The Department of History is pleased to introduce Anne F. Broadbridge as its newest chair. Professor Broadbridge, a leading scholar of the medieval Islamic world and a dedicated educator, succeeds Brian Ogilvie, who spent six years chairing the department.
Professor Broadbridge finished her second book, Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire, in 2018. It investigates Chinggis Khan’s mother, wives, daughters, and daughters-in-law to see the impact they made on the creation and military expansion of the Mongol Empire. She is now working on a third book, on Dynasties in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria.
Her research interests include the Mamluk Sultanate, the Mongol Empire, and Temür (Tamerlane), with a focus on ideology, legitimacy, diplomacy, and women in history. Her first book, Kingship and Ideology in the Islamic and Mongol Worlds (Cambridge, 2008), examines the conflicting ideas of kingship that the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt and Syria exchanged through diplomacy with Mongol and Turkish rulers in Southern Russia, Central Asia and Iran.
Her articles have covered topics including Mamluk-Temurid relations in the fifteenth century (forthcoming), dynasties, gender and politics in Mamluk Egypt (forthcoming), women and gender under Mongol rule (2023); Genghis Khan’s murdered daughter (2022), consort families in the Mongol Empire (three articles, one in 2016, two in 2022); diplomatic careers among Mamluks and Mongols (2019); a case of Temürid-Mamluk espionage (2010); the impulse towards bringing family from home among the Mamluk elite (2008); diplomatic conventions in Egypt (2007); apostasy trials in Egypt and Syria (2006); Islamic monarchy (2004); the influence of the North African scholar Ibn Khaldun on Mamluk and Ottoman historical writing (2003); Mamluk legitimacy and the Mongols (2001) and academic rivalry and patronage in Egypt (1998).
She also wrote two Ted-Ed animation scripts, A Day in the Life of a Mongol Queen and The Rise and Fall of the Mongol Empire. Together these have reached over 6 million views so far.
Professor Broadbridge has held fellowships from the Fulbright Commission (Fulbright-Hays), the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Foundation, and the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, among others. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Award (2003-04), the Distinguished Teaching Award (2020), and the Manning Prize for Teaching Excellence (2021).