麻豆精选

I do not hold regular office hours, but if you would like to meet with me please contact Tom White (T.P.White@bham.ac.uk) to arrange a convenient date and time.

• BA (Hons.) in History (Lancaster University)
• MA in Historical Research (Lancaster University)
• PhD in History (Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Skills of Teaching to Inspire Learning (Royal Holloway, University of London)

I developed an enthusiasm for the Middle Ages as an undergraduate student at Lancaster University, where I completed a BA (Hons.) in History in 1999 and an MA in Historical Research in 2000. In October 2001 I began doctoral research at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where I worked under the supervision of聽Jonathan Riley-Smith. Upon completion of my PhD in September 2005, I taught for two years at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Queen Mary, University of London. I was appointed to a lectureship in medieval history at Birmingham in 2007, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2012, and to Reader in 2016.聽In January 2022 I began my new role as Head of the School of History and Cultures.

First year

• Discovering the Middle Ages
• Living in the Middle Ages
• Practising History A – Bodysnatchers: How To Get Sacred Stuff  (And What To Do With It Once You’ve Got It) 
• Practising History B – The Crusaders’ Kingdom: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages?

Second year

• Group Research - The First Crusade as Seen by Contemporaries
• Option - Crusading and Crusader Kingdoms
• Option – Radical Pieties: Militants, Martyrs and Mystics in Medieval Christianity and Islam
• Research Methods

Third year

• Dissertation Supervision
• Special Subject - 1066, 1099: Chronicling Conquest on the Frontiers of Medieval Europe 

MA teaching

• Approaches to Medieval Studies
• Research Skills for Medieval Studies
• Dissertation supervision

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

鈥� Serish Baseel (PhD Medieval History PT, co-supervised with Dr Christopher Markiewicz), 鈥楾he Muslim Persecution of Minorities: Understanding Medieval Arab Constructs of the 鈥淥ther鈥濃��

鈥� Giles Connolly (PhD Medieval History FT, full Wolfson Scholarship, co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), 鈥楩rom Living Memory to Recent Past: Recording Thomas Becket鈥檚 Life in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries鈥�

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

鈥� Liam McLeod (PhD Medieval History PT, co-supervised with Dr Daniel Reynolds), 鈥楻ebuilding Jerusalem: Receiving Ideas of the Holy City in the Early Medieval West鈥�

鈥� Stephen Thompson (PhD Medieval History PT, co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), 鈥楳onastic Representations of Lordship during the Long Twelfth Century鈥�

My completed postgraduate research students are:

鈥� Michael Alley (MRes Medieval History FT), 鈥榃as the Norman Conquest of Sicily a Proto-Crusade?鈥� (2016)

鈥� Dr Frances Durkin (PhD Medieval History PT), 鈥楥rusade Preachers: Identities and Impact, 1095鈥揷.1215鈥� (2020)

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

鈥� Moayad Hanoush (MRes Medieval History PT, co-supervised with Dr Arezou Azad), 鈥業bn al-Qalanisi, his Chronicle, and the Counter-Crusade 490/1097鈥�520/1126鈥� (2017)

鈥� Dr John Seasholtz (PhD Medieval History PT [DL], co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), 鈥楳oney, Markets and Morality on the Camino de Santiago (1085鈥�1212)鈥� (2021)

鈥� Dr Beth Spacey (PhD Medieval History FT, full AHRC studentship), 鈥楳iracles and Marvels in Latin Narrative Histories of the Crusades, 1095鈥�1204鈥� (2016)

鈥� Dr Ian Styler (PhD Medieval History PT, full UoB College of Arts and Law studentship, co-supervised with Dr Simon Yarrow), 鈥楾he Story of an English Saint鈥檚 Cult: An Analysis of the Influence of St 脝thelthryth of Ely, c.670鈥揷.1540鈥� (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.

Find out more - our PhD History  page has information about doctoral research at the University 麻豆精选.

I am currently working on the following research projects:

Bearers of the Cross: Material Religion in the Crusading World, 1095鈥揷.1300

I have聽been awarded an AHRC Leadership Fellows聽grant for this project, which will run from 2015 until 2017. The project is studying the lived, material religion of crusaders through a wide-ranging analysis of the texts, art, architecture and material culture associated with crusader belief. It explores the devotional worlds that those who 鈥榯ook the cross鈥� inhabited, examining the ritual practices crusaders observed, the religious objects and images they treasured, and the sacred spaces they shaped and were shaped by.聽The principal output of the project will be a monograph, to be published by Yale University Press. The project also involves collaboration with a post-doctoral research assistant and a partnership with the聽聽(MOSJ) -聽鈥榓 hidden jewel in the City of London鈥�. With a direct connection to a religious order founded in Jerusalem in the early twelfth century, MOSJ has an important but little-known collection of crusader material culture. The project team are studying and raising awareness of this collection through the development of an open access database for use by scholars, MOSJ staff, volunteers and visitors, heritage professionals and a wider public.聽As part of the project there will also be a series of public lectures (2016鈥�17), a conference on medieval material religion (June 2016), and a聽workshop on best practice in collaborations between academics and heritage professionals (December 2017).聽

In my past research I have worked on monastic influences on the religious ideas and devotional practices of the eleventh- and twelfth-century laity, with a focus on the spiritual ideals associated with crusading and pilgrimage in the Iberian peninsula and the eastern Mediterranean. In my first book,聽, I placed the origins and evolution of crusading ideology within a broader context of ideas more normally associated with monastic reform; in particular, I considered how ideas of the imitation of Christ and the pursuit of an apostolic life influenced early crusader piety. I have also worked on the relationship between ideas of crusading and reconquest in eleventh- and twelfth-century Iberia and assessed the impact of crusading ideas on peninsular perceptions of the past. My most recent publications have examined the relationship between the Cistercian Order and the crusading movement, with a specific focus on the way that the Cistercians integrated their involvement in crusading into the Order鈥檚 sense of institutional memory and its traditions of storytelling.

I have also worked in collaboration with聽聽and Dr Nicholas Morton on the construction of an on-line historiographical database of scholars working in the field of crusader studies. The project鈥檚聽website聽contains profiles of a range of individuals who have made significant contributions to the history of the crusades and the Latin East from the early nineteenth century to the present day

• Convenor of the Institute of Historical Research’s seminar series on the
• Editor of the Boydell & Brewer book series
• Fellow of the
• Member of Council for
• Member of the University 麻豆精选’s Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages
• Officer for Postgraduate Research Students and Early Career Scholars (jointly held with Dr Anna Gutgarts, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) for the
• Since 2015 I have worked closely with the , providing expertise to inform new interpretation of their medieval collections. This has included various physical and virtual displays of their medieval objects and spaces, including the co-curation (with Abigail Cornick) of the exhibition (2017)