Dr. Marissa Smit Bose

Biography

Marissa Smit-Bose joined the University of Cambridge in 2024 as an Assistant Professor specializing in Early Modern Mediterranean Islamic World History. She holds a PhD in History from Harvard University and a Master's degree in Central Eurasian Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research uniquely intertwines animal studies with new diplomatic history, focusing particularly on the Ottoman-Italian entanglements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Currently, she is preparing a book provisionally titled 'Riding Translation: Ottoman Horses and Renaissance Equestrianism', which addresses the complexities of interspecies relationships in equestrian practices across cultural boundaries. Her teaching encompasses material culture, environmental factors, and religion within Eurasia's Islamicate societies, grounded in her extensive experience in teaching and writing across various disciplines. At the undergraduate level, she lectures on 'Europe and the World' and co-convenes a module on the Mediterranean World. For postgraduate students, she offers a course on Global Early Modern History. She has received multiple prestigious grants, including the Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant from Fulbright-Hays and an International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Sciences Research Council.

Research Interests