Dr. Louis I. Hamilton is a medieval historian whose research focuses on eleventh- and twelfth-century Italy, particularly Rome. He is a cultural historian who examines ritual texts and sacred space primarily in the urban context. He is the author or co-author of several books, A Sacred City: Consecrating Churches and Reforming Society in Eleventh-Century Italy (Manchester University Press, 2010); with Christopher Bellitto (Kean University), Church Reform Before Modernity: Patterns, Problems and Approaches (Ashgate, 20016); and, with Stefano Riccioni (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Rome Re-Imagined: Twelfth-Century Jews, Christians, and Muslims Encounter the Eternal City (Brill, 2012).
His current research concerns the history of the edicole sacre (street shrines) of Rome from pagan antiquity to the present. He is the head of the Rome Research Group, primarily comprised of undergraduate researchers, that uses digital humanities methods to examine the topography of Rome. The Rome Group has created the largest geographic database of the street shrines and the only one that tracks devotion at the shrine. He is currently collaborating with colleagues to conduct tests on virtual models of the shrines.
He was a Fulbright Scholar to Rome in 1998-1999. His research has also been supported by grants from, among others, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies, Toronto; Arts and the Common Good, Drew University), and The American Philosophical Society.
He is a professor in the Federated Department of History.
