William Purkis

Prof

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

I am currently supervising the following postgraduate research students and topics:

• Serish Baseel (PhD Medieval History PT, co-supervised with Dr Christopher Markiewicz), ‘The Muslim Persecution of Minorities: Understanding Medieval Arab Constructs of the “Other”’

• Giles Connolly (PhD Medieval History FT, full Wolfson Scholarship, co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), ‘From Living Memory to Recent Past: Recording Thomas Becket’s Life in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’

• James Kawalek (PhD Medieval History FT, full AHRC M4C studentship, co-supervised with Prof. Aengus Ward), ‘A Cultural Centre at the Edge of Europe: Historical Writing and Europeanisation in Twelfth-Century Compostela’

• Liam McLeod (PhD Medieval History PT, co-supervised with Dr Daniel Reynolds), ‘Rebuilding Jerusalem: Receiving Ideas of the Holy City in the Early Medieval West’

• Stephen Thompson (PhD Medieval History PT, co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), ‘Monastic Representations of Lordship during the Long Twelfth Century’

My completed postgraduate research students are:

• Michael Alley (MRes Medieval History FT), ‘Was the Norman Conquest of Sicily a Proto-Crusade?’ (2016)

• Dr Frances Durkin (PhD Medieval History PT), ‘Crusade Preachers: Identities and Impact, 1095–c.1215’ (2020)

• Dr Georgina Fitzgibbon (PhD Medieval History FT, full AHRC M3C studentship, co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), ‘For Fear of the Multitudes: Disruptive Pilgrims and Appropriate Audiences for Cistercian Relics in the Twelfth Century’ (2019)

• Moayad Hanoush (MRes Medieval History PT, co-supervised with Dr Arezou Azad), ‘Ibn al-Qalanisi, his Chronicle, and the Counter-Crusade 490/1097–520/1126’ (2017)

• Dr John Seasholtz (PhD Medieval History PT [DL], co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), ‘Money, Markets and Morality on the Camino de Santiago (1085–1212)’ (2021)

• Dr Beth Spacey (PhD Medieval History FT, full AHRC studentship), ‘Miracles and Marvels in Latin Narrative Histories of the Crusades, 1095–1204’ (2016)

• Dr Ian Styler (PhD Medieval History PT, full UoB College of Arts and Law studentship, co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), ‘The Story of an English Saint’s Cult: An Analysis of the Influence of St Æthelthryth of Ely, c.670–c.1540’ (2019)

I would be pleased to discuss the possibility of supervising postgraduate research on any aspect of the religious cultures of the central Middle Ages (particularly the history of crusading, pilgrimage and monasticism), the social and cultural history of Iberia or the Latin East, and medieval traditions of historical writing.

20052020

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