Professor Matthew Koch

Professor Matthew Koch
Position
LecturerHistory
Contact
Office: Cle B227kochm@uvic.ca
Area of expertise

Early Modern European History, Colonial and Modern Latin American History (Not available to supervise)

Office Hours

Summer 2024: No office hours

Bio

I was born and mostly raised in Ontario.  I studied as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto and Queen's, followed by graduate work at Johns Hopkins.  I have long been interested in the cultural and social history of religion in early modern contexts, particularly the relationship between devotional practices and their societal setting.  My research has focused on southern France in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, when neighboring communities came to embrace the emerging confessional identities of Calvinism and Counter Reformation Catholicism.  I have also explored and taught the history of early modern religion in a broader, Transatlantic context, comparing the austerity of the "New England Way" to the Baroque exuberance of New Spain, Peru, and Brazil. 

Courses

HSTR 240A Europe: Renaissance to the French Revolution HSTR 240B Europe: Napoleon to the European Union HSTR 276 Modern Latin America HSTR 320C Bloodfeud, Politics and Culture in the Celtic World, 1485 - 1746 HSTR 337A The Birth of the Renaissance in Italy HSTR 344B Europe Between Two World Wars HSTR 376A Conquest and Rebellion in Latin America, 1492 - 1782 HSTR 376B The Struggle for Independence in Latin America, 1767 - 1867 HSTR 376C Revolutions and Dictators in 20th Century Latin America HSTR 385A Witchcraft and Its Persecution in the Early Modern Atlantic World