School of History: Joint First in the Guardian’s University Guide 2014

In the latest Guardian university ranking the School of History at St Andrews came first, together with History at Cambridge. The School of History at St Andrews is among the highest scoring history department in terms of Student Satisfaction as well as Employability.

Student satisfaction is linked to an excellent student-staff ratio in the School of History that allows staff to teach in small classes across the entire degree.

History’s Director of Teaching, Bernhard Struck, remarked that the ranking would not have been achieved without exceptional effort by St Andrews History staff. “Thank you very much to all colleagues who have put a lot of work, energy and creativity into teaching, feedback and the learning experience at the School of History. We will certainly aspire to remain at the very top end of the rankings by working hard with and for our students. This ranking is a great achievement and a very nice note upon which to finish the academic year 2012-13.”

Dr Justine Firnhaber-Baker awarded French History Prize

Dr Justine Firnhaber-Baker has been awarded the French History Article Prize for 2012 for her article ‘Jura in Medio: the settlement of seigneurial disputes in medieval Languedoc‘, published in French History 26:4 (December, 2012). French History is published by Oxford University Press.

Dr Firnhaber-Baker’s article addresses a major lacuna in the scholarship on medieval ‘dispute processing’, meaning the settlement and pursuit of violent conflict, usually by aristocrats. Although most of the classic articles on the subject focus on France in the high Middle Ages, there has been almost no attention paid to the later period, largely due to scholars’ assumptions that the imposition of state-sponsored coercive justice eliminated such activities. Focusing on royal judicial and administrative responses to seigneurial wars in fourteenth-century Southern France, the article demonstrates that processes of violent conflict and extrajudicial settlement actually remained robust in the later Middle Ages. The key difference in this later period was that royal courts and officers were now involved in the pursuit and settlement of the dispute through both judicial and extra-judicial means. Although royal involvement in extra-judicial settlements could be viewed as signs of royal weakness, in fact, it demonstrates the crown’s successful penetration of local power relations.

This award complements several recent successes for Dr Firnhaber-Baker, including an AHRC Early Career Fellowship.

Gender & Transgression Conference 2013

SAIMS Postgraduate Organisers of the Gender & Transgression Conference: L-R Eilidh Harris, Laura Tompkins, Mike French, Anna Peterson and Miriam Buncombe

May 2013 saw the return of the Gender and Transgression in the Middle Ages Postgraduate conference, hosted by the St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies and supported by the School of History. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the conference, the conference was expanded across three days.

The PG sessions at this year’s conference covered a broad range of subject matter and disciplines, from ‘Gender and Religious Identity’ through to ‘Cross-Dressing in the Middle Ages’. The conference was able to boast a truly international participation this year, with speakers from all over Britain, Europe and America.

 

Prof. Pauline Stafford giving the keynote lecture

A session sponsored by the Centre for Mediaeval and Early Modern Law and Literature, provided an excellent opportunity to bring together institutes with an interest in the medieval period; a lively discussion following the session spilled over into the first wine reception of the conference, also sponsored by CMEMLL.  Prof. Pauline Stafford (University of Liverpool) gave this year’s keynote address, speaking on ‘Reading Gender in the Old English Vernacular Chronicles’. The paper was extremely well received, and Prof. Stafford’s involvement throughout the conference was greatly appreciated.

 

Conference participants visiting University Library Special Collections

The expanded time frame of the conference allowed for some St Andrews-focused activities on the Friday afternoon. The Special Collections department ran an excellent session on some of the library’s most interesting medieval documents. A second group enjoyed a walking tour of mediaeval St Andrews with Dr Alex Woolf and was rewarded for their bravery in the face of torrential rain with a quick pint in the pub afterwards!  After a mentally (and for some physically!) stimulating day everyone was ready for the conference meal, this year held in the Golf Hotel.

The conference ended with a particularly stimulating round table discussion led by Prof. Frances Andrews. This highlighted many key themes that had arisen over the past few days, and was instructive for spotlighting strands for consideration in future years.  Feedback from post-graduates and staff alike has once again been very positive and the organisers hope that the conference can continue to go from strength to strength.

