University of Chester

Graduate Student, History & Archaeology

Thesis Title: Death and Burial in Five English Cathedrals (Leverhulme Fellowship)

About

My primary interest concerns burial practices in all forms and approaches, and more specifically, the perception and management of the corpse, both human and animal, and the subsequent interference and/or re-engagment(s) with decayed bodies by later generations.

I am currently undertaking a Leverhulme Fellowship PhD as part of a broader, multi-strand project entitled 'Speaking with the Dead'. My research is a first-tier contribution to a 5 year interdisciplinary collaboration between the universities of Chester and Exeter, UK.

My thesis, entitled 'Death and Burial in Five English Cathedrals', applies the long duree view of cathedrals as burial sites, from their inception, through their various architectural, political and theological incarnations, up to and including modern day engagement with and perception of the cathedral dead. The display, burial, relocation and destruction of the dead and their associated commemorative media, and the re-interpretation of those buried inside cathedrals, reveals a rich network of biographies and 'afterlives' of memorials and human remains within these buildings. This overlooked element of both cathedral  and burial archaeology in Britain forms the basis of my research at the cathedrals of Canterbury, Chester, Durham, Exeter and St. Albans.

My PhD research expands on aspects of my MPhil thesis (Heads and Tails: Corporeal Boundaries in the Early Anglo-Saxon Mortuary Arena), which approached perceptions and corporeal boundaries of cremated and inhumed corpses in 5th-7th century England. Degrees of intermingling  and segregation of bodies in inhumation and cremation practices encouraged me to pursue ideas of bodily interfaces, corporeal boundaries and levels of human-animal permeability created, maintained and destroyed by early Anglo-Saxon mourners.

I am particularly interested in the range of masculinities and feminities that may be erased or exaggerated to varying degrees through the dressing, display and destruction of the corpse, with as much emphasis placed on similarities between genders as differences. The variety of manifestations and potential blurring of animal-human boundaries and dynamics, particularly those expressed during and after death rites is another field of study I am interested in. Likewise, death at different stages in the lifecourse and its influence on the treatment of the deceased before, during and after burial rites is also a key area.


Teaching at University of Chester 2011/2012:

HI4003: Debates in World Archaeology
I co-teach an entire first-year module on the history of archaeology and archaeological theory with Joanne Kirton.

HI4100: Europe and the Wider World: Turning Points in History 1000-2000
I'm a guest lecturer in a first-year undergraduate history module on three topics; "The Church in Medieval Europe", "Medieval Monarchy" and "The Black Death".

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