Dr. Sutherland is fascinated by the late Renaissance and Baroque periods (roughly 1580 to 1700), including the Catholic Reformation in the Italian peninsula and Central Europe. Her teaching and research have focused on war, religion, the Scientific Revolution, the Republic of Letters, the growth of states and empires, and women's experiences. She views her most important role as helping students get to know and explore a wider world. For that reason, she organizes and leads a summer Study Abroad program in Vienna and Prague called "Heart of Europe" that explores Central European history and culture and provides MTSU students with an opportunity to experience what it is like to live abroad.

Dr. Sutherland has also been involved in multiple collaborative, interdisciplinary projects including: Mapping the Republic of Letters as well as the Stanford-based "Early Modern Mobility: Knowledge, Communication, and Transportation, 1500-1800." Finally, she serves as a Subject Editor for the digital Routledge Resources Online - The Renaissance World, using digital tools to help interpret some of the most exciting new scholarship on the Renaissance for undergraduate and graduate student readers. 

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S. Sutherland, The Rise of the Military Entrepreneur: War, Diplomacy, and Knowledge in Habsburg Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022.

Lelková, P. Findlen, and S. Sutherland, “Kircher’s Bohemia: Jesuit Networks and Habsburg Patronage in the Seventeenth Century,” Erudition and the Republic of Letters Vol. 5 (2020), No. 5.2: 163-206.

P. Findlen and S. Sutherland, eds., The Renaissance of Letters: Knowledge and Community in Italy, 1300-1650. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2019.  

S. Sutherland, “War, Mobility, and Letters at the Start of the Thirty Years War, 1621-23” in The Renaissance of Letters: Knowledge and Community in Italy, 1300-1650, eds. P. Findlen and S. Sutherland. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2019.  

S. Sutherland, “Epilogue. From Renaissance to Republic of Letters: Letter-Rack Still-Life Paintings” in The Renaissance of Letters: Knowledge and Community in Italy, 1300-1650, eds. P. Findlen and S. Sutherland. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2019.

S. Sutherland, P. Findlen, and I. Lelková, “Etruscan Dreams: Athanasius Kircher, Medici Patronage, and Tuscan Friendships, 1633-80” in I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance (Fall, 2018).   

S. Sutherland, “Warfare, Entrepreneurship, and Politics,” in The Routledge History of the Renaissance, ed. William Caferro. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2017, pp. 302-18.  

S. Sutherland, “From Battlefield to Court: Raimondo Montecuccoli’s Diplomatic Mission to Queen Christina of Sweden after the Thirty Years War,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 47 (2016), 4 (Winter): 915-38.

Works-in-Progress

S. Sutherland, "Dangerous Routes: Bridal Journeys and Diplomatic Alliances in the Late Renaissance"

S. Sutherland, "Athanasius Kircher's US Collectors"

P. Findlen, S. Sutherland, and I. Lelková, The Baroque Postmaster: Athanasius Kircher between Rome and the World (under consideration at Stanford University Press)  

P. Findlen, S. Sutherland, and I. Lelková, “Kircher’s Orient: A Jesuit’s Letters from the East”

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Undergraduate Courses Taught

US History I

Survey World Civilizations I and II

Survey Western Civilization I

Renaissance Europe

Reformation Europe

The Origins of Modern War: From the Crusades to Napoleon

Science, Religion, and Magic in Europe, 1500-1800 

The French Revolution

Heart of Europe: History and Culture in Vienna and Prague (study abroad)

Graduate Courses Taught

Readings in Pre-Modern European History (History MA course)

Historical Research Methods (History MA course)

Topics in Science and Reason: The Scientific Revolution, 1500-1800 (Liberal Arts MA course)  

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