Staff profile

After several years out of education, I began my studies at Durham University’s Foundation Centre in 2015, and went on to complete my BA and MA at Durham. My MA dissertation explored how religious chroniclers portrayed the masculinity of rebels against Henry III in the 1230s and 1260s, and provided the inspiration for my current PhD Research, which is generously funded by a Wolfson Foundation Doctoral Studentship.

Project Overview

My research investigates the relationship between pastoral care and the developing culture of chivalry in late twelfth- and thirteenth-century England, as represented in art, vernacular literature, and religious texts.

The period c.1150-c.1250 is an important one in the shift from monastic, through scholastic, to lay initiative in new forms of piety. It encompasses both the clerical shift towards a concern with pastoral care (including both Third and Fourth Lateran Councils), and the development and definition of chivalry as a social force amongst the aristocracy. Within this period, the research is primarily concerned with the processes by which biblical militaristic metaphors for spiritual struggle, which had been expanded by twelfth-century monastic theologians, came to be used for the purposes of lay edification.

• Reign of Henry III in England (1216-1272)
• Pastoral Care and Lay Education
• Medieval Chivalry
• Medieval Learning c.1150-c.1250