Dr Alaric Hall

Profile

My teaching, research, and supervision focus on Britain and Scandinavia, 500-1600; modern Icelandic language and culture; and to a slowly growing extent medieval Arabic and Hebrew literature. For the most up-to-date information on my activities, web-resources, and publications, see http://www.alarichall.org.uk.

Responsibilities

• Director of the Institute for Medieval Studies

Research interests

For much of my career, I have researched medieval Britain and Scandinavia. I have also worked extensively on modern Icelandic literature. My current research follows two main threads:

• Comparative study of early medieval cultures in north-west Europe and the Semitic-speaking world. In particular, I am working on comparative cultural studies of riddles in Arabic, Hebrew, Old English, Old Norse, Latin, and Greek, particularly from an ecocritical perspective.
• The manuscript transmission of medieval Icelandic sagas from the Middle Ages to the end of the manuscript tradition in the early twentieth century.

For the most up-to-date list of my publications, including links to free-access texts, forthcoming articles, and abstracts see http://www.alarichall.org.uk/bibliog.php.

For working papers see http://www.alarichall.org.uk/iease.php.

I also co-edit Leeds Medieval Studies, for which we’re always seeking good submissions.

Qualifications

• BA Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic
• M.Phil. Medieval Studies
• Ph.D. English Literature

Student education

Postgraduate supervision

My postgraduate supervision focuses on language, literature and history in early medieval Britain and medieval Scandinavia, and modern medievalisms, and I welcome postgraduate research applications in these fields. I am also open to discussing supervision of research on medieval Semitic-speaking cultures.

Teaching

Teaching is one of the most fun things that I do, and is the single most important thing to me in my job here at Leeds. I particularly enjoy that fact that my students have almost never studied my subjects at school: we get to start from scratch, looking at some amazing material which people generally haven't had a chance to study before. The texts I teach were mostly written in languages other than modern English, and although I also teach a lot in translation, helping students to access and appreciate medieval texts in the original language is central to my work—and through this I seek to open up other opportunities for students’  language-learning in future.

I frequently teach Old and Middle English, Old and modern Icelandic, and a variety of modules focusing on medieval cultural history.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems

Current postgraduate researchers

• Ian Shiels
• Luka
• Chris Latham
• Natalie Hopwood