Spotlight on Prof. Roger Mason

Prof. Roger Mason

Professor Roger Mason has been at St Andrews longer than he cares to remember. Born in Aberdeen, he went to Edinburgh University as an undergraduate and, intoxicated by inertia, hung around and did a PhD there as well. He might have remained there indefinitely had not the opportunity arisen to come to St Andrews as a postdoctoral fellow funded by Glenfiddich. His consequent intoxication with St Andrews was confirmed by the offer of permanent employment and his glacial progress through the academic ranks led finally to his elevation to Professor of Scottish History in 2005.

His doctoral and postdoctoral research was on the political culture of late medieval and early modern Scotland and, inertia again, this has remained the focus of his interests ever since. He has worked and published extensively on the Reformation period, editing the political writings of such distinguished St Andrews alums as John Knox and George Buchanan, while also exploring Scottish national identity as it developed from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

 

 

He has a long-standing interest in Scotland’s relations with England, and teaches an honours module Debating Britain:  Anglo-Scottish Unionism 1521-1707 on this theme. He credits himself with having invented the East Lothian Question, but has thus far failed to convince anyone of its importance, let alone that he has the answer to it. However, his views on next year’s referendum will become appropriately opaque to anyone who happens to check out the next issue of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

Professor Mason teaches at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum, and offers the very popular fourth-year special subject MO4807 The Marian Moment: Politics and Ideology in Mary Stewart’s Britain.

He has been keen to make Scottish history an integral part of any St Andrews history degree, if only to remind those who doubt it that St Andrews is in fact located in Scotland (somewhere between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, as it happens). He is equally keen that the general History degree should be seen as the School’s flagship degree, drawing on all the remarkable intellectual resources that History at St Andrews has to offer, while allowing students to range widely over time and space without ever leaving Scotland.

In 2007, enthusiasm triumphing over inertia, Prof. Mason found that he had founded the St Andrews Institute of Scottish Historical Research to act as a focus for the substantial community of staff and research students who are actively working on Scottish history in St Andrews.  Now that the Institute is an internationally recognised centre of excellence in the field, Prof Mason is standing down as director. However, rather than spending more time with his family (or least his wife and his dog), he will be writing a book for a prestigious series – the New Edinburgh History of Scotland – before the general editor’s failure to deliver his volume becomes even more embarrassing than it already is.

For more information on Professor Mason’s teaching and publications, see his staff page.

St Andrews Historians Run Edinburgh Marathon for Charity

Members of the School of History ran the Edinburgh Marathon relay challenge last weekend (26  May) to raise money for MS Scotland – the sixth year in a row the Medievalists have done this. It was a glorious day with a real festival atmosphere.

There were two teams – one led by James Palmer with postdoc Fernando Arias, Neil Montgomery, and postgrad Roberta Cimino, the other led by Justine Firnhaber-Baker with postgrads Kimberley Knight-Ford and Will Eves. The route was divided into four legs, starting in Edinburgh city centre and winding through Holyrood Park down to the Forth, past Musselborough Race Course, out into the countryside and then back to Musselborough for a much needed rest! The teams managed impressive times of 3hrs 44mins and 3hrs 40mins respectively.

For the second team this was a particular achievement because a last-minute withdrawal meant that Kimberley ran two legs consecutively, of 8.4 miles and 5.6 miles! She also did so faster than James and Fernando managed running the same legs individually.

The teams want to raise to £1000 for MS Scotland, a charity chosen because of a former student of Mediaeval History who has Multiple Sclerosis. They are still only half-way to their target but there is still time to sponsor them retrospectively – either contact them directly or donate online at http://www.justgiving.com/history-marathon/, where you can add ‘gift aid’. Any support is much appreciated!

Centre for Transnational History featured in GRAINES Summer School

The GRAINES network was launched in 2010. It brings together scholars from six different European institutions – Basel, Prague, Cologne, Vienna, SciencesPo Paris and the Centre for Transnational History in St Andrews – who work broadly on themes in European history from transnational perspectives.

GRAINES was launched as a loose network that organizes workshops and summer schools, which provide a platform for exchanges for interested postgraduate students and thus enhances the international postgraduate community.

We are now hosting our first summer school under the theme “From the Margins. Revisiting European History, c.1400 to present”. The summer school will be held at the, nicely chosen, Mediterranean SciencesPo campus in Menton, near Nice. For three days it will bring together some 22 PhD researchers from GRAINES and beyond from more then ten different countries as well as ten members of staff.

