Interview with Lauren Randall

 Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from?

I grew up in Hereford, which has influenced my love of walking, either out on the hills or along the river. I have also always loved old churches, and there are some particularly good ones in Herefordshire (see Kilpeck, for instance), and I think wondering about the beliefs expressed though the carvings and symbols of some of the older churches in particular has fuelled a lot of my research, which tends to centre on how people have developed and expressed their beliefs at different points in history. 

What brought you to your current university?

I came to Durham for a PhD studentship in the Theology department, researching the paratext of Codex Amiatinus. Durham feels like the ideal setting for this project, as it has so many links to much of the wider heritage that led to the production of Amiatinus, as well as having a half-size facsimile of the codex. 

What is your favorite aspect pertaining to the medieval/early modern period?

I really like being able to trace people’s hopes and aspirations in their books and letters, then seeing how they go about achieving them. Or when they have a setback, and their work shows how they have overcome it. It’s amazing to be able to see something so real, so human, being preserved after all this time, but still totally relatable today. 

What is your research focus?

My research is centred on Codex Amiatinus, one of the three great Bible pandects commissioned by Abbot Ceolfrith in the joint monastery that is mainly famous for being the home of the Venerable Bede. I’m focussing on the paratext, that is, everything in the manuscript around the main text itself, and how it expresses the political aims and theological views of the scriptorium that produced it. 

In brief, what will you be discussing in your seminar talk?

The use of Mary Magdalene as a character in Amiatinus’ Song of Songs, voicing a portion of text that long predates her. The text is set out like a script, and in this tradition she is the only individual, other than Christ, who is given a portion of the text. This presentation of the erotic poetry of Song of Songs from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament helps to show how the text was used and understood by the monks of Wearmouth-Jarrow, as well as how they understood the significance of Mary Magdalene for the Church.

What is your favorite piece of art/text from the medieval/early modern eras?

One of the Medieval texts I keep coming back to is Bald’s Leechbook. It’s a fascinating collection of healing charms, potions, and medical (and veterinary) guidance. It combines advice for dealing with elves, with ways to use written lines of scripture to add potency to remedies. 

If you could choose any one figure from medieval/early modern history to spend a weekend vacation with, who would it be, why would you choose them, and where would you go?

This is a difficult questions! But I think I would like to meet Ceolfrith, on his return from a trip to Italy acquiring goods for the Wearmouth-Jarrow monastery. I would mainly like to see firsthand the art and manuscripts he had chosen, and ask him about his choices.

Interview with Ashley Castelino

 Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from?

Born and raised in India, I started my academic journey at Durham with a BA in English and History. I then moved to Cambridge for an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, to Madrid to teach for a year, and finally to Oxford for my current DPhil in Old Norse-Icelandic literature.

What brought you to your current university?

I came to Oxford for its large and vibrant Old Norse community within an even larger medieval community – though, when it came down to making a choice, the funding certainly didn’t hurt! I’m very grateful for the AHRC OOC-DTP and Lincoln College Kingsgate allowing me to do what I do here.

What is your favorite aspect pertaining to the medieval/early modern period?

 I specialise in Old Norse-Icelandic literature and what I love the most about its texts is how utterly ridiculous they can get, no matter the genre. Even when literarily, philosophically, or theologically deeply sophisticated, these texts still manage to produce some of the most entertaining nonsense out there. This makes them such a great entry point into literature in general! 

What is your research focus?

I work on dogs in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, focusing on their narrative functions in different genres of texts.

In brief, what will you be discussing in your seminar talk?

In my seminar talk, I will be giving a broad introduction to the wide range of practical functions dogs may have performed in medieval Iceland and Scandinavia, from guards and hunters to entertainers and companions, by looking at a range of literary, historical, and archaeological sources.

What is your favorite piece of art/text from the medieval/early modern eras?

A combination of art and text, the illuminated Getty Tondal manuscript (Les visions du chevalier Tondal) has an absolutely fantastic collection of miniatures by Simon Marmion, including a particularly delightful Lucifer on fol. 30v with a wonderful backstory…

If you could choose any one figure from medieval/early modern history to spend a weekend vacation with, who would it be, why would you choose them, and where would you go?

I would choose the dog-king Saurr from one of the Old Norse kings’ sagas (let’s just choose to believe that these sagas are all totally historically accurate). Saurr was magically given the ability to speak one human word in between three barks. I’d maybe take him on some kind of beach holiday, giving him a break from his royal duties, and hopefully try to pick his brain on both historical matters and canine ones.

Interview with Nicole Vancooten

 Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from?

I’m from a small town in the province of Ontario, Canada called Cookstown about an hour North of Toronto. Outside of my academic work I like reading, hiking and camping. Two summers ago I started working as a tree planter in Northern Ontario where my life consisted of living in a tent, lots of bug bites and meeting lots of incredible people. Seeing the consequences of commercial logging and commercial forestry firsthand inspired my current research on forest history and lots of my own personal growth as well! 

What brought you to your current university?

I chose to do my Master’s at the University of Waterloo because of the opportunities my supervisor Dr. Steven Bednarski provided me in the field of environmental history with the Environments of Change project and the DRAGEN (Digital Research in Arts and Graphical Environmental Networks) Laboratory. I think interdisciplinary research is so crucial, especially in our current time of environmental crisis around the globe, and the University of Waterloo is certainly a leader in showcasing its potential. 

What is your favorite aspect pertaining to the medieval/early modern period?

My favourite aspect of studying the medieval and early modern periods is the ability to trace the evolution of certain social, economic and cultural influences that remain in modern life, like forest management for example. I love picking out certain events or movements that transformed historical experiences of everyday people that affect the way I live my life now! As a Canadian as well, much of the history I’m exposed to is fairly recent so the medieval and early modern periods are so fascinating. 

