‘Monks and the Muslim enemy: Conversion, polemic and resistance in monastic hagiography in the age of the Crusades, c.1000-1250‘

Professor  Andrew Jotischky

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Friday 4 February 2022

18.00 GMT – Online via Zoom

Watch the recording of this lecture

Abstract

Monasteries were supporters of crusaders and crusading both materially and, in many instances, ideologically. Monks in both eastern and western traditions, however, had been wrestling with a response to the perceived threat of the Islamic world for generations before the start of the Crusades. In this RHS lecture, Professor Andrew Jotischky considers the use of monastic hagiography to articulate resistance to Islam based on conversion and polemic rather than violence.

This strand of resistance, found in both Greek and Latin saints’ lives, offers a way of understanding how monastic authors tried to reconcile the ‘defence of Christendom’ with a vocation devoted to prayer, penitence and acts of mercy. Although some monks advocated the use of force against Muslims, preaching or participating in crusades, hagiography enabled the promotion of alternative forms of resistance based on specifically monastic virtues of suffering and penitence, alongside the revival of a prophetic tradition of persuasion and denunciation of the powerful.

Speaker biography

Andrew Jotischky is Professor of Medieval History at Royal Holloway University of London. His research interests lie in religious cultures and institutions in the medieval Mediterranean, and he is particularly interested in exploring areas where Latin and Greek lives and practices intersect.

Andrew has written on crusading and the crusader states, pilgrimage and monasticism, and his most recent book, co-authored with the late Bernard Hamilton, is Latin and Greek Monasticism in the Crusader States (Cambridge, 2020).  

RHS Lecture and Events: Full Programme for 2022 >

IMAGE HEADER: Life of Saint Elias of Enna, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de Espana cod gr Vitr. 26-2, CC-0

Mary Vincent writes:

A history PhD establishes expertise. The focus is on knowledge, interpreting that knowledge and situating it within a published literature. This is careful, detailed work, referenced with full scholarly apparatus. But none of that knowledge actually matters if it stays locked up inside the researcher’s own head. Presenting your work is about communicating that knowledge, often to different audiences.This is a skill in its own right and, ironically, the scholarly skills learnt over the course of a PhD are poor preparation for it.

Historians in our own field or subfield are in some ways the least intimidating audience. They understand and appreciate the detail and subtle debates you are engaging with and will need far less in the way of context or introduction. But such audiences are rare. Even at an academic conference you are likely to be speaking to people with different specialist interests, whether of period, place or theme.  Making what you are saying accessible and intelligible is key.

Preparing and presenting a seminar paper

There is a lot of advice available on the internet; some of it is extremely detailed and not all of it is good.  UK and US university websites are a reliable source of sensible advice but this can be prescriptive, and not all of it will work for you.  READ MORE

Preparing and presenting a conference paper

Conference papers are shorter than seminar papers—commonly twenty minutes—and run more tightly to time.  You will present as part of a panel, and you should determine the kind of audience you are speaking to—whether specialist or general, historical or interdisciplinary—and be clear as to how long you have to speak. READ MORE

Intervening in academic discussion

Questions after a seminar or conference paper provide an important opportunity to participate in academic debate.  This can be nerve-racking.  Some university cultures have a robust style of questioning, which can lead to a critique, for example from the panel chair, to which you are expected to reply. In others, questions are much longer than the repartee style of question and answer than is common in Britain.  Try to find out as much as you can in advance about what to expect. READ MORE

What happens in a viva?

A PhD viva is a unique opportunity to discuss your research with two experts. They will have read every word of your thesis and all their attention will be on you and your work.  Though any examination is nerve-racking, you should try to enjoy the viva; this detailed, thoughtful consideration of your work doesn’t happen very often. READ MORE

Further information can be found at these useful websites:

• http://www.cgu.edu/pages/864.asp
• http://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2008/conference-rules-everything-you-need-to-know-about-presenting-a-scholarly-paper-in-public

13 June 2023

History in UK Higher Education is in a state of unprecedented turbulence and uncertainty.

This turmoil takes several forms. Most conspicuous are those departments facing cuts to courses, dismissal of staff, and closure of History degrees. Currently, the universities of Brighton, East Anglia and Kent are consulting historians about voluntary and compulsory redundancies. UEA’s History department is being reduced from 40 FTE in 2021 to fewer than 30. Kent has already lost 10 FTE historians since 2020: a figure that does not include its current round of compulsory redundancies. At Brighton, all historians are presently at risk of redundancy as the university seeks to cut its 54-strong School of Humanities and Social Sciences by 21 members of staff.  

