PhD Studentship
A three-year PhD Studentship is available from September 2008 to work with Dr Alex Metcalfe, Professor Andrew Jotischky, and Dr Ewan Johnson on the history of late Byzantine and Norman Calabria with particular reference to Greek charter material.
The 3-year studentship is fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). All fees and a maintenance grant for students are included (please consult the AHRC website for eliglibility criteria especially for non-EU students or contact Dr Alex Metcalfe via the email address given below). The successful candidate will be attached to the History Department at Lancaster University.
Candidates are expected to fulfil the requirements for the AHRC studentship competition, i.e. to hold an excellent first degree and an MA in History or relevant field by the start date of October 2008.
The successful candidate will have a good knowledge of Greek and ideally some experience of Byzantine or the medieval history of the south Italian peninsula / Sicily. Further provision for palaeographical training and training in medieval Greek is anticipated from Dr Barbara Crostini, currently based in Manchester. Supervisory support will be provided by Dr Alex Metcalfe and Professor Andrew Jotischky.
The thesis will examine historical change and continuity in Calabria between 1000 and 1200, paying particular attention to the influence of initial Norman settlement, the distribution of power, and links between Sicilian and Calabrian administrative practices.
The area is traditionally perceived as peripheral to both the Byzantine Empire and the Norman polities which emerged, and is thus relatively understudied. The period studied saw a predominantly Greek population brought under Norman control, although the region remained contested between the two major Norman polities (Apulia and Sicily) until the establishment of the kingdom. Calabria 's links with the island of Sicily were by no means simply that of a 'conquered' region, however, and Calabrian personnel and influence can be seen in the island's early administrative structures. The contested nature of the frontier, and the presence of conflicting ethnic, religious and linguistic identities, make it an ideal yet manageable regional study of the effects of state-formation and Latin expansion in the period. The initial sources will be collections of Greek diplomata (Cusa; Trinchera et al.), to be followed by archival work in southern Italian archives as appropriate. The PhD may also draw on the project's work on diasporas, and the aid it will provide in locating settlers in Calabria within a broader framework, work which would otherwise be beyond the extent of a three-year thesis. The PhD thus furthers our understanding of cultural contact and state-formation in southern Italy , and will make a significant scholarly contribution in its own right.
To apply for this post, applicants are requested to supply:
1) a full, curriculum vitae
2) the names of THREE academic referees
3) a letter of application detailing candidates' potential contribution to this project given their own academic and intellectual skills.
4) copies of all relevant certificates.
These should be sent to: Mrs G. O'Neill, Postgraduate Secretary, Department of History, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YG (United Kingdom), or to g.oneill@lancaster.ac.uk
The closing date for applications is 28 March 2008.
For further inquiries about the project, please email Alex Metcalfe at a.j.metcalfe@lancs.ac.uk
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