Faculty Spotlight
Colin Mitchell
Associate Professor Colin Mitchell joined the Ä¢¹½AV History Department in 2004 and is the focus of our next shining faculty spotlight. Dr. Mitchell specializes in the Safavid Dynasty, which ruled Iran from 1501-1722, and has taught a variety of courses at Dal exploring Middle Eastern and Central Asian history.
The bread and butter of Dr. Mitchell’s research comes from analyzing Persian edited texts and manuscripts with an emphasis on epistolography (science of writing letters). His experience and knowledge surrounding orthography, or the technical science of written languages, helps him ask and answer questions about the worlds in which these texts were produced. Dr. Mitchell recommends, especially for students looking to study Middle Eastern history, that one learns the written languages (Arabic, Persian, Turkish) from the eras, populations, and geographic locations in which they hope to research.
During his 2024-2025 sabbatical leave, Dr. Mitchell focused his research towards Islamic conceptions of prophetography (historic representations of prophets) and he became particularly interested in medieval Arabic and Persian texts which discuss the biblical figures Dawud (David) and his son Sulaiman (Solomon). Recognized as both prophets and kings, figures like Dawud and Sulaiman became especially popular in medieval Perso-Islamic culture.
Dr. Mitchell’s research is now honing in on manuscripts produced by the Eldiguzid Dynasty (1136-1225, located in modern-day Azerbaijan) to explore how their prophetography compares to similar literature from dynasties like the Safavids. He is also currently translating and analyzing a special Eldiguzid manuscript written for a noblewoman to consider how such productions might reflect broader cultural and political developments in settings such as the royal court.
Along with serving as the History Department’s Acting Chair for 2026, Dr. Mitchell will be sharing his ongoing research on the Eldiguzids at conferences including the 2026 International Medieval Congress in Leeds and the 2026 Biennial Conference of Iranian Studies in Utrecht.
Interested in learning more about Dr. Mitchell, his research, and the process of becoming a graduate student in the Department of History? Reach out to us at gradhist@dal.ca.
Interview and article by Katie Ritchie, MA student, Dept. of History
Previous Spotlights
Vincent Masse
Our first faculty spotlight is on Associate Professor Vincent Masse, whom we have been incredibly lucky to welcome as a joint faculty member from the Department of French!
A historian of medieval and early modern Europe with a background in literature, Dr. Masse has dissected a wide variety of topics across more than twenty publications. His upcoming book explores l’invention des nouvelles étrangères (Inventing Foreign News) in early modern France, by examining experimental materials generated before newspapers gained prominence in the 1630s. Along with producing fifty edited examples of news reports which shared stories from places primarily outside of Europe, Masse’s research reveals a number of fascinating parallels between early French news productions and materials we interact with today. For example, the readership of pre-newspaper France appreciated dramatic, eye-catching headlines detailing unknown worlds (clickbait!), and imagery with elevated notoriety that spanned well beyond their original production and purpose (memes!).
Dr. Masse has been teaching at Ä¢¹½AV since 2010, on topics spanning from medieval history and European literature, to love and death as portrayed in French poetry, and even a course examining historic and fictional interpretations of the end of the world.
With such a wide breadth and depth of research and knowledge, Dr. Masse can provide excellent opportunities for graduate students looking for supervisors, especially those interested in exploring medieval or early modern contact literature (materials produced when two cultures encounter each another, such as travel narratives), ephemeral literature (including newspapers and print records), and apocalyptic literature and discourse.
Dr. Masse also notes that there is currently a lot of opportunity for students interested in researching printed media, particularly brochures, as many of these sources have only been recently rediscovered in archives after years of improper cataloguing. Graduate students looking for the opportunity to complete hands-on research will especially enjoy these untouched and oft-undigitized materials, many of which have been waiting for hundreds of years to be read and analyzed.
Interested in learning more about Dr. Masse, his research, and the process of becoming a graduate student in the Department of History? Reach out to the department at gradhist@dal.ca.
Interview and article by Katie Ritchie, MA student, Dept. of History