Our research
The Institute for Medieval Studies fosters many interdisciplinary, international, collaborative research projects, linking up scholars across the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Culture, and the University of Leeds and in the wider academic community – nationally and internationally.
Our particular research strengths are in social, cultural, literary and material-culture approaches to the period from the fifth to the sixteenth centuries. Staff have specialisms in:
- Greek, Anglo-Norman and medieval English, French, and Italian literatures
- Christian culture, including the papacy, monastic life and culture, mendicants, the cult of saints, and mysticism
- medicine and disability
- animal studies
- warfare, chivalry, and arms and armour
- Arabic historiography
- Byzantium and the Indian Ocean
- the Iberian Peninsula
- North-Western Europe
- Jewish-Christian cultural relations, Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, monuments, and art
- gender studies
- courtly culture
- history of the book
- digital humanities
- and medievalism since the nineteenth century.
Besides core IMS staff located within the Institute, our staff members also work in schools across the Faculty: Languages, Cultures and Societies; English; Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies; and History.
We work closely with bodies such as the Royal Armouries, Leeds City Museums, Wakefield Museums and Castles, Yorkshire Archaeological & Historical Society, and York Archaeological Trust.
In addition, the International Medieval Bibliography and International Medieval Congress involve many Leeds-based researchers as well as scholars from around the world. Individual research projects can be found by referring to individual staff pages.