Michelle Hobart uses archeology and scientific data in her teaching to counter the traditional, Eurocentric historical narratives of the medieval Mediterranean. She studied medieval history and archaeology from the University of Siena, Italy, and received an M.A. in medieval architecture from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Her Ph.D. is from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU and her focus explores the interface between archaeology and architecture. As a field archaeologist, she has worked on numerous excavations in Italy. She is currently co-director of the Tuscan Monteverdi project and field school study abroad program with SUNY Buffalo, utilizing GIS and geophysical surveying technologies to analyze the historical economics of trade and cultural exchanges. She has recently contributed and edited a volume about one of the largest and most unknown islands in the Mediterranean, A Companion to Sardinian History, 500 – 1500 (Brill, 2017).  Other publications include “Merchants, Monks and Medieval Sardinian Architecture,” (Brill, 2010) and “Monasteri contesi nella Tuscia Longobarda: il caso di San Pietro ad Asso, Montalcino (Siena)” (Insegna del Giglio, 2011). With the article on The Peruzzi and their Urban Enclaves, she reconstructed the architectural transformations that occurred during the rise of the commune of Florence of the emerging banking family compound. Her forthcoming publications include the Final Archaeological Report of Frontier Castles in Southern Etruria: Capalbiaccio / Tricosto (Grosseto, Italy, 1976 - 2010), SUNY Press, 2020.