John D. Cotts

John Cotts is the William K. and Diana R. Deshler Chair of History at Whitman College.
 
He arrived at Whitman in 2004 and works on the cultural and intellectual history of twelfth-century Europe, with a special emphasis on England, France, and the Crusades. He has published three books on the thought and culture of the High Middle Ages, including Europe's Long Twelfth Century: Order, Anxiety, and Adaptation 1095-1229 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), which was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 and is now in a second edition (Bloomsbury, 2026). His recent articles have covered various aspects of the twelfth century in northwestern Europe, including the ideology surrounding the Third Crusade, the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the secular clergy of medieval England.
 
Professor Cotts teaches courses on medieval and early modern Europe. He especially enjoys offering general surveys of Europe from the earliest Middle Ages (fifth-century CE) through the French Revolution—to students from any and all majors!—but also offers specialized courses on the crusades, and on European thought and culture during the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Reformation.
 
He has served as the Chair of the Division of Social Sciences (2022-25), Director of the Encounters First-Year Program (2015-17), and Chair of the History Department (2012-2015). In 2012, he received the Robert Y. Fluno Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Social Sciences at Whitman College, and he was a Paul Garrett Fellow for excellence in teaching and scholarship from 2014-2017. 

Ph.D. History
University of California, Berkeley
2000

M.A. History
University of California, Berkeley
1995

B.A. Classics and History
Oberlin College
1993