History
Maritere López
Professor and Chair, University Graduate Committee
Chair, University Graduate Committee
Office: Social Sciences 120
Email: mariterel@csufresno.edu
Office Phone: 559-278-2601
Education:
Ph.D. - State University of New York, Buffalo (2003)
Biography:
Professor Maritere López earned her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and specializes in Renaissance and early modern Europe, with particular emphasis on Italy. Her scholarship explores women’s writing, gender and sexuality, friendship and reciprocity, self-fashioning, and the ways individuals negotiated identity and power within early modern social and cultural structures. Her current research focuses on the works of Pietro Chiari, the first Italian novelist, and considers his recommendations regarding women’s education and social roles within the context of the Italian Enlightenment.
Her broader teaching interests include the Reformation and Enlightenment, material culture and consumption, empire and global exchange, and the histories of monsters and the monstrous. Her courses focus on reconstructing unfamiliar worldviews on their own terms through the careful analysis of primary sources and the examination of how historians build and contest arguments about the past. She emphasizes discussion-centered learning, scaffolded research and writing, and assignments that make students’ intellectual processes visible, especially in response to the challenges and possibilities created by generative AI. Her recent work includes The Early Modern Monster Manual, a student-produced public-history podcast that combines collaborative research, sustained primary-source analysis, historical contextualization, and communication for a general audience. She also maintains a longstanding commitment to graduate education, inclusive mentoring, and widening access to the often-unspoken knowledge students need to succeed in the university.
Fall 2026
| Course | Days/Times |
|---|---|
| HIST 130 - Europe in the 17th Century | T 4:00pm - 6:50pm |
| HIST 230T - Early Modern World | Th 6:00pm - 8:50pm |
| HIST 297 - History Practicum | M 6:00pm - 8:50pm |
Spring 2027
| Course | Days/Times |
|---|---|
| HIST 20 - World History I | M/W/F 11:00am - 11:50am |
| HIST 128 - Early Modern Europe & the World | M/W/F 1:00pm - 1:50pm |
| HIST 220T - Haitian Revolution | T 6:00pm - 8:50pm |
- Renaissance/Reformation
- Early Modern Women/Gender
- Friendship & Love in the Renaissance
- Early Modern Manners and Conduct Manuals
Articles and Book Chapters:
Discourses and Representations of Friendship, 1500-1700. Co-edited with Daniel T. Lochman and Lorna Hutson. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2010.
"The Courtesan's Gift: Reciprocity and Friendship in the Letters of Camilla Pisana and Tullia D'Aragona." Discourses and Representations of Friendship, 1500-1700. Ed. Daniel T. Lochman, Maritere López, and Lorna Hutson. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2010.
"Venice and the World in the Early Modern Age." Places of Encounter. Eds. Aran and Elaine MacKinnon. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, March 2012.
"A Practical Compromise to Teaching World History: Thematic Bridges, Standards, and Technology," co-authored with Dr. Melissa Jordine, in World History Connected: the E-Journal of Learning and Teaching 5, No. 3 (May 2008).
"The Chaste Courtesan: Gendered Roles and Identity Formation in the Letters of Camilla Pisana, 1516-1517" (under evaluation).
""For the Education of Her Lover": Love and Gender Construction in the Italian Enlightenment' (under evaluation).
Undergraduate:
- Western Civilization, I
- World History, I
- Historical Research and Writing
- The Italian Renaissance
- The Age of the Medici
- The Age of Reformations
- Women, Sex, and Power in Early Modern Europe
Graduate:
- Introduction to Graduate Writing & Historiography
- Introduction to Graduate Research & Historiography
- Early Modern Society and Culture
- Sex and Gender in Early Modern Europe
- The Renaissance & the World
- The Enlightenment
- Advanced Research: European Primary Sources