About our staff

I am a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and remained there for doctoral studies, which concerned the impact of the Norman Conquest on Durham in the North-East of England and Southern Scotland. Before returning to Edinburgh in 2011, I held a number of lectureships at UEA, Manchester University, and Sheffield University, and a Senior Lectureship at Cardiff University,  (1995 to 2011). My research interests in Medieval European History and the Norman diaspora have involved a gradual shift south towards warmer climes from Southern Scotland/Northern England to Normandy and, most recently, to Puglia in Southern Italy. I have deliverd research papers in the EU, the USA, Japan and most recently, Beijing, and Nanjing in China.

Tympanum, Basilica di San Nicola, Bari (Puglia).

Steering Committee of History UK (HE); EU History networks, Cliohnet and Cliohres.

Summary of research interests

• Britain & Ireland
• Europe
• Mediterranean
• Scotland

• Culture
• Gender
• Migration
• Politics
• Religion
• Society
• War

• Medieval

Research interests include the history of the European Central Middle Ages, focusing on the Norman diaspora of the period, c. 900-1200, in Northern France, the British Isles and Ireland, and Southern Italy. They also include aspects of medieval ecclesiastical history, such as the role of the bishop; saints and their cults, and the history of monasticism. Also an interest in representations of the the Medieval ‘Other world’ in dream narratives, ghostly apparitions and descriptions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Further research areas concern the problems and possibilities of historical biography; masculinities and the gendered representation of men in medieval sources, particularly in the period, c.1000-1200. Finally, Victorian and early twentieth-century historiographical foundations of the study of medieval history in Britain and North America: particularly through the work of Edward A. Freeman (1823-92), and Charles Homer Haskins (1870-1937).

Biography of Kings Edgar and Alexander I of Scots.

A study of Ranulf Flambard, royal administrator and, from 1099, Bishop of Durham (d. 1128).

The medieval monastery as a "total institution".

Conversano, Puglia

Pre-Honours

• HIST08035 Medieval Worlds
• HIST08044 Introduction to Historiography
• HIST08032 The Historian's Toolkit

Honours

• HIST10433: Bestiary. Animals in the Middle Ages
• HIST10356: The Conquest Generation: Normandy and England, 1087-1135

Basilica di San Nicola, Bari (Puglia).

Course organiser

• PGHC11214: The Sources of Medieval History
• PGHC11369: Medieval Men and Masculinities

Contributor to the following courses

• MSc. Dissertation (History and Medieval History)

Most aspects of The Norman World, and the history of the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries, except medieval military history (stricto sensu).

Representations and constructions of medieval masculinity.

Medieval royal government under the Norman king-dukes of England and Normandy (1087-1135).

Medieval historical biography.

Medieval hagiographical writings and communities.

Medieval visions of the afterlife: heaven, hell and Purgatory.

The modern foundations of British and American Medieval Historiography, especially the works of Edward A. Freeman and Charles Homer Haskins.