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John J. Martin

Professor of History

Professor Martin is joining the Duke community after twenty-five years of teaching at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. John grew up on St. Simons Island, Georgia, attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard.

John’s primary area of study lies in the history of identities -- religious, social, and personal – and how social and cultural factors contribute to the way that we are in the world. He has explored this topic in his Venice’s Hidden Enemies and, more recently, in Myths of Renaissance Individualism. He is currently writing a book on the history of sincerity. Part history of the human heart, part history of how we express ourselves to others, this current project aims, above all, to illustrate how some of our most basic assumptions about who we are and how we interact with others are conditioned by larger historical forces from, for instance, the printing press and emerging nationalisms to Cyberspace and globalization.

This fall he is teaching a course on early modern Europe and a freshman seminar entitled From Soul to Self: A History. In the spring he is offering a course on the Renaissance and team-teaching a course with Professor Valeria Finucci of the Italian Department on Venice, John’s favorite city. John’s daughter Margaret is entering her freshman year at Whitman College; his son Junius will be a sophomore at Northfield Mount Hermon School; and his dog Oliver, a slightly overweight Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is joining John at Duke.

A self-described political-junkie, John also has a passion for film and conversation and a love of languages and travel.

243C Classroom Building
684-3088
john.j.martin@duke.edu
Residence: 136 Blackwell