What is your research focus?

I am particularly interested in using environmental history as a tool for developing sustainable practices and analyzing historical attitudes toward the environment to better understand natural resource management. My MA thesis aims to analyze the ways in which modern Canadian forestry practices must adapt for a more sustainable and economic future using influences from its diverse pre-modern legacies. These legacies include complex traditions of forest governance, and historical attitudes about the natural world, resource management, and sustainability, beginning with the Domesday record in 1086 by William the Conqueror. 

In brief, what will you be discussing in your seminar talk?

My seminar talk will be outlining the methodology and theories I’m using from environmental history perspectives in my research and discussing the progress I’ve made so far in Part One of my thesis “Medieval Forest Management and Exploitation.” Additionally I’ll be highlighting the ideas I’m working towards in the later parts of my thesis research and how it all connects to Canada and my own experiences through the long durée. 

What is your favorite piece of art/text from the medieval/early modern eras?

Perhaps not my favourite, but the most impactful I would say is “Judith Slaying Holofernes” by Artemisia Gentileschi in 1613 introduced to me by Dr. Greta Kroeker. Early modern gender studies are so interesting to me and the story behind Artemisia’s life and experience with sexual violence really comes out in this painting. 

If you could choose any one figure from medieval/early modern history to spend a weekend vacation with, who would it be, why would you choose them, and where would you go?

  I would choose Anne Boleyn because I would love to hear more about her life in her own words 

and I also believe she was much more influential in the separation of the English church from 

Rome behind the scenes. One of my early undergraduate papers attempted to look deeper into her 

influence through politics and patronage! My family is from the Netherlands and she lived there 

for a while so I would take us there for the weekend to see the tulip blooms.

Interview with Laura Bitterli

 Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from?

I was born and raised by the lake Zurich – a beautiful region framed by the foothills of the alps. When I looked into the context of a charter with mass manumissions of serfs in my first seminar, I was drawn into the history of the city of Zurich and its dominion. And it has stayed with me for the past 8 years.

What brought you to your current university?

In Switzerland, it is quite common to study at your closest university. So, I did my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Zurich and received an offer for a PhD position as well. I still wanted to see other universities and academic cultures, which is why I applied for a mobility grant. This year, I get the opportunity to stay half a year in Durham and half a year in Vienna – which is perfect for looking into international research on my core topics, as well as for meeting fellow early career scholars.

What is your favorite aspect pertaining to the medieval/early modern period?

I am often stunned at how close the concerns, aims, interests, or petty fights of people in my sources are to what we experience today. Of course, there are major differences to our daily life, but there are still common themes. Someone who is annoyed by their neighbor’s tree that is shading their garden. Or a foreign man buying a nice property for his retirement – only to realise that there are local regulations that prohibit him from using it as he had planned. And of course, friendship, love, loyalty, … Maybe it’s these common themes that connect humans through time. But it certainly makes my ‘objects of study’ more tangible.

What is your research focus?

My research examines the accumulation of former noble dominial rights (mostly Habsburg fiefdoms and pledges) in the hands of the town of Zurich in the late Middle Ages. Burghers of Zurich play a big part in this, both as individuals who pursue their own or their family’s investment policies or as office holders in the emerging city state of Zurich. And some of them even had ties to the Habsburg court directly – again as fiefs or pledge holders or in offices in the court system. I argue that the growth of Zurich’s dominion should be viewed from three different perspectives. (1) The roles of citizenship and combourgeoisie (Burgrecht), which often determined whether individuals could obtain seigneurial rights, or to whom they were allowed to sell. (2) Investments into those rights that were used to expand both economic and social capital or to transform economical into social (noble) capital. (3) The service relations in which individuals stood to either Habsburg or Zurich – or often both. Thus, the project shifts the traditional (often teleological) narrative of territorialisation towards the individual actors. So, I find myself at a merging point between political, social, and economic history, with a focus on urban history, history of nobility, elite families, and social mobility.

In brief, what will you be discussing in your seminar talk?

In the first two years of my project, I struggled to find a structure in my very diverse and scattered sources and different case studies. I have this mind map in my head, but I needed to bring this network of interrelated thoughts into a thesis with a common thread. Over the past few months, I’ve been working on finding chapter themes and ways to connect the seemingly separate cases into a coherent narrative. And I’d love to hear your thoughts on my ideas.

What is your favorite piece of art/text from the medieval/early modern eras?

I like old manuscripts and scripts in general. However, my favourite books are the ones with great illustrations in them – very original, I know! The Codex Manesse, a famous and comprehensive source of Middle High German Minnesang poetry, was written and illustrated in the beginning of the 14^th C and I’m absolutely stunned by the illustrations, especially by the painted body language. The codex was produced in Zurich, by the way. And I also love the illustrations in the so-called “Schweizer Bilderchroniken”, illustrated chronicles that were created in the Old Swiss Confederacy in the 15th and 16th centuries. I especially recommend looking at the ‘Tschachtlanchronik’, the oldest of the still existing ones. You can find it online if you search ‘Berner Chronik’ on the platform e-manuscripta (https://www.e-manuscripta.ch/zuz/content/thumbview/2402275).

If you could choose any one figure from medieval/early modern history to spend a weekend vacation with, who would it be, why would you choose them, and where would you go?

For my dissertation’s sake I’d probably choose one of the people I’m currently looking into. There is sooo much that is not written in the few documents on or by them that have survived. I would probably make sure to talk to them either before or well after the Black Death has visited Zurich. I wouldn’t want to get accidentally infected. On the other hand, I’d love to just hang out with one of the really important men or women during that period. A Habsburg duke, a German emperor, or maybe an heiress of some renown. I’m wondering: can you still be down to earth when God has created the human hierarchy, and you were placed near the top?