Washington and Lee University
On leave 2012-13.Research Interests: The relationship between religion and politics, church history and political thought, especially in medieval and Renaissance Italy
Current Research: Professor Peterson is writing a book on Power and the Sacred: Religion, Politics and the Church in Renaissance Florence, 1375-1460. It explores religion's influence on Florentine politics and social life, and politics' impact on the Florentine church when Florence was shaping the culture of early Renaissance Italy.
European Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation history; European Medieval and Renaissance church history and political thought; Dante, and Machiavelli