This is my academic space where you can read about my research centred on material culture, medieval history and industrial history and heritage. While I slowly build up this section with more information about my past and current projects, you can find out about some of my past research on the scambi medievali (medieval exchanges) blog.

Summary

I have a PhD in medieval history (Southampton, 2009), for which I specialised in analysing the relationships between material culture, economy and society in southern Italy. I studied with Dr Patricia Skinner (then Reader in Medieval History) and my research was part of a larger Leverhulme Trust project we devised together entitled Medieval Cultures in Contact: Merchants, Objects and Cultural Exchange in Southern Italy. Before this, I worked across the museum, library, archive and other heritage sectors and while undertaking my PhD I also became an Associate of the Museums Association (AMA) in November 2006. Go to my Professional page for more information about my heritage work. I also have a BA (Hons) in History (Southampton, 1999) and an MA in Museum Studies with distinction (Textile Conservation Centre, 2001, funded by AHRB).

I have recently completed a year’s worth of part-time teaching at the University of Winchester, and I am currently a researcher at Swansea University. I continue to work on academic projects including the preparation of a monograph provisionally entitled ‘Object cultures in medieval southern Italy’, and a series of articles based on my doctoral work. I have also worked on the development of elearning resources for postgraduate research students in the humanities. I am a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton (2009-12) and I am also an H-Net Reviewer, affiliated to H-Italy.

1. ‘Material Worlds: The Shared Cultures of Southern Italy and its Mediterranean Neighbours in the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries’ Al-Masaq. Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, vol. 23 (3) (forthcoming Nov 2011).

2. ‘Composite Chronicles from Bari, ca 1100-1117’ in: K. Jansen, F. Andrews and J. Drell (eds.), Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), pp. 490-500.

3. ‘Where did they come from? The medieval ‘southern Italian’ collections of the British Museum’, AIAC News (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica), 41 (2005).

See my other publications

Current academic publication projects

1. Monograph working title: Object Cultures in Medieval Southern Italy, 600-1200.

2. ‘Mediterranean material culture: from prehistory to now’, in: P Horden and S. Kinoshita (eds.), Companion to Mediterranean History (London: Blackwell, publication expected late 2012).

Research presented

1. ‘Mediterranean style: Some thoughts on earrings in medieval southern Italy and its Islamic neighbours’, research paper given to the SOAS Islamic Art seminar, Mar 2010.

2. ‘Material Worlds: the shared cultures of southern Italy and its neighbours in the 10th to 12th centuries’, Society for the Medieval Mediterranean Conference, Exeter, Jul 2009.

3. ‘Material Worlds: the shared cultures of southern Italy and its neighbours in the 11th and 12th centuries’, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture Masterclass, Southampton, Jun 2008.

4. ‘Lombards in Greek clothing – who’s who in medieval southern Italy’, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture, Southampton, May 2008.

5. Session organised: ‘Putting Humpty together again: Overcoming the fragmentation of the Middle Ages’, Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, Southampton, Dec 2008.

6. ‘Penannular brooch; silver; animal head terminals with opening jaws; Lombardic. What am I? An historian’s interpretation of some early medieval metalwork from southern Italy’, in Leverhulme Trust project workshop, Labels that stick: early medieval people and objects, Southampton, Jan 2007.

7. ‘A bed, a mattress and a pillow full of feathers: practical provisions upon marriage in 11th and 12th-century southern Italy’ in a session I co-organised, Nearest and dearest: the construction of family relationships in Norman Europe, Leeds International Medieval Congress, Jul 2007.

8. ‘Mute but suggestive: how medieval historians can deal with material culture’ in a session I organised, The spade cannot lie: fresh perspectives on medieval material culture, Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, Exeter, Dec 2006.

9. ‘Material culture and local exchange in Apulia and Venice’, in Rethinking Medieval Italy, Leeds International Medieval Congress, Jul 2006.

10. ‘Approaching early medieval material culture’, Postgraduate Forum poster presentation, Southampton, Mar 2005.

11. ‘Where did they come from? The medieval ‘southern Italian’ collections of the British Museum’, Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica at the Svenska Institutet i Rom (Swedish Institute of Rome), Feb 2005.

