James Grubb
Professor, History
Presidential Research Professor

James Grubb is a master historian whose work is distinguished not only by its quality but by its range, importance and influence. Since arriving at UMBC in 1983, he has established an impressive research record while serving terms as president of the faculty senate and, in his own department, as graduate program director and department chair.

Known as a pre-eminent scholar of Renaissance Italy, Grubb has has been recognized for pioneering contributions to his field. His first book, Firstborn of Venice, on Vincenza under Venetian rule, is considered fundamental to the study of regional states, examining and critiquing the dominant models of center-periphery relations. Distinguished historian James B. Collins, professor of history at Georgetown University, says, “Grubb’s superb dissection of the political vocabulary of the 15th century…should be required reading for all students of early modern European state building.”

Grubb’s second book, Provincial Families of the Renaissance: Private and Public Life in the Veneto, broke new ground in examining the experiences and and beliefs of ordinary people in everyday settings. The book won the 1997 Marraro Prize—considered the leading award in the field—for the best book in Italian history by an American author.

The recipient of several prestigious fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Grubb’s current research on Venice’s cittadini--an elite of “noble commoners” who managed the state’s civil service and the city’s social services—will give historians a more comprehensive understanding of society in the late medieval-early modern period.

John Jeffries, professor and chair of UMBC’s Department of History, says, "Jim Grubb is a prize-winning scholar of enormous stature, whose work is distinguished by its range, quality and impact alike. But he is also by any measure an outstanding teacher as well as a remarkable citizen of the University, who has served as department chair, Faculty Senate president and in other key positions. In honoring Jim Grubb as Presidential Research Professor, then, we are really honoring a professor whose combination of stellar scholarship, superb teaching and extraordinary service amounts to the highest model of what a faculty member might be."