Kenneth Bartlett

Professor (He/Him)
Victoria College, Room 202
416-961-3058

Campus

Cross-Appointments

Department of Art
Centre for Medieval Studies

Fields of Study

Areas of Interest

Renaissance and Early Modern Italy

Biography

Kenneth Bartlett received his PhD (1978) from the University of Toronto where he is Professor of History and Renaissance Studies (Victoria College). He was editor of Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme from 1985 until 1990 and President of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies from 1982 until 1984. Prof. Bartlett was the Founding Director of the University of Toronto Art Centre, and sat on the Board of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art from 2001-2015. He was the Director of Faculty Programs in Arts and Science for 13 years, and in 2002 he was named the first Director of the Office of Teaching Advancement for the University of Toronto, a position he enjoyed until 2009.   

He is the author of: The Experience of History (John Wiley and Sons, forthcoming 2016); A Short History of the Italian Renaissance (University of Toronto Press, 2013 (designated an Outstanding Academic Title for 2014 by Choice, the journal of the American Library Association); The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance (Revised edition 2011; first edition 1992); The English in Italy: A Study in Culture and Politics (1991); Humanism and the Northern Renaissance, with M. McGlynn, (2000); a second, expanded edition appeared in 2014 as The Northern Renaissance and the Reformation (UTP).

He is co-editor or translator of several Italian Renaissance texts, such as Giovanni Della Casa’s Galateo (several editions), Pope Pius II’s Story of the Two Lovers, and Ruzzante’s Moscheta (2 editions).  In addition, Prof. Bartlett has published over 40 articles and contributions to books on various aspects of the Renaissance; in 2005 he produced a 36-video series with a three-volume companion text on The Italian Renaissance. A second series, The Italians Before Italy: Conflict and Cooperation in the Mediterranean, appeared in 2007, and a 48-episode series on The Development of European Civilization was released in 2010. The Great Tours: Discovering Medieval Europe appeared in December 2013 and The Smithsonian Guide to Essential Italy (36 episodes) was released in 2015. Prof. Bartlett has also published articles and conducted a great many consulting projects in Europe, China, the Middle East and North America on university faculty development and pedagogy.    

In 1993 he won the Victoria University Excellence in Teaching Award; in 2000 and 2007 the Students Administrative Council and Association of Part-Time Students Undergraduate Teaching Award; and in 2003 the Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award. In 2005 Prof. Bartlett was awarded the prestigious 3M National Teaching Fellowship. That same year he was presented with an Arbor Award for service to the University. In 2006 Prof. Bartlett was awarded an inaugural President’s Teaching Award, which carries with it membership in the University of Toronto Academy of Teaching, and in 2007 an inaugural government of Ontario LIFT (Leadership in Faculty Teaching) award by the province. In 2007 he was a finalist in the TVO Best Lecturer TV series. 

Publications