Alexander D'Alisera

Visiting Assistant Professor

Photo of Alexander D'Alisera

Alexander D'Alisera

Ph.D.

Contact

Stokes Hall S349

Email: dalisera@bc.edu

ORCID 0000-0001-7913-6944

Education

  • Ph.D. (History), Boston College
  • Cert. (Digital Humanities), Boston College
  • M.A. (Religion), Yale University
  • B.A. (History & Classics), Bard College

Courses

Modern History I and II

The History of the End of the World

Research Interests

caves and stone in medieval Europe; medieval ritual and religion; medieval vernacularliterature; medieval environmental history; archaeology; the history of the museum

Advisor

Robin Fleming

Humanities Commons Profile

Department

History

Biography

Alexander D’Alisera is an interdisciplinary historian of medieval Europe, specializing in caves, stone, ritual, and religion. As a Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston College, he teaches core courses in both medieval European and early modern global history, including a new course called “The History of the End of the World.”

Dr. D’Alisera’s book project, Medieval Cave People: A North Sea Speleology, unearths the history of ordinary people in extraordinary underground environments across premodern Europe, with a focus on the real and imagined caves of the medieval north. As an interdisciplinary project that engages with vernacular texts, visual culture, Latin sources, and archaeological material, Medieval Cave People explores local human-cave entanglements across the North Sea region, while addressing the broader environmental and religious histories of medieval northern Europe and its connections with the Mediterranean world. Dr. D’Alisera’s scholarship has also appeared in postmedieval, the Eerdmans New Testament Apocrypha book series, and Foillseachaidhean Rannsachaidh Oilthigh Ghlaschu (the University of Glasgow Research Publications), among other venues.

Prior to his current appointment, Dr. D’Alisera earned his Ph.D. in history from Boston College under the supervision of Professor Robin Fleming. From 2024 to 2025, he held the Charles W. Maus Graduate Research Fellowship in Karst Studies at the Cave Conservancy Foundation of Virginia. He also holds an M.A. in religion from Yale University, where he was a Marquand Scholar at the Divinity School, and a B.A. in history and classical studies from Bard College.

Selected Grants and Prizes
  • 2024-25 Charles W. Maus Graduate Research Fellowship in Karst Studies (Cave Conservancy Foundation, 2024).
  • CARA Summer Scholarship, to study digital palaeography at the University of Göttingen (Medieval Academy of America, 2022).
  • Mary Cady Tew Prize, for exceptional ability in philosophy, literature, ethics or history (Yale University, 2016).
  • President Leon Botstein Prize, for intellectual ambition, creativity, and integrity (Bard College, 2015).
  • Cristina Duarte Prize, for research in medieval literature (Bard College, 2015).
  • Book Award, for excellence in Latin (Bard College, 2012).

Publications

“Medieval Caves, Michael the Archangel, and the End of the World,” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 53, no. 1 (2027), in press.

“Teaching the Climate Catastrophe with an Early Medieval Poem,” in A Historian’s Handbook for Saving the World: Responding to the Global Climate Emergency, ed. Alexandra Hui and Emily Pawley (MIT Press, 2026), in press.

“Durrow’s Lion: Irenaeus, Pictish Stonescapes, and the Book of Durrow’s Non-Hieronymian Evangelical Symbols,” in Ì Chaluim Chille: Interdisciplinary Studies on Iona and Columba, ed. Sofia Evemalm-Graham, Foillseachaidhean Rannsachaidh Oilthigh Ghlaschu 1 (Clò Gàidhlig Oilthigh Ghlaschu, 2025), 208-233.

“Speluncar Slumber and the Medieval Time Traveler: Unearthing the Imagined Cave of the Old English Seven Sleepers,” postmedieval 15, no. 4 (2024), 969-989.

“The Dream of the Rood: A New Translation and Introduction,” in New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 3, ed. Tony Burke (Eerdmans, 2023), 110-129 (with Samuel Osborn).

Back To Top