Dr Katharine Sykes

• Tuesdays 10:00 - 11:00
• Thursdays 11:00 - 12:00

• DPhil, Medieval History, University of Oxford
• MA Late Medieval Studies, University of York
• BA (Hons) Modern History, University of Oxford

I did my undergraduate degree in History at Oxford, moved to the University of York for a MA in Medieval Studies, then returned to Oxford for a DPhil in Medieval History. I then held a series of teaching and research posts in Oxford before coming to Birmingham in September 2016.

• Discovering the Middle Ages
• Treasure in Anglo-Saxon England
• Reproduction and the self: gender and sexuality in the early middle ages.
• Ancient and Medieval History in Theory and Practice.
• West Midlands MA

I am interested in supervising research on early medieval gender and sexuality, religious communities and institutional development.

Find out more - our PhD History  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

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.

Co-convenor (with Professor Naomi Standen) of the MA and MRes in Medieval History.