St Andrews will be present with five PhD students who will be presenting aspects of their fascinating research ranging from perceptions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Thirty Years’ War, networks and institutions related to the European Space Agency to perceptions of Scotland and Bavaria as inner European margins and Geneva between Enlightenment urban centre and isolation during the Napoleonic period.

In the long term we are hoping to create a travelling summer school that will move between GRAINES institutions. For 2014 we are looking at Vienna before, hopefully, bringing the event to St Andrews in 2015. GRAINES and its activities are open to all interested colleagues and PhD students. Please feel free to get in contact with either Bernhard Struck or Tomasz Kamusella.

Additional Links:
The GRAINES Network Website
“From the Margins” Conference Website
The University of St Andrews Centre for Transnational History Website

The Conference Programme is available below:

GRAINES Network Menton Summer School 2013 from standrewshistory

The Early Mendicants Special Subject visit Italy

Special Subject ME4807 The Early Mendicants: Francis, Clare and Dominic, c.1180-1270 recently visited Italy with their module tutor, Prof. Frances Andrews.  Lucy Donnelly, Abi Leonard, Scarlett Cookson, Jamie Marshall and Charlie Broughton reflect on their five days away from St Andrews:

“This year we studied the Mendicants (Francis, Clare and Dominic) and we wanted to see where they lived so we went to Italy!”

Day 1

“After a quick airport croissant we found our way into Rome and went straight to the Porte Maggiore to see the ancient entrance to the city complete with a baker’s tomb shaped like an oven and cart tracks. Then we walked down to St John Lateran (the old papal palace) where Francis of Assisi met Innocent III. There we saw Innocent III’s tomb and outside Leo III’s amazing triclinium mosaic showcasing the Donation of Constantine. From there, we went on a route march through ancient and medieval Rome seeing the Trinitarian Order’s house; the home of the hermit John of Matha (he lived in an old aqueduct!!); SS. Giovanni e Paulo with the big tower built on old Roman foundations; the Palatine and Coliseum; and then we walked through the Circus Maximus. Finally we arrived at Santa Sabina, the Dominican church. There we had a lovely time meeting a real Dominican nun, Sister Josiphé. She gave us a special VIP tour of the Dominican archives. We saw lots of papal bulls (we touched them!) with wax and lead seals; Catherine of Siena’s dialogue and Vita which unexpectedly included Thomas Aquinas’ Process of Canonisation; and also chapter acts of the Dominican Order. It was wonderful and inspiring to be so close to our subject. We also saw the 5^th-century wooden door panels of the basilica with biblical scenes as well as the alleged room of Saint Dominic. From Santa Sabina we had a lovely view over the Tiber where we could see St Bartholomew’s Island, the site of an early medieval hospital. We ended the day with a brisk stroll to San Clemente and the Baptistry at the Lateran where we saw some beautiful mosaics and some musical doors.

Day 2

We woke up  early because we were desperate to see the unmissable frescoes at SS Quattro Coronati. The San Silvestro Chapel was beautiful, covered in frescoes depicting the life cycle of Saint Sylvester and the donation of Constantine to stress papal power. We were timed and watched in this chapel which was fitting as we were following tradition with the hidden medieval listening tubes still there used to spy on guests! Then from the Coliseum, we went on a tour of Mussolini’s Rome. We walked down the via dei fori imperiale where we saw the surviving towers of the Innocentian tower wars as well as the 9^th-century houses built into the Roman ruins of the forum. We visited Trajan’s market and then walked to San Marco (opposite the Wedding Cake). Then we went to the 13^th-century gothic Dominican Church Santa Maria Sopra Minerva which houses the tombs of Catherine of Siena and several Medici Popes. Afterwards we went to see the Pantheon with the tomb of Raphael. Then we set off to visit the Franciscan church, Santa Maria dei Aracoeli, walking past the Crypta Balbi on the way. Once there, 4 of us hiked up the front steps to the top and were rewarded with beautiful cosmatesque floors and more tombs (those of the humanist Biondi and notaries). We then spent the afternoon in the Capitoline Museum where we saw lots of amazing things! We relived the Grand Tour seeing the Capitoline Venus, and also saw the statue of Marcus Aurelius, the thorn picker, the statue of Charles of Anjou, the globe where it was thought that Caesar’s ashes were kept, as well as the gigantic head and hand of Constantine. Three of us then continued to Santa Maria Maggiore which had a 9^th century beautiful gold mosaic and a relic of the supposed Crib of Jesus! Then we went to Santa Prassede which also had a beautiful 9^th-century mosaic of Pope Pascal (who had a square halo!) and his mother Theodora. Finally, we departed for Assisi – the home of Francis and Clare.

