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Kyly Walker

Kyly Walker

  • Email: hykmw@leeds.ac.uk
  • Thesis title: The Expression of Authority in Episcopal Charters, c. 1066–c. 1200

Profile

I completed my BA (First Class Honours) at Monash University in Australia, where my thesis ‘The Widow, the Kings and the Abbey: Using Edward the Confessor, 1066–1163’ was awarded a Publication Award. I continued at Monash University for my MA (Research), where I was co-supervised by Dr Kathleen Neal and Professor Constant Mews. For the final 13 months of my MA I was in receipt of an Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend scholarship. The resulting dissertation, ‘The Bishops and the Crown during the Reign of King Stephen of England (1135–54),’ received the prize for the best MA History Thesis submitted during 2018 and was nominated for a Vice-Chancellor's Commendation for Thesis Excellence.

For just under two years while completing my MA I was a member of Monash University’s Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Postgraduate Committee, which involved keeping members of the mailing list informed of various events; booking rooms for meetings and workshops; planning the Friday Seminar Series programme for 2017; leading the weekly Latin reading group; and chairing sessions of the Friday Seminar Series.

I began my PhD at the University of Leeds in October 2019, supported by a Faculty of Arts Humanities and Cultures Doctoral Scholarship. During 2019–21 I was a member of the Institute for Medieval Studies (IMS) Student-Staff Forum as PGR Representative and in 2020–1 was the IMS PGR Representative on the School of History Research and PGR Committee. During the 2021–22 academic year I convened the School of History Peer Review College, which gives PhD candidates the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback on each other's work and provides workshops and other events on topics such as alternative academic careers and publishing in journals.

Work experience

  • PGR Module Assistant, School of History, University of Leeds (2022–23) This academic year I am one of the tutors teaching Latin on the IMS MA programme
  • Editorial Assistant, International Medieval Bibliography (2022)
  • PGR Module Assistant, School of History, University of Leeds (2021) I was one of a team of tutors teaching first-year undergraduate module HIST1090 Medieval and Renaissance Europe
  • Research Assistant, English Episcopal Acta Project (2021) I visited various archives in London and Kent to view, transcribe, and photograph medieval bishops’ charters and seals in preparation for publication in the English Episcopal Acta series
  • Editorial Assistant – Production, International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) (2019–20) I entered and edited information about recent medieval studies publications in the IMB database
  • Sessional Teaching Associate (2018) As part of the Access Monash programme for secondary school students I facilitated workshops on the Crusades for Year Eight students.
  • Research Assistant for Dr Kathleen Neal (2018) I was employed on a casual basis translating (and transcribing) 13th century letters between King Edward I of England, his officials, and other British rulers, from Latin into English.
  • Research Assistant for Dr Jason Taliadoros, Deakin University (2017) I searched for and compiled I spreadsheet of references to ius (‘right’ or ‘law’) to enable further investigation into the development of individual rights in relation to Magna Carta.

Volunteer experience

During 2018 I assisted Dr Anne Holloway (now the Manager of Special Collections, Matheson Library, Monash University) with transcribing and compiling metadata for the Bischoff Manuscript Fragments Collection. What I have so far contributed is available online as part of Monash Collections Online.

Publications

Public engagement

I completed a Blog Interview for Royal Studies Journal after my article was published, which was posted on 25 March 2019.

Public presentations and conference papers

  • Confirmation Paper: “The Bishops and the Crown during the Reign of King Stephen of England (1135–54).” Presented at the Friday Seminar Series, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Monash University, October 2016.
  • Progress Review Paper: “The Bishops and the Crown during the Reign of King Stephen of England (1135–54).” Presented at Historical Studies HDR Conference, Monash University, June 2017.
  • Conference Paper (by Invitation): “Westminster Abbey and its Rivals, 1100–1154.” Presented at Urban Monasticism 300-1300, CESCM, Université de Poitiers, 30 June–1 July 2017.
  • Conference Paper: “The ‘Otherness’ of Episcopal Exile during the Reign of King Stephen.” Presented at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2017.
  • Conference Paper: “Asserting Episcopal Authority in the Dioceses of Hereford and London during King Stephen of England's Reign (1135–1154).” Presented at the 12th Biennial Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS), University of Sydney, 5–8 February 2019. (Additionally, I organised the panel that I presented on: Conflict, Influence, Punishment: Religious Authority in Medieval and Early Modern Europe).
  • Short Talk (by Invitation): “Henry Murdac, Archbishop of York, 1147–53.” Presented at Pub(lic) History, University of Melbourne, 21 March 2019.
  • Conference Paper: “In the Shadow of Archbishop Thurstan: Asserting Episcopal Authority in York 1114–1154.” Presented at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2019.
  • Conference Paper: “Archbishop Geoffrey Plantagenet of York's Conception of His Archiepiscopal Office and Authority.” Presented at Friday Seminar Series, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Monash University (Zoom), May 2022, and at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2022.

Research interests

My current research looks at the expression of authority in twelfth-century bishops’ charters. 

Bishops were important members of ecclesiastical and secular government in the island of Britain throughout the medieval period. They therefore exercised much authority in their dioceses and the kingdom more widely. Yet written expressions of this authority were largely absent from English bishops’ charters before the Norman Conquest in 1066. After the year 1100, bishops issued charters in increasing numbers, mirroring the simultaneous rise in royal documents. At the same time, bishops’ charters adopted language that expressed episcopal authority. Latin words and phrases such as episcopalis auctoritas (episcopal authority) occur in bishops’ charters throughout the dioceses of England, Wales, and Scotland. Some phrases become standard by the thirteenth century, while others disappear. My project therefore aims to delineate and contextualise the development of the language of authority in bishops’ charters in Britain, c. 1066–c. 1200. At a time when secular rulers were challenging the Church’s power, it is important to understand how bishops, as members of the Church hierarchy, thought about and understood their authority.

Qualifications

  • MA (Research), History, Monash University 2018
  • BA (Hons), History and Archaeology & Ancient History, Monash University 2015
  • BA, History and Archaeology & Ancient History, Monash University 2014
  • Bachelor of Communication, Journalism, Monash University 2005

Research groups and institutes

  • History