Holistic Research into the story of buildings, objects and people in the high medieval period of Ireland, Britain and France from a gendered perspective: HeRstory

Programme(s): H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
Topic(s): MSCA-IF-2016 - Individual Fellowships
Call for proposal: H2020-MSCA-IF-2016
Funding Scheme: MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

Grant agreement ID: 746406

Objective
Medieval archaeology has been strongly shaped by the predominance of male-biased perspectives within academia and the modern world. Castle studies in particular is a very male-dominated discipline with out-dated approaches which reproduce exclusively male-centred interpretations, thereby resulting in an impoverished understanding of how people interacted within these spaces. This study seeks to address this problem by taking a more human centred approach which reveals long ignored nuances in social practices. This will be achieved by examining the architecture, material culture (buildings and objects) and historical record of high medieval period England, Ireland and Normandy (1066-1398). HeRstory aims, through deep contextual analysis, to highlight how the material culture of this period both constructed and reinforced gendered roles in medieval society. This will challenge current perspectives in this area of medieval archaeology which imposes typical masculine views into the medieval past such as an exclusive focus on power/status or the tendency to predominantly view this era through the lens of warfare. For the first time, these new understandings of what it was like to be a woman or man in a medieval castle will be revealed. These new perspectives can be extrapolated outwards to achieve nuanced comprehensions of this time period which are far more inclusive/cognisant of gender constructs. This research challenges existing patriarchal and unilinear understandings of the medieval world by providing an insight into how people lived in and interacted with their environments such as the access to and position of rooms within the castle as well as the personal objects that surrounded them. In particular, this research significantly enhances our understandings of gender identities in Europe during this period. By moving to Reading's Dept. of Archaeology and working with Prof. Gilchrist, the researcher will significantly enhance her skillset and career.