Day 3

Jamie and Lucy got up  early to go to Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis, where the rest of the group headed shortly. First we explored the Lower Basilica where we saw examples of frescos by both Giotto and Cimabue including the portrait of Francis next to the virgin and child. We also looked at how the frescos on the vaults were used to pass on specific messages on obedience and other virtues to the friars. From there we went below to see the tomb of Francis; next came the Upper Basilica. Here we explored the chapel of St Martin and looked at the famous life-cycle of Francis often attributed to Giotto. We saw how this collection of 28 episodes from the life of Francis developed over time with potential artist changes and how it tied in with the Old Testament scenes above. We visited the museum where we saw a good quality example of an altar crucifix by the Master of the Blue crucifix and Byzantine styled dossal of Francis surrounded by healing miracles. We walked up a hill through the streets of Assisi to Santa Chiara, built in the 1260s, after Clare’s death. We saw the dossal of Clare, a blue crucifix with St. Francis and Abbess Benedicta at the bottom kissing Christ’s feet, frescoes of Clare’s life, including Clare’s corpse being carried that featured very expressive singing Friars, twisting columns and people climbing up, Clare’s tomb, and the reliquary of her hair. We also saw the Cross of San Damiano that spoke to Francis (Celano 2) and the nuns’ grille. We then visited three possible locations for Francis’ house. We also scared a Nun by hugging the columns of the Temple of Minerva! We had a lovely walk down to San Damiano. We learned that the building was originally a rural building of some form but had been rebuilt in part by Francis and now had a rose window, a refectory, and the dormitory where Clare died. We also saw the window where Celano tells us Francis threw his money, and later plague frescos showing Saints Sebastian and Roch. After a leisurely, endless hike back to Assisi we caught the bus to St Maria degli Angeli which houses the Portiuncula, one of the first churches rebuilt by Francis along with the cell in which he died. At the Portiuncula we saw later Frescos advertising the portiuncula indulgence and also the tombstone of Peter Catanii. At the neighbouring museum we saw the bed panel painted to become a relic and a Cimabue panel. Upstairs we saw the cell of Bernadino of Siena. We ended our time in Assisi by exploring Roman remains beneath Santa Maria Maggiore.

 Day 4

Today we arrived into the city of Perugia and saw the Benedictine fountain commissioned by fratre Bevignate and carved by Nicola Pisano as well as the cathedral and the town hall opposite. Then we met Giovanna Casagrande and were treated to a special tour of the Roman, Etruscan, and Byzantine ruins under the Cathedral. The museum there was amazing: we TOUCHED a thirteenth-century PAPAL THRONE and saw lots of plague banners and beautiful manuscripts! Then Prof. Andrews took us on a tour of the city to see the important mendicant houses which dominate the different sectors of the city. We saw the church of San Francesco with the confraternity’s oratory next door. Then we walked down the hill and saw a Roman mosaic, the Augustinian’s church as well as the houses and hospitals of the female monastic orders. Then we walked through the Etruscan gate back towards the centre of the city. We then went round the National Gallery of Art for Umbria where we saw lots of gigantic crosses and learnt to identify the different saints in the paintings. We saw lots of delicate secular ivory objects turned into reliquaries and altar pieces. Finally we went to the Dominican church, San Domenico. Here we saw the tomb of Benedict IX, the first Dominican Pope.

Day 5

We woke up in Bologna and had a lovely walking tour through the streets. We went to San Martino, the Carmelite Church and then to San Petronio which is the church built by the city which rivalled the Cathedral. Then we went to Santo Stefano. We then raced up one of the  medieval towers in the centre and saw the breathtaking view of Bologna. We went to San Domenico where we saw the tomb of Saint Dominic (including his skull in a reliquary case), decorated by artists including Nicola Pisano and Michelangelo, as well as the cloister and choir stalls. Finally we went to a the Bologna city art gallery where we saw lots of beautiful crosses and more paintings with saints including an amazing work by, the medieval master, Giotto!”

