Alumnus Thomas Batterman wins Rhodes Scholarship!

Congratulations to Thomas Batterman (C’22) on receiving the 2024 Rhodes Scholarship for his research on the 565 plague outbreak in northern Italy. Thomas received a Global Medieval Studies Award for his research in 2022.

“I’m thrilled to be headed to Oxford next year to begin an MPhil in Medieval History. I plan to build on the work I did at Georgetown and pursue further interdisciplinary research on the late antique plague and Roman successor kingdoms. It’s an extraordinary opportunity to study medieval history at a medieval university, and I’m immensely grateful for all the support I’ve received from Georgetown’s Medieval Studies faculty since starting my history education.” (Thomas Batterman)

“Tommy in the classroom? He was one of the sharpest, most industrious and serious students I’ve taught. He has a real love for history, and not just for consuming it, but also for researching and writing it. His Honors thesis examines the creation of a plague narrative. Of course, to reassess something one has to come to terms with what has already been written. It’s twice the work. Curious as always, Tommy dove into treacherous ongoing plague debates to see whether a much-touted great plague in northern Italy in 565, which caught his eye, actually took place. He traced the writing of that plague back more than 1,000 years. I found his argument that that particular plague outbreak is a medieval fabrication convincing. I was not alone in that judgment. In fact, his thesis, which he rewrote as an article over the summer and which has gone through academic peer review, is set to appear this winter in a major journal: The Journal of Late Antiquity.” (Timothy Newfield, Assistant Professor, History Department)