Naomi Allen is a PhD researcher in the Department of Archaeology and History, working on the English Cluniac congregation after the Black Death. Standing in the north cloister walk of Benedictine Muchelney Abbey, Somerset on a perfect June day – skylarks and swallows overhead, sunshine turning the standing remains of the south cloister a dusty […]
With the teaching term now having ended, the Centre for Medieval Studies blog is taking a break from regular Monday posts until the start of the next academic year. There will still be occasional posts over the next few months, and regular posts will resume in September.
In this week’s post, Alun Williams, Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre, shares recollections from the recent launch event for his new monograph. I am grateful to those who came to the launch of my recent book, Narrative, Piety and Polemic in Medieval Spain: Biblical Rhetoric in the Reconquest Chronicles of León-Castile, published by Bloomsbury […]
Almost 18 months after large language models first burst onto the scene, the furore surrounding generative AI shows no sign of abating. In this, the final blog post of the academic year, I’m emphatically not looking to take a decisive position in the debate surrounding the place of large language models in teaching, learning, and […]
Late one night in November 1283, Walter Lechlade – who was then the precentor of Exeter cathedral – left his house to walk to the cathedral for a service. His house used to be exactly at the spot where the Exeter Cathedral School stands today. Walter finished the service of matins by 1:30am, and accordingly […]
On the 6th of March 2024 a group from the Centre for Medieval Studies made a pilgrimage to Salisbury Cathedral. Our visit began with a tour of the cathedral and chapterhouse in the morning with a visit to the cathedral library in the afternoon. A recurring theme throughout my tale will be my failure to […]
This year, thanks to funding from Exeter’s Education Incubator fund, 8 final-year students have been co-researching, with Sarah Hamilton and Stuart Pracy (in Archaeology and History) and Ellie Jones and Emma Laws (Exeter Cathedral’s Archivist and Librarian), one of the manuscripts in Exeter Cathedral Library. The aim of the project was to pilot a new, hands-on approach […]
This year, thanks to funding from Exeter’s Education Incubator fund, 8 final-year students have been co-researching, with Sarah Hamilton and Stuart Pracy (in Archaeology and History) and Ellie Jones and Emma Laws (Exeter Cathedral’s Archivist and Librarian), one of the manuscripts in Exeter Cathedral Library. The aim of the project was to pilot a new, hands-on approach […]
Research institutions come in all shapes and sizes. As medievalists, we’re used to the rhythm of a good ‘archives trip’: the early start, the queuing to get the readers’ card set up, and (of course) the indescribable thrill when the wonderful team working there make the documents you’ve requested appear before you for the first […]
As the days start to lengthen and the lecture halls begin to fill up, the gears of the Centre for Medieval Studies are spinning up once again for 2024. We have an exciting range of events planned for this term at the Centre, the centrepiece of which is — as ever — our flagship Medieval […]