Glenn Kumhera, Ph.D.

Dr. Glenn Kumhera joined Penn State Behrend in 2011. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and a B.A. from Ohio University. He has taught previously at Ashland University, the University of the South, Middlebury College, and the University of Akron.

Dr. Kumhera’s interests cover the Mediterranean and Europe from the ancient world through the Renaissance and range from intellectual and political history to issues of how people structured their daily lives. In particular he studies the history of violence and conflict resolution, investigating the roles violence played in the construction and perception of gender and class identities, and examining how the prevention of violence contributed to the development of criminal justice systems and the state.

Dr. Kumhera has researched extensively on peacemaking and his comprehensive study of peacemaking between individuals involved in disputes and crimes in late medieval Italy, The Benefits of Peace: Private Peacemaking in Late Medieval Italy (Leiden: Brill), was published in April 2017. He is currently writing on the history of torture and researching the practice of granting amnesties to criminals in fourteenth-century Italy.

Courses Taught

• HIST 001, The Western Heritage I
• HIST 010, World History I
• HIST 100, Ancient Greece
• HIST 107, Medieval Europe
• MEDVL 107, Medieval Europe
• HIST 101, Roman Republic and Empire
• HIST 108, Crusades: Holy War in the Middle Ages
• HIST 301W, Scope and Methods of History
• HIST 406W, Research in Medieval Sources
• HIST 411, Medieval Britain
• HIST 414, Renaissance and Reformation
• PSU 007, First-Year Seminar, Torture: Past and Present