University College Dublin PhD opportunity

The College of Arts and Humanities, University College Dublin, Ireland, is pleased to announce a generously funded Ph.D. studentship specialising in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE) which will be supervised by Dr Megan Welton, Assistant Professor in Medieval History and recently appointed Ad Astra Fellow at the School of History (https://people.ucd.ie/megan.welton).

Deadline: 4 November 2024 by email to megan.welton@ucd.ie.

The studentships are open to EU and non-EU candidates and are for a maximum of four years, renewable each year, subject to satisfactory progress. The award includes full tuition fee waiver, a PhD stipend of €25,000 per annum, and €4,000 per annum towards research costs of the Ph.D.  We anticipate that the successful candidate will start in January 2025.

Please submit the following application materials by email:

  • Personal statement and CV as one document
  • Writing sample (e.g. an essay or section of MA dissertation)
  • Two academic references
  • A proposal (1000-1500 words plus indicative bibliography).

The Selection Panel will shortlist candidates for interview, likely to take place in the last week of November. Successful applicants will be informed by email.

For the application procedure please see the relevant school guidelines below. The outcome of this competition will be communicated directly to all applicants.

Specialisation: Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE)

Proposals for a Ph.D. project in the history of early medieval politics and intellectual thought are welcomed, specialising in one or more post-Roman kingdoms, including (but not limited to) east and west Francia, early English kingdoms, and northern Italy. Proposals that incorporate a comparative approach are encouraged.

In addition to a competitive stipend, the successful candidate also will have access to an annual research budget of €4,000 for archival research in relevant collections abroad or related research expenses.

The UCD School of History stands as one of Europe’s premier centers for historical research, offering a vibrant research community. The School of History is well-connected through its active engagement with international partners and a broad array of UCD research centres and institutes. The successful candidate will join a robust graduate community of early career medieval scholars, from MA students in Medieval Studies in the School of History, to postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows in connected schools in Art History, Archaeology, and Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore.

As such, interdisciplinary work is welcomed, and candidates from all relevant areas of medieval studies are encouraged to apply.

Introducing a new OMS website commissioning editor

Hello Oxford Medievalists. 

I’m Miles Pattenden and I’d like to introduce myself as a new member of the OMS Steering Group who is taking responsibility as a commissioning editor for this website over the coming year. Those of you who have been around in Oxford for a while may know me from a previous life as an historian of the early modern papacy and Catholic Church. However, my work has also always taken a particular interest in the uses of the medieval Christian past during and since the Counter-Reformation. 

Increasingly I now study ‘Medievalisms’ amongst contemporary groups and individuals: popes who fantasise about following the footsteps of medieval missionaries, the Far Right, and LGBTQ+ activists. A piece of the ‘cult of gay relics’ in AIDS-era Sydney and San Francisco is forthcoming in Past & Present (2025). It explains how gay men repurposed ideas encountered in Catholic schools and seminaries to sacralise public sex and build community in the face of police oppression (click here for a taster).

Beyond these publications, I’m also Programme Director at The Europaeum (a network of leading universities run from Oxford), the editor of The Journal of Religious History, and a member of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society’s Editorial Board. 

I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the various events we promote here, and which Tristan advertises via the termly booklet and weekly newsletter.

We’re always looking for new content for Oxford Medieval Studies: opportunities, publications, exhibitions, performances, conferences, workshops, etc. Blogposts about these can be informational or critically reflective, in advance or in retrospect.

Best wishes for the 2024–25 Academic Year  – and do get in touch with me when you have ideas that merit wider publicity or visibility within our vibrant community of medieval scholars!

Holy Relic of the Ashes of the Barracks Bathhouse, © Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, SPI Archives, San Francisco, CA.

Header image: Mother ‘Cum Dancing’ (Colin Peat) decorates a shrine on wheels for the Sydney Mardi Gras, © Australian Queer Archives, Papers of Fabian Lo Schiavo.