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Staff Profiles

Dr Scott Ashley

Lecturer in Medieval History

Background

 

Roles and Responsibilities

Degree Programme Director, MSc Leadership in Climate Change & Sustainability

School X Climate Change Academic Fellow

Newcastle Anthropocene Research Group Co-Ordinator

Qualifications

DPhil History, University of Oxford, 1998 

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

Previous Positions

History, Classics, and Archaeology Director of Education, 2020-1

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

History Admissions' Tutor, 2012-17

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

As part of this work, I have published on Carolingian and Tang Chinese astronomy, Alfredian and Tenth-Century England, Scandinavian contacts with Byzantium, and the Icelandic Sagas.

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/

I have also published on the death of Captain James Cook, the literary anthropology of the Celtic Revival in Ireland, and an edition of Robert Graves's novel, Count Belisarius.


Current Work

  • The environmental history of the 'Global Middle Ages'
  • Narratives of pre-modern climate and climate change, from the 'Late Antique Little Ice Age' to the Early Modern 'Little Ice Age'
  • The Sixth-Century 'climate crisis' in Scandinavia and the making of Old Norse cosmology


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:

  • Early Medieval Britain, especially Northumbria and northern England
  • Scandinavia and the Viking Diaspora
  • Medievalism, especially in nineteenth and twentieth century Britain (e.g. John Ruskin, William Morris, J.R.R. Tolkien)
  • Any aspect of environmental history, either medieval and/or post-medieval 
  • The Anthropocene

Current PhD student (co-supervised with Prof. James Gerrard): Olivia Russell, Use Wear Analysis of Early Medieval English Bracteates.

Teaching

Current Teaching

As part of my role as DPD and School X Climate Change Fellow, my current teaching is primarily concerned with the MSc Leadership in Climate Change & Sustainability:

  • SCX8003 Research Dissertation (Module Leader)

I also contribute to:

  • SCX8000 Facing Up to Climate Change
  • SCX8004 Addressing Climate Change and Sustainability through Live Projects


History Teaching

I have recently contributed to the following modules:

Undergraduate Teaching

  • HCA1001 Slavery
  • HCA1002 Big History: From the Big Bang to Climate Change (Module Leader)
  • HCA1003 The Global Middle Ages
  • HIS2104 The Dark Ages: Continuity and Catastrophe in the Post-Roman World (Module Leader)
  • HIS3321 Viking Age Scandinavia (Module Leader)
  • HIS3000 Reading History (Ecological Imperialism)
  • HIS3020 Writing History (Dissertation Module)

Postgraduate Teaching

  • HIS8104 Ideas and Influences in British History (Module Leader)
Publications