Associate Professor
History, College of Arts and Sciences
Alumnae Hall 212
516.877.4787
lacombe@adelphi.edu
Ph.D., NYU (2006)
B.A., Yale (1992)
American Civilization Since 1865
American Civilization To 1865
Senior Seminar: American History
Sophomore Seminar Research Skills
Early America: 1492-1680
Colonial America: 1680-1763
The American Revolution
Tudor/Stuart England
Native American History: North America
Food in US History
Senior Seminar: American History
History 201: Jamestown 1607-1624
Professor LaCombe teaches courses in early America, the American Revolution, Native American history, food and history, antebellum cultural history, and a research methods seminar on Jamestown's first fifteen years.
Professor LaCombe's book Political Gastronomy focused on the English Atlantic world before 1650, and in particular the role of food in interactions between English travelers and native groups. His new project is a study of knowledge production within the genre of English travel writing.
Prof. LaCombe has presented work at conferences in Victoria, BC; Manchester, England; Swansea, Wales; and Venice, Italy.
Michael A. LaCombe (2012). Political Gastronomy: Food and Authority in the English Atlantic World. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
“Subject or Signifier?: Food and the History of Early North America,” History Compass 11/10 (2013): 859–868, 10.1111/hic3.12086 (www.history-compass.com).
Michael A. LaCombe (2010), "'a continuall and dayly Table for Gentlemen of fashion': Humanism, Food, and Authority at Jamestown, 1607-1609". American Historical Review, 115, 669-687.
“Making Knowledge of Foreign Places: The Conventions of English Travel Writing in the Americas and Elsewhere,” Scientiae 2018, Minneapolis.
“Is a Dining Table a Middle Ground?” presented at the Society of Early Americanists Eighth Biennial Conference, Savannah, Georgia, February 28-March 2, 2013.
“‘Would rather want then borrow, or starve then not pay’: Refiguring English Dependency, 1580-1650,” invited paper presented at the 17th Annual Conference of the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture, SUNY New Paltz, June 17-19, 2011.
“‘All Sachams do Justis by thayr own men’: Dependency, Theft, and Authority in the English Atlantic World, 1614-1623,” presented at the European Early American Studies Association annual conference in Venice, Italy, December 13, 2008.
“‘by shewing power purchasing authoritie’: Status, Authority, and Exchange in the English Atlantic World,” presented at the British Group for Early American History’s annual conference in Manchester, England, September 13, 2008. Sponsored by the Mellon Fund, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, The United States Embassy, The Institute for the Study of the Americas, and the Department of History, University of Manchester.
“a continuall and dayly Table for Gentlemen of fashion”: George Percy, Captain John Smith, and the Politics of Food at Jamestown, presented at the British Group for Early American History’s annual conference in Swansea, Wales, September 8, 2007. Sponsored by the Mellon Fund, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, The United States Embassy, The Institute for the Study of the Americas, and the Departments of History and of American Studies, University of Wales Swansea.
“Commensality and Competition in Early America: Manners and Status at Anglo-Indian Meals, pre-1640,” presented at the 20th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society, Victoria, BC, June 1, 2007.
“Translating the Go-between: Pocahontas and Henry Spelman in the Atlantic World,” presented at the 13th Annual Conference of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Williamsburg, VA, June 8, 2007.
““by shewing power purchasing authoritie”: The Politics of Food Exchange in the English Atlantic World,” Presentation at the conference “Strange Currencies: Dynamic Economies in the Early Modern World,” CUNY Graduate Center, February 16, 2007.
“Feasting and Foodways as Cultural Mediators: Jamestown, 1607-1624,” Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture Conference, “The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624,” March 2004.
“English Humanism and the New World in the Sixteenth Century: The Case of Sir Humphrey Gilbert,” New England Historical Association, October 1999.
"And for you, sir? Roast venison? Or 'sod bread made up round, like a tennis ball?": Serving Out Status in Early English Travel Accounts," invited presentation at the Huntington Library conference "Empowering Appetites: The Political Economy & Culture of Food in the Early Atlantic," San Marino, CA, October 12-12, 2018.
“Symbolic Communication in the English Atlantic World: Why Early American History Should Take Food Studies Seriously, and Vice Versa,” invited presentation at the Ohio State University Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies symposium “A Trans-Atlantic Perspective on Early-Modern Foodways (15th–18th centuries),” April 8-9, 2016.
"Expert Language: Seventeenth Century Land Deeds in the Sylvester Manor Collection," invited presentation to the Sylvester Manor Working Group, Fales Library, NYU, February 6, 2013.
“‘with all my right of Cominage, Woods, Underwoods, Bit of mouth & Turburd’: Robert Williams of Lusum and the Early Long Island “Deed Game,” precirculated paper presented at the May 12, 2015 meeting of the Columbia Seminar on Early American History.
“Is a Dinner Table a Middle Ground?” invited presentation at the conference “Methods and Approaches to Histories of the Atlantic World: A Conference in Celebration of Karen Ordahl Kupperman,” New York University, Glucksman Ireland House, April 19-20, 2013.
“‘Would rather want then borrow, or starve then not pay’: Refiguring English Dependency, 1580-1650,” invited paper presented at the 17th Annual Conference of the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture, SUNY New Paltz, June 17-19, 2011.
“‘by shewing power purchasing authoritie’: Status, Authority, and Exchange in the English Atlantic World,” precirculated paper (chapter length) for discussion at the McNeil Center’s conference “The Worlds of Lion Gardiner: c.1599-1663,” SUNY Stony Brook, March 20-21, 2009. Sponsored by The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, The McNeil Center for Early American Studies, The Columbia Faculty Seminar on Early American History, and State University of New York at Stony Brook.
“‘Political Gastronomy’ in Early America: Meals and the Struggle for Authority, 1570-1650,” invited presentation at the NYU Department of Food Studies and Nutrition “Feast and Famine” Colloquium, December 7, 2007.
“Commensality and Contest in the English Atlantic World: Meals and the Struggle for Authority, 1570-1640,” precirculated paper (chapter length) presented at the International Seminar for the Study of the Atlantic World, Harvard University, August 11, 2007. Sponsored by the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History and with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“‘I Never Had But One Squirrel Roasted’: Provisions, Eating, and Authority in Early Jamestown,” John Carter Brown Library Fellows’ Talk, October 2002.
In addition to recent presentations at conferences in the United States, Canada, and overseas, Professor LaCombe is a regular participant in the Columbia University Seminar in Early American History and Culture.
Middle States Working Group 3, 2017-2018.
Senate Committee on Academic Information Technology, fall 2017-present.
University General Education Committee, fall 2011-spring 2016.
Humanities subcommittee, fall 2010- spring 2016; chair, spring 2013-spring 2016
chair, Global/Civic subcommittee, spring 2013-fall 2015
President’s Advisory Committee on Academic Calendars, fall 2007-fall 2014
University Assessment Committee, fall 2009-fall 2011.