My research focuses on the creation and regulation of communities and institutions in the early and central middle ages. In particular, my work focusses on double monasteries – religious communities which housed both men and women – and the extent to which monasticism was gendered in both theory and practice. I draw on a variety of methodological approaches, from anthropology and sociology to psychoanalytic theory, and my work makes use of both textual and material sources. I am currently working on my second book, which explores the relationship between monasteries and families in Anglo-Saxon England.