Skip To Main Content
Principia College Logo
Dr. Gretchen Starr-LeBeau
Dr. Gretchen Starr-LeBeau

Jeanne and George Todd Professor of Religious Studies 
Chair of the History Department

TEACHING AREA

Religious Studies

EDUCATION

  • Ph D, History, University of Michigan
  • MA, History, University of Michigan
  • BA with high distinction, Interdisciplinary major, University of Virginia

CONTACT

Dr. Starr-LeBeau is a specialist in the history of religion, especially Jewish-Christian relations and the Spanish Inquisition. Before coming to Principia, she taught at the University of Kentucky for over fifteen years. At Principia, her teaching focuses on comparative religion and the history of religion, including courses such as "World Religions," "Jews, Christians, and Muslims," "Religion in America," and "God and the Holocaust."

SCHOLARLY INTERESTS

Dr. Starr-LeBeau's research interests are in the Spanish Inquisition, and comparative work with the Portuguese and Roman Inquisitions. She particularly has focused on the Inquisition's investigation of converts from Judaism to Christianity and their descendants. She is currently researching how inquisitors evaluated evidence in trials.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO FIELD

  • Gretchen Starr-LeBeau has written two books: In the Shadow of the Virgin: Inquisitors, Friars, and Conversos in Guadalupe, Spain (Princeton University Press, 2003) and Seven Myths of the Spanish Inquisition (Hackett, 2023).
  • She also edited (with Charles H. Parker) Judging Faith, Punishing Sin: Inquisitions and Consistories in the Early Modern World (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS

  • Renaissance Society of America
  • Sixteenth Century Studies Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies

AWARDS

  • The Harper Award for Teaching Excellence (Principia College, 2020)
  • Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Teaching (University of Kentucky, 2001)
  • Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in History

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

  • Recent book chapters include: “On the Inquisition in Spain” in Evidence, Crime, and Forensics in Early Modern Europe, ed. Lu Ann Homza and Amanda L. Scott (Routledge, forthcoming).
  • “Chapter 3: Conversos” in The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Inquisition, ed. Lu Ann Homza (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
  • “A Global “Infection” of Judaizing: Investigations of New Jews and New Christians in the 1630s and 1640s” in Interfaith Relationships and Perceptions of the Other in the Medieval Mediterranean: Essays in Memory of Olivia Remie Constable, eds. Sarah Davis-Secord, Robin Vose, and Belen Vicens (London & New York: Palgrave Press, 2021): 199-226.

Dr. Gretchen Starr-LeBeau CV