Research Topic
Late Byzantine Imperial Relatives: Roles, Activities and Political Culture, c. 1261-1341
My doctoral project contributes to the ongoing reassessment of the Late Byzantine period through an interdisciplinary examination of the place of the extended imperial family in early Palaiologan political culture. Bringing together textual, material and topographical evidence, I seek to decentre the figure of the emperor and reinscribe the often decisive importance of other political actors. In doing so, I argue that the early Palaiologan empire was politically multipolar.
I received my BA in Ancient and Medieval History from the University of Birmingham, and then moved to Oxford for an MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. My MPhil thesis was a comparative study of eleventh- and twelfth-century monasticism in the Greek East and the Latin West.
In January 2021, I established the Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar, which hosts eight graduate or early-career speakers each term. I was previously Treasurer and Secretary of the Oxford University Byzantine Society (2020-21 and 2021-22, respectively), co-organising two international graduate conferences. In addition, I co-organised the 2021 and 2022 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conferences.
I am also a Graduate Associate of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, and a member of its executive and publication committees.
My doctoral research is generously funded by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership, the Clarendon Fund and All Souls College. I will be spending the 2024/25 academic year at Princeton University as a Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellow.
I have contributed to the teaching of the following papers:
-
History of Byzantium (MSt/MPhil Late Antique and Byzantine Studies)
-
History of the British Isles 2 (Prelims): c. 1000-1330
-
European and World History 1 (Prelims): The Transformation of the Ancient World, 370-900
-
European and World History 5 (Finals): The Late Medieval World, 1300-1525
-
Special Subject: Byzantium in the Age of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, 913-959
-
Special Subject: St. Augustine and the Last Days of Rome, 370-430
Supervisor: Professor Catherine Holmes