Tiggy McLaughlin has always loved history, writing, and school, and is so happy she gets to spend her days teaching and writing about history. She has a PhD in History from the University of Michigan where she wrote a dissertation on preaching and teaching in the late antique Mediterranean world. She published an article on teaching by example in the sermons of Caesarius of Arles and is currently working on an article about pedagogy in the sermons of Hesychius of Jerusalem, both based on research from her dissertation.

Since 2017, her research has taken her further into the sixth century and Merovingian Gaul. She has published two articles on worship practices of ordinary Christians, including a forthcoming article on tactile piety based on the miracle stories narrated by Gregory of Tours. She is currently working on a monograph on ordinary Christians’ associations with flesh in Merovingian Gaul.

She teaches in the theology department in a Catholic preparatory school where she enjoys sharing the long histories of much of Catholic practice with her students. She regularly has them read such medieval authors as Peter Lombard, Hugh of St. Victor, Caesarius of Arles, and lots and lots of Augustine of Hippo. She also does a bit of public history on the side and has researched a variety of local topics such as the death, burial, and rendering of the flesh of General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, the history of local Catholic schools, and, most recently, the history of drive-in movie theaters.

In addition to all this history, she also writes fiction. Everything she writes has a flair for the historical, for magic, or for both. Her first published work of fiction, Quest for the Historical Arthur: A Kalamazoo Story,is a novella about six scholars of medieval studies who embark on an epic fantasy adventure directed by none other than Merlin himself. Her current work in progress is a middle grade historical fantasy novel, Breaking the Silence, which follows an orphaned son of a king to a monastery where he discovers he has a particular musical talent that lets him control the celestial spheres.

When she is not writing or working, Tiggy enjoys spending time with her husband and three young sons. They ski, they camp, they play video games, Pokémon cards, basketball in the yard, go for walks in the neighborhood, and sit on the porch. And then when she has any spare time at all, she reads. Her top five favorite books (in no particular order) are Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.