 ME4807 The Early Mendicants is one of several honours-level modules offered at St Andrews on Italian history. Prof. Andrews also offers ME3103 Mediaeval Rome. Dr Emily Michelson offers MO3036 The Italian Renaissance, MO3044 Topics in Renaissance Venice and MO3043 Early Modern Rome. Dr Kate Ferris offers MO3328 Making Italians: Region, Nation and Empire in Italy from Unification to Fascism, and MO3423 Everyday Life in Fascist Italy.

Spotlight on Rory Cox

Dr Rory Cox joined the School of History in September 2011 as Lecturer in Late Mediaeval History. Previously Dr Cox taught at the University of Aberystwyth and held a Scouloudi Research Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research, London. He was awarded his D.Phil from the University of Oxford in 2010.

Dr Cox’s research focuses on European military history and intellectual history during the late middle ages. He is particularly interested in the development of just war doctrine and the creation, application, and violation of so-called ‘laws of war’ during medieval conflicts. The Hundred Years War provides a background for much of his work.

He is currently completing a monograph, The Medieval Pacifist: John Wyclif on War and Peace, which will be published as part of the Royal Historical Society’s Studies in History series (Boydell & Brewer). The monograph examines the political thought of the fourteenth-century English scholastic theologian and philosopher John Wyclif, arguing that Wyclif not only dismantled the accepted theory of justified warfare, but also espoused a radical doctrine of Christian pacifism. Dr Cox is also working on contributions for forthcoming volumes: examining the ethics of war in the West up to Thomas Aquinas in one, and exploring the role of religion in the Hundred Years War in the other.

Dr Cox’s research interests are strongly reflected in his teaching. He coordinates the 3000-level modules ‘Mediaeval Political Thought’ (ME3235) and ‘Justifying Mediaeval Warfare’ (ME3423), as well as the Special Subject ‘England and France at War in the Fourteenth Century’ (ME4710). He also teaches on a number of sub-honours modules and contributes to postgraduate modules offered by the School.

Prof. Colin Kidd wins Carnegie Grant for ‘Literature & Union’

Prof. Colin Kidd has been awarded a Carnegie Larger Grant to fund a series of four workshops in St Andrews on the theme of Literature and Union.

The four workshops will explore the topics of ’1603 and 1707: Literary Contexts, Consequences and Comparisons’, ‘Smollett, Johnson and the Literary Battle of Britain c. 1760-1776′, ‘Scott, Rosebery, and Literary Patriotism within the Union’ and ‘The Triumph of Nationalist Rhetoric from MacDiarmid to the Present’.

The Literature and Union workshops will lead to the publication of a volume of essays on Literature and the Union. Prof. Kidd‘s workshops are warmly welcomed to the programme of events hosted by the Institute of Scottish Historical Research and the new Institute of Intellectual History.

Dr Alessia Meneghin appointed to ERC project at University of Cambridge

Dr Alessia Meneghin, who was awarded a PhD from St Andrews in 2011, has been appointed to a three-year position as Research Associate in Italian Renaissance Studies at the University of Cambridge. Dr Meneghin will be working on an innovative and interdisciplinary project funded by the European Research Council and led by Dr Abigail Brundin (Modern and Medieval Languages), Prof. Deborah Howard (History of Art and Architecture) and Dr Mary Laven (History).

 

The project Domestic Devotions: The Place of Piety in the Renaissance Italian Home, 1400-1600 brings together the study of books, buildings, objects, spaces, images and archives in order to understand how religion functioned in the Renaissance and Catholic home, and will investigate practices of piety of the artisanal household in three significant zones: Naples and its environs; the Marche in central Italy; and the Venetian mainland.

Dr Meneghin’s doctoral research on ‘The unglamorous side of shopping in late medieval Prato and Florence : the Ricordanze of Taddeo di Chello (1341-1408), and Piero Puro di Francesco da Vicchio (1397-1465)’ was supervised by Prof. Frances Andrews.