The University of Leeds

Department Member, Institute for Medieval Studies

Thesis Title: Based on a True History?: The Impact of Popular ‘Medieval Film’ on the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages

About

I am a researcher and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Leeds and Leeds Trinity University College. The research project which I am currently doing the groundwork for (and for which I am actively seeking research funding) is a study of the contemporary public's understanding of the Crusades, and the degree to which those understandings influence ideas about the relationship between the past and present, identity, ideology, prejudice and even radicalisation in the present.

My research has been on studying the public's understanding of the past-- in specific, the medieval past; what factors influence it, and how commonly-held ideas about the past influence how we conceptualise the present and future. I love applying social-sciences methods to my work-- it is very satisfying to gather evidence which is often surprising, and which often leads me to very different conclusions than might be reached by purely theoretical examinations of the topic.

Much of my previous work has focused on the depiction of the Middle Ages in film and television and the degree to which that influences public ideas about the past (and, I argue, vice versa). I am currently working on my first monograph (under contract with Cambria Press) on this topic. However, I am looking forward to expanding beyond the media and looking at education, public and political discourses and other factors which make up our engagement with the past.

I am also the founder of the Society for the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages (www.publicmiddleages.org)-- and am working with its members to organise conference sessions and a conference next year.

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