Tracy Adams
Tracy Adams is a medieval historian and professor who teaches in New Zealand. She studies Medieval French and English literature and feminist theory, with a focus on Isabeau of Bavaria.
Education: BA in English from the University of Minnesota (1981), MA in English from the University of Texas (1984), studied French and Latin medieval literature at the University of Geneva (1995–1996), and earned a PhD in French from Johns Hopkins University (1998) with a dissertation on love in twelfth‑century romance.
Career: She taught at the University of Maryland University College (1997–2001) on the Schwäbisch Gmünd campus, then joined the University of Auckland in 2001 as a lecturer in French. By 2011 she was an associate professor in the School of Culture, Languages and Linguistics and has served as head of the French department.
Work: Adams has written on medieval ideas of love and is best known for The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria (2010), which reexamines Isabeau’s reputation and tries to recover her historical presence. She argues that Isabeau’s reputation was shaped by gossip and limited primary sources, and that Christine de Pizan portrayed her as a regent in some earlier writing.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:26 (CET).