Geography, Archaeology & Irish Studies

My new postdoctoral research fellowship funded by the Irish Research Council entitled 'Home is Where the Heart(h) is': an investigation of medieval houses in Ireland 1100-1600 AD. During this period, Ireland, like many other places across Europe, experienced cultural upheavals, population displacement, invasions and settlement. Ireland was 'home' to many different people from ladies and merchants to labourers and craftworkers. Yet, studies typically concentrate on high-status homes (castles) or religious institutions (monasteries), and few explorations have been made of where or how ordinary women, men and children lived. Previously, a lack of evidence impeded such research; however, large amounts of relevant archaeological data were recorded during Ireland's recent economic boom that have not been fully explored. A unique opportunity now exists to analyse this new archaeological evidence in order to fully understand what medieval houses looked like, what they contained and where they were located. For the first time, it is possible to investigate ordinary medieval houses and households in Ireland to ask how people 'made a house a home'? What things (objects) were used in the creation of households? How was daily-life structured and experienced?

By setting ordinary medieval households within their appropriate historical context, utilising comparative work from across Europe and incorporating contemporary historical and literary sources, this project examines how different people in the past organised their houses and what shaped their decisions. For example, were houses structured differently depending on cultural identity i.e. Anglo-Norman or Gaelic-Irish? Were there particular gendered tasks for medieval men and women within the home? Addressing these questions will deliver a more socially diverse picture of medieval households that encompasses family life and gender roles. The results will be shared through an academic book, public talks and a short documentary. This focuses on interviews with experts about medieval and modern households, and also, the elderly living in community-care who carry generational knowledge of 'home'. Therefore, diverse audiences will benefit from the new knowledge that this project creates. I am particularly interested in medieval social spaces throughout the hierarchical medieval world as can be seen through my doctoral research funded by the Irish Research Council, at University College Dublin, in which I explored the role of architecture in the construction of social identity.

My recent Marie Sk¿odowska-Curie Fellowship https://medievalcastlesandwomen.wordpress.com/ at University of Reading (2017-2019) was a new venture: it focused on feminist practice in archaeology as well as creating new gendered understandings of medieval castles with an emphasis on medieval women. Methodologically, this incorporated studies of people, places and things together with medieval castles to create more dynamic accounts of the medieval past. Essentially this means telling the story of medieval people, especially women, through the things that they used and cared about, within the spaces they inhabited, through the lens of what we know of the medieval past. This approach navigates away from traditional scholarship that often comprises accounts of seemingly static landscapes or buildings. HeRSTORY challenged current male-orientated views of the medieval world, so typical of castle-studies, which have largely excluded the everyday experiences and lives of women.

I also aim to reach a wider audience by using different media to share my research  - everybody should be able to access the joys of the medieval world. Collaboratively, with Caroline Teng I am in the process of creating an adult graphic novella about medieval women's daily life. In 'Home is Where the Heart(h) is', I will venture into the world of documentary making.