
“Destructive Defiance: Catholic and Protestant Iconoclasm in England, 1550-1585,” in CROMOHS Virtual Seminars
Selected Essays / Reviews
Additional Information
Dr. Davis has been nominated for the Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award at HCU three times, winning the award in 2013 and 2022. In 2016, Dr. Davis was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society for his contributions to historical scholarship, and he was nominated for the Piper Professor Award in 2020. His research and publications have earned several grants and research fellowships at institutions like the Huntington Library, the Johannes a Lasco Bibliothek, and the Bridwell Library. When he isn’t writing and teaching, he can be found drinking coffee and reading (or wishing he were reading).