Francesca Guerri has been a member of the Department of History at the University of St. Thomas in Houston since 2021, and she served as Dean of the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Global Studies from 2025 to 2026. She teaches in the Core, where most students meet her in History of Western Culture and Ideas, and she offers a lively range of courses across history and art history: Medieval: Medieval Women, The Crusades, and St. Francis of Assisi: Light of the Middle Ages Renaissance: Renaissance and Reformation, and The Medici: Masters of the Renaissance Ancient: Greek and Roman History Art: Renaissance and Baroque Art, Medieval Art, and Christian Iconography, Art of Greece and Rome. Study Abroad: Italy — art and history in Florence, Rome, Assisi, and Siena

Beyond the classroom, she is an enthusiastic part of student life, advising the History Society, hosting weekly Thursday study nights open to all students, and leading theUniversity’ss study abroad program to Italy. By academic training, Guerri is a medieval historian. Her research illuminates the history of medieval women and their agency in the political, social, and religious worlds they inhabited. She has been endeavoring to answer the question of how women shaped the religious and political life of the medieval world, often through their personal friendships and networks. Much of her work centers on Matilda of Tuscany, the powerful countess whose circle of friendships she first reconstructed in her doctoral research and on whom she has published several articles, exploring Matilda’s relationships with figures such as Anselm of Canterbury and Anselm of Lucca. She is especially drawn to the ways women acted as catalysts of spiritual and cultural renewal, and she regularly shares her findings at international conferences, including the International Medieval Congress at Leeds and the Medieval Academy of America.

She has a book in progress with Brepols on Matilda of Tuscany and leadership in the medieval world. She is also the founder and coordinator of St. Francis of Assisi: 800 Years of Adventure, theUniversity’ss interdisciplinary project marking the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death, which brings together faculty and students across many disciplines through shared courses, campus exhibitions, an international academic conference, and public events. Originally from Florence, Italy, Guerri now lives in Houston with her family.