Ada Palmer is a cultural and intellectual historian focusing on the long-durée evolution of ideas and mentalities. She specializes in the early modern period, particularly the Italian Renaissance and Humanist reception of classical philosophy, but she also works on ancient, medieval and modern intellectual history. She completed her doctorate at Harvard University in Spring of 2009 with a dissertation entitled Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance.

Dr. Palmer has taught in general surveys of Western Civilization, in specialized courses on ancient, medieval, early modern and modern intellectual history, courses on the Italian Renaissance, and History Department tutorial seminars. She has studied extensively in Italy, and her research interests include Renaissance Neoplatonism and Neostoicism, history of atheism, skepticism and freethought, history of atomism, history of the scientific method, history of the book, history of republicanism and history of epistemology and moral philosophy.  She is co-author of The Recovery of Classical Philosophy in the Renaissance, a Brief Guide along with her advisor, James Hankins.