Situations like this have become only too familiar. Since 2020, History departments or degree programmes have been lost at Sunderland, Kingston and London South Bank. Compulsory redundancy programmes at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Roehampton in 2022 proved hugely demoralising to all involved, and have impaired the teaching and research capacity of those who remain. Elsewhere, whilst compulsory redundancies have been avoided, historians have been exposed to continuous cycles of voluntary severance, with staff leaving either because the prospect of remaining in post is intolerable, or to save the employment of younger colleagues.

Regardless of how historians depart, the result is loss of capacity and an increase in responsibilities for those who remain. Cuts and closures reduce specialist knowledge, and breadth of programmes. They mean a reduction of the research capacity that underpins popular forms of historical engagement. And they negatively impact students. Whether it is overcrowding in highly recruiting departments or loss of provision for those studying at their local institution, the current regime diminishes the range and quality of history teaching across the UK.

We believe these problems to be more pervasive than is generally recognised. In private, the Royal Historical Society holds frequent meetings with historians concerned about impending change: from closure of degree programmes and cuts to courses (sometimes mid-degree); to an end to optionality and the loss of disciplinary identity with the creation of catch-all humanities departments. Since 2021, historians from eleven universities have worked with the Society, while threats to a further nine institutions have been noted.

The profile of ‘at risk’ departments is also changing. Many of the departments we now work with are in universities with long-standing History departments noted for their achievements in recent REF exercises, yet this provides no guarantee of security. Kent and East Anglia headed the REF2021 rankings for History, and both have recently experienced extensive restructure and cuts. If those experiencing cuts and closures include the highest scoring in the REF, what—ultimately—is the purpose of assessment for those on the ground?

None of these problems can be explained by a decline in student numbers or interest in History, which remain strong. Instead we must look to political decisions to explain this troubling situation. UK universities now operate in a market economy. Institutions are placed in direct competition, with income generation via intake the principal measure of success. The lifting of the student cap in 2015 has established an environment of ‘feast and famine’ across the sector.

Cuts and closures are the starkest manifestation of this environment. But marketisation also brings turbulence and uncertainty to historians in ‘winning’ institutions, required at short notice to deal with sharp, and unpredictable, spikes in student numbers. Across the sector, uncertainty is exhausting, all-consuming, and impedes long-term thinking, planning and the delivery of high-quality teaching.

In the coming months, the Royal Historical Society is undertaking a project to assess the full extent of the losses, risks and concerns that now characterise History in UK Higher Education. We also seek to better understand the personal, institutional and disciplinary impact of change on academic staff, researchers, students and community partners. As is clear, the aftershocks of upheaval are long-lasting and have negative effects on the life of a department well after a programme of change has officially ended.

Present-day commentaries regularly propose that History, and the wider humanities, are ‘in crisis’. We do not agree. History as a subject and pursuit remains in good health. But what does appear to be in crisis—now as never before—are the structures that enable and sustain History in UK Higher Education. The implications of this are real and serious, and they require attention.

If you are a historian working in a UK university and would like to bring, in confidence, points to our attention, please get in touch: president@royalhistsoc.org. 

The President, Officers and Council Members of the Royal Historical Society

1977
K.D. Brown, John Burns (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1977)

1978
Marie Axton, The Queen’s Two Bodies: Drama and the Elizabethan Succession (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1978)

1979
Patricia Crawford, Denzil Holles, 1598-1680: A study of his Political Career (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1979)

1980
D. L. Rydz, The Parliamentary Agents: A History (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1979)

1981
Scott M. Harrison, The Pilgrimage of Grace in the Lake Counties, 1536-7 (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1981)

1982
Norman L. Jones, Faith by Statute: Parliament and the Settlement of Religion, 1559 (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1982)

1983
Peter Clark, The English Alehouse: A social history, 1200-1830 (Longman, 1983)

1984
David Hempton, Methodism and Politics in British Society, 1750-1850 (Hutchinson, 1984)

1985
K.D.M. Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor (Cambridge University Press, 1985)

1986
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Suffolk and the Tudors: Politics and Religion in an English County,1500- 1600 (Clarendon Press, 1986)

1987
Kevin M. Sharpe, Criticism and Compliment: The politics of literature in the England of Charles I (Cambridge University Press, 1987)

