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Staff Profiles

Dr Scott Ashley

Lecturer in Medieval History

Background

 

Roles and Responsibilities

School X Climate Change Academic Fellow

Newcastle Anthropocene Research Group Steering Committee

School Director of Excellence in Learning and Teaching, 2020-1

History, Classics and Archaeology Sustainability and Environment Co-Ordinator, 2019-21

Qualifications

DPhil History, University of Oxford, 1998 

BA (Hons), Modern History, University of Oxford, 1992  

Previous Positions

Sir James Knott Research Fellow, Newcastle University, 2000-2002.

Lecturer in Medieval History, University of Birmingham, 1998-99. 

Honours and Awards

Visiting Fellowship, Harry Ransom Humanties Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, USA, 2003. 

Visiting Fellowship, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, USA, 1999, 2002. 

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, 1998.

Sydney L. Mayer Postgraduate Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. 1992-93. 

Research

Research Interests

My major area of expertise is in early-medieval northern Europe, especially Britain and Scandinavia. I am very keen on seeing these traditional areas of medieval study within a broader 'global' context however and I have been involved in a  number of initiatives to develop medieval world history as a solid field of study, such as the AHRC 'Defining the Global Middle Ages' project, organised between Oxford, Birmingham, and Newcastle. 

http://globalmiddleages.history.ox.ac.uk

I am also very interested in environmental history and in bringing scientific studies of ecology, disease, and climate into mainstream historical debates, particularly through the concept of the Anthropocene. 

https://research.ncl.ac.uk/anthropocene/

Current Work

  • The environmental history of the 'Global Middle Ages', in particular a comparative study of Madagascar, Iceland, and Aotearoa/New Zealand.
  • Narratives of pre-modern climate and climate change, from the 'Late Antique Little Ice Age' to the early modern 'Little Ice Age'.

Postgraduate Supervision

If you are considering coming to Newcastle to study for a postgraduate degree then please contact me. I would particularly welcome interest in postgraduate research in the following areas:

  • 'Anglo-Saxon' England, especially Northumbria 
  • Scandinavia and the Viking Diaspora 
  • Any aspect of environmental history, either medieval and/or post-medieval. 
  • The Anthropocene 
Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

  • HCA1002 Big History: From the Big Bang to Climate Change
  • HCA1003 Gods, Gold, and Silk: The Global Middle Ages
  • HIS2104 The Dark Ages: Continuity and Catastrophe in the Post-Roman World
  • HIS3321 Viking Age Scandinavia
  • HIS3000 Reading History (Ecological Imperialism)
  • HIS3020 Writing History (Dissertation Module)

Postgraduate Teaching

  • HIS8104 Ideas and Influences in British History
Publications