My teaching and training

I have taught, trained and supervised a range of students of varying abilities, backgrounds and levels. I am available to teach and train on a one-off basis or for fixed-term courses. I can teach on a variety of topics such as:

medieval European history and material culture, especially Britain, Carolingian Empire, Italy, Mediterranean contacts and economy, social and cultural dimensions (especially food and environment)

approaches to material culture, including theory

museum studies and museology, especially the origins of museums in the UK

contemporary heritage sector in the UK and Europe (interplay of museums, libraries, archives

history of collecting and antiquarianism

industrial history and heritage, including interpretation and management

world heritage

Swansea University History 2010
MA History: ‘Finding history in material culture’ (introductory talk).

University of Winchester History 2009-10
Level 1: Early medieval Britain (team taught).
Level 1: Charlemagne (source-based case-study).
Level 2: Medieval Winchester (independent study module)

University of Southampton Humanities 2008-10
Postgraduate Skills Training in generic and applied skills.
Class-based session on ‘Working with images’.
Online training on a range of themes, e.g. putting your thesis together, writing styles and techniques, project management and academic networking. More detail on this elearning project will be coming soon in my professional section. Read more about postgraduate skills training in the Humanities at Southampton.

ICOMOS-UK (International Council on Monuments and Sites UK) / Ironbridge Institute Work Placement 2008
MA Heritage Management student.
Supervision of work placement on the comparative experiences of managing and interpretation of mining cultural landscapes in Britain and Cornwall. Read about the student mining heritage project.

University of Southampton Archaeology 2007
Level 1: Introduction to medieval artefacts (part of survey course).

University of Southampton History 2004
Level 2: How to interpret an historic building.

Hampshire Library & Information Service (Hampshire County Council) with Portsmouth County Council / University of Brighton Work Placement 2003-4
MA Information Studies student.
Supervision of project on local studies cataloguing, digitisation and interpretation on the theme of the theatre and entertainment in 19th century Portsmouth.

Hampshire Library & Information Service (Hampshire County Council) / University of Southampton Work Placement 2003-4
BA History student.
Supervision of project on local studies cataloguing, digitisation and interpretation on the theme of Edwardian culture and the Titanic.

Past awards
Trevor Walden Bursary, Museums Association on behalf of the Trevor Walden Trust, 2006.
Borsa di Studio, study award 54th Settimana di Studio, Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Altomedioevo, Spoleto, 2006.
Tim Potter Memorial Award, British School at Rome, 2005.

Languages
Italian (professional working proficiency), French (professional working proficiency), German (elementary proficiency), Medieval Latin (full proficiency for reading), Classical Greek (working proficiency for reading) Welsh (beginner).

Public Engagement and voluntary work
Plenary speaker, Humanities postgraduate annual conference, ‘Lost in Translation’, Southampton, Mar 2008.
Seminar convenor, History Postgraduate Research Seminar, 2007-2008.
Voluntary Curator, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, 2006-2007.
Voluntary Curator, Museum of Archaeology, Southampton, 2004-2006.
Demonstrator, Medieval Apothecary, Heritage Open Day, Salisbury Museum, Wiltshire, Jun 2006.
Organiser, Medieval Week, a week-long festival of medieval studies and culture, Southampton, Oct-Nov 2005.

Membership of academic networks
Early Medieval Forum, Economic History Society, Finds Research Group 700-1700, London Society for Medieval Studies (committee member), Society for Medieval Archaeology, Sowing the Seeds (network for medieval economic and social historians).

Academic dissertations
BA (Hons) History ‘Urban life in medieval Italy: the case-study of Bari’, University of Southampton, 1999 (1st class).
MA Museum Studies‘Cultural biography of Grand Tour collections: Fresh perspectives of British cultural heritage’, Textile Conservation Centre, 2001 (Distinction).
PhD Medieval History ‘Objects, people and exchange: Material culture in medieval southern Italy, c.600-c.1200′, University of Southampton, 2009 (passed with minor corrections, examined by Dr. Tom Brown (Edinburgh) and Dr. Maria Hayward (Southampton)).