1988
J.H. Davis, Reforming London, the London Government Problem, 1855-1900 (Clarendon Press, 1988)

1989
A.G. Rosser, Medieval Westminster, 1200-1540 (Clarendon Press, 1989)

1990
Duncan M. Tanner, Political change and the Labour party, 1900-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 1990)

1991
Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge University Press, 1991)

1992
Christine Carpenter, Locality and Polity: A Study of Warwickshire Landed Society, 1401 -1499 (Cambridge University Press, 1992)

1993
Jeanette M. Neeson, Commoners: common right; enclosure and social change in England,1700- 1820 (Cambridge University Press, 1993)

1994
V.A.C. Gatrell, The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English people, 1770-1868 (Oxford University Press, 1994)

1995
Kathleen Wilson, The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England, 1715-1785 (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

1996
Paul D. Griffiths, Youth and Authority: Formative Experience in England, 1560-1640 (Clarendon Press, 1996)

1997
Christopher Tolley, Domestic Biography: the legacy of evangelicalism in four nineteenth century families (Clarendon Press, 1997)

1998
Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England (Yale University Press, 1998)

1999
John Walter, Understanding Popular Violence in the English Revolution: The Colchester Plunderers (Past and Present Publications, 1999)

2000
Adam Fox, Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700 (Clarendon Press, 2000)

2001
John Goodall, God’s House at Ewelme: Life, Devotion and Architecture in a Fifteenth Century Almshouse (Routledge, 2001)
and
Frank Salmon, Building on Ruins: The Rediscovery of Rome and English Architecture (Ashgate, 2001)

2002
Ethan H. Shagan, Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 2002)

2003
Christine Peters, Patterns of Piety: Women, Gender and Religion in Late Medieval and Reformation England (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

2004
M.J.D. Roberts, Making English Morals: Voluntary Association and Moral reform in England,1787-1886 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

2005
Matt Houlbrooke, Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 (University of Chicago Press, 2005)

2006
Kate Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage in Britain, 1918-1960 (Oxford University Press, 2006)

2007
Stephen Baxter, The Earls of Mercia: Lordship and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2007)
and
Duncan Bell, The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900 (Princeton University Press, 2007)

2008
Stephen M. Lee, George Canning and Liberal Toryism, 1801-1827 (RHS/Boydell & Brewer:2008)
and
Frank Trentmann, Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption and Civil Society in Modern Britain (Oxford University Press: 2008)

2009
Nicholas Draper, The Price of Emancipation: Slave-ownership, Compensation and British Society at the end of Slavery (Cambridge University Press: 2009)

2010
Arnold Hunt, The Art of Hearing: English Preachers and their Audiences, 1590-1640 (Cambridge University Press: 2010)

2011
Jaqueline Rose, Godly Kingship in Restoration England: The Politics of the Royal Supremacy,1660-1688, (Cambridge University Press: 2011)

2012
Ben Griffin, The Politics of Gender in Victorian Britain. Masculinity, Political Culture and the Struggle for Women’s Rights, (Cambridge University Press: 2012)

2013
Scott Sowerby, Making Toleration: The Repealers and The Glorious Revolution (Harvard University Press: 2013)

From this point the prize is awarded for and presented in the year following publication.

2015
John Sabapathy, Officers and Accountability in Medieval England 1170-1300 (Oxford University Press, 2014)

2016
Aysha Pollnitz, Princely Education in Early Modern Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

2017
William M. Cavert, The Smoke of London: Energy and Environment in the Early Modern City (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
and
Alice Taylor, The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124-1290 (Oxford University Press, 2016)

2018
Brian N Hall, Communications and British Operations on the Western Front, 1914-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

2019
Ryan Hanley, Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing, c.1770-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

2020
Niamh Gallagher, Ireland and the Great War: A Social and Political History (Bloomsbury, 2019)

2021
Jackson Armstrong, England’s Northern Frountier: Conflict and Local Society in the Fifteenth-Century Scottish Marches (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
and
Lauren Working, The Making of an Imperial Polity: Civility and America in the Jacobean Metropolis (Cambridge University Press, 2020)

2022
Kristin D. Hussey for Imperial Bodies in London. Empire, Mobility, and the Making of British Medicine, 1880-1914 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021)

2023
Síobhra Aiken for Spiritual Wounds. Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (Irish Academic Press, 2022)