Regularly sporting his trademark cap and always armed with an arsenal of witty remarks in his back pocket, Dr. Daniel Thiery makes a mark in history: the Department of History, that is. As a member of Iona’s faculty since 2003, Thiery has been engaging students for nearly a decade and continues to contribute to the college community in a multitude of ways. Thiery began his college career fully aware that he wanted to remain in academia and eventually become a professor. Though he was intent on studying history, he struggled to choose between a concentration in Colonial American History or Medieval History.   A final decision to pursue a study of Medieval History was encouraged by his interest in Shakespeare’s Henry V, especially the Kenneth Branagh film depiction, and a grant awarded to Thiery prior to his senior year sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities to study this same monarch. Continuing his commitment to Medieval History, Thiery worked towards an MA and PhD in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, inspired by an undergraduate professor who was an alumni there.  Thiery’s graduate coursework focused on Medieval English History, which allowed him the opportunity to study in London while working on his dissertation. The material compiled for his doctoral dissertation eventually supplied the foundation for a book he published in 2009: Polluting the Sacred: Violence, Faith and the Civilizing of Parishioners in Late Medieval England. Immediately after receiving his PhD, Thiery was welcomed into the Iona College community as an assistant professor of History. Thiery admits that it was a difficult feat to reconcile his New England roots with the culture surrounding the Big Apple .  Thiery maintains a scholarly research interest in the history of attitudes toward the enactment, control and depiction of violence in Western Societies. The many professional positions he holds currently include an associate professor of History, the assistant chair of the history department, a faculty liaison for the Institute of Thomas Paine Studies and a freshmen advisor.  In the classroom, Thiery can be found teaching both History and Honors Humanities courses. He is presently teaching Honors Humanities 102 and 201, HST 101, Medieval History, Renaissance and Reformation History, Medieval England and, lastly, The History of Violence: Greeks to the Present. “My favorite course at the moment is my History of Violence class because each time that I teach it I end up with as many questions as answers. I learn a lot prepping for the class and I have really benefited from my students’ ideas as much as they benefit from my teaching,” said Thiery.  He attributes his undergraduate experience with the Western Civilization sequence of the Liberal Arts Honors Program at Providence College to his passion for learning and approach to teaching. “The interaction inside and outside of class with our professors, the scholarly grounding and the intellectual curiosity piqued by those courses was invaluable. Whether it’s a Humanities class or one of my History classes, I hope that I can foster a similar experience for my own students,” said Thiery.  In his professorial pursuits Thiery’s achieved just that. Many students agree that he is an influential and engaging professor as well as an integral part to Iona’s faculty. Sophomore Stasi Formica, an Honors student taught by Thiery, said, “I think Dr. Thiery is a very entertaining professor. He does a really great job at keeping the material interesting and holding students’ attention.” Over the years he’s spent as a member of the Iona community, Thiery has grown to admire the college’s academics. He respects the commitment made to undergraduate teaching by the esteemed faculty at Iona: a faculty that consists of professors that are both strong teachers and master scholars. Iona seems like the right fit for this medieval history buff, as Thiery observes that this college fosters the same academic environment that inspired him as an undergraduate student.  So what does the future have in store for this history hound? Having been recently voted into the position by his colleagues, Thiery will assume the role of the chair of Iona’s Department of History in the summer. As for that, the rest is history.