Biography and education
Jacob Doss is a historian of the religions of medieval Europe and currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Religious Studies at Texas State University. He has taught courses on world religions, the medieval world, world civilizations, and the history of Christianity. His research focuses on the intersection of gender, education, and conceptions of childhood in twelfth-century Cistercian monasticism, particularly on the ways medieval Christian notions of gender shaped religious education by normalizing martial masculinities.
Dr. Doss's current book project, Making Monastic Men: Imagined “Childhood,” Education, and Gender in Cistercian Formation (1100–1250), uncovers the importance of the metaphor of “childhood” for conceptualizing mature monastic gender identities. Central to this research is an often-overlooked foundational textual genre for medieval pedagogy: ascetic florilegia. These collections of pithy sayings from scripture and para-scriptural sources not only mediated Christian knowledge for monks but also provided them with a gendered language of vice and virtue.
In addition to this book project, Doss has published articles in Church History, Cîteaux, and Studies in Medievalism. This research has been supported by the American Catholic Historical Association, the American Historical Association, The Medieval Academy of America, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Doss grew up in Northwest Arkansas and attended the University of Arkansas where he earned a bachelor’s degree with a double major in history and anthropology and a minor in religious studies. He then completed his master’s degree at Boston College before moving to Austin to pursue a doctorate at the University of Texas.
Dr. Doss's current book project, Making Monastic Men: Imagined “Childhood,” Education, and Gender in Cistercian Formation (1100–1250), uncovers the importance of the metaphor of “childhood” for conceptualizing mature monastic gender identities. Central to this research is an often-overlooked foundational textual genre for medieval pedagogy: ascetic florilegia. These collections of pithy sayings from scripture and para-scriptural sources not only mediated Christian knowledge for monks but also provided them with a gendered language of vice and virtue.
In addition to this book project, Doss has published articles in Church History, Cîteaux, and Studies in Medievalism. This research has been supported by the American Catholic Historical Association, the American Historical Association, The Medieval Academy of America, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Doss grew up in Northwest Arkansas and attended the University of Arkansas where he earned a bachelor’s degree with a double major in history and anthropology and a minor in religious studies. He then completed his master’s degree at Boston College before moving to Austin to pursue a doctorate at the University of Texas.
Featured grants
- Doss, Jacob Westbrook. John Boswell Dissertation Grant, The Medieval Academy of America, Professional Society. (Funded: 2018). Grant.
- Doss, Jacob Westbrook. Bernadotte E. Schmidt Research Grant, American Historical Association, Professional Organization. (Funded: 2017). Grant.
- Doss, Jacob Westbrook. Heckman Stipend, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Research Library. (Funded: 2017). Grant.
Featured scholarly/creative works
- Doss, J. W. (2023). “Metaphor, Moral Formation, and a Carolingian era Florilegium: The Liber scintillarum and Cistercian Education at the turn of the Thirteenth Century.” Cîteaux: Commentarii Cistercienses, 73, 101–117. https://doi.org/10.2143/CIT.73.1.0000000
- Doss, J. W. (2022). “Making Masculine Monks: Gender, Space, and the Imagined ‘Child’ in Twelfth-Century Cistercian Identity Formation.” Church History, 91(3), 467–491. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640722002098
- Doss, J. W. (2022). “To be a Monkish Man: Medievalism, Monasticism, Education, and Gender in the United States’ Culture Wars.” Studies in Medievalism, 31, 37–44. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv24cns6q.9
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: Best Doctoral Dissertation on the History of Children, Childhood, or Youth Defended in 2022, Society for the History of Children and Youth. 2023
- Award / Honor Recipient: Kuhn Family Intellectual Entrepreneurship Mentor Award, Kuhn Family Intellectual Entrepreneurship Awards. August 2016 - December 2016
Featured service activities
- Editorial Review Board Member
Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth