Centre for Medieval Studies
We promote interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages by bringing together specialists from several different subject areas to collaborate in research and graduate teaching.
Promoting interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages by bringing together specialists from several different subject areas within Cardiff University to collaborate in research and graduate teaching.
We aim to promote interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages, bringing together specialists from several different subject areas within the University to collaborate in high-quality research and graduate teaching. Members of the Centre include staff and postgraduate students from the Schools of History, Archaeology and Religious Studies, English, Communication and Philosophy and Welsh.
We run a regular programme of research seminars, providing a focus for collaboration and discussion as well as an opportunity to bring scholars to the University from overseas. Our academic and social events are open to, and well supported by, non-University medievalists in the region.
Academic staff

Professor Sioned Davies
Emerita Professor
- Welsh speaking
- daviessm@caerdydd.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5321

Dr Rob Gossedge
Dean of Undergraduate Studies for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Senior Lecturer
- gossedgera@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5618

Dr Ben Jervis
Reader in Archaeology (Study Leave to 2026/7)
- jervisb@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5611

Dr Eve MacDonald
Senior Lecturer in Ancient History (Study Leave 2022/3)
- macdonaldg1@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 9682

Professor Carl Phelpstead
Deputy Head of School and Head of Subject
- phelpsteadc@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4245

Professor Shaun Tougher
Professor of Late Roman and Byzantine History
- toughersf@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6228
Postgraduate students
Upcoming events
Please note that all the events start at 17:30. The in-person events held in the John Percival Building will be preceded by a drinks reception, starting at 17:00.
Translating, Adapting, and Re-Contextualising Aesthetic Experience in the Old English Poems Guthlac A, Guthlac B and the Anonymous Life of Saint Guthlac - Dr Francisco Minaya Gómez
1 November 2022
John Percival Building, Room 4.43
Based on some of the most recent studies on aesthetic experience, its expression and conceptualisation, the purpose of this paper is to examine how a series of aesthetic emotions and aesthetic concepts are translated and adapted into Old English in three Old English hagiographical texts on Saint Guthlac of Crowland. Looking into the usage of the Old English lexical domains of beauty, aesthetic pleasure, wonder, and awe in these three texts, this paper highlights very specific translation practices on the part of these Old English authors.
On the one hand, this paper stresses how the prose writer implements an additional aesthetic dimension that is not generally present in its known Latin source, re-contextualising Guthlac’s sainthood on the basis of his physical beauty. On the other hand, this paper discusses how the two Old English poets showcase different preferences as regards wonder and awe, and how they construct the emotional dimensions of these poems around different responses.
Furthermore, what all of these three authors have in common is that they employ instances of figurative language to reconstruct the emotions that the people in these texts experience, and to transmit a series of doctrinal messages that are linked to an appreciation of saintly virtue and secular and religious knowledge, as well as to a fear of moral contamination that is triggered by the demonic. Furthermore, this paper highlights an apparent hybridity between the cognitive and the sensory in these literary texts, and it also stresses how one of these authors in particular frequently uses sensory evaluations to describe the complex and abstract ideas that are typical of the hagiographical genre.
The Role of Cavalry in the Middle Ages - Professor Clifford Rogers
6 December 2022
Online event – please email pons-sanzs@cardiff.ac.uk for the link
Until the late twentieth century, it was largely taken for granted that cavalry was the “dominant” or “principal” arm in the armies of the High Middle Ages. Since then, however, that presumption has been strongly challenged by scholars who argue it is a “myth.” The new orthodoxy would invalidate the concept of a Late-Medieval Infantry Revolution, which only makes sense in the context of a cavalry-dominated ancien régime.
This paper re-examines the role of cavalry in all three principal modes of medieval warfare - siege, ravaging, and battle - and argues that the older view (of a long period when heavy cavalry was the most important tool for achieving victory in war) was correct.
Ms Eleanor Smith - title to be confirmed
10 January 2023
John Percival Building, Room 4.44
Speaker and title to be confirmed
7 February 2023
John Percival Building, Room 4.44
“This carpenter wende he were in despeir”: Demons, Nightmares, and Judicial Astrology in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale - Dr Stephen Gordon
7 March 2023
John Percival Building, Room 4.44
The reaction of John the Carpenter to the astrolgical trick performed by “hende” Nicholas in Chaucer's Miller’s Tale has usually been taken as a confirmation of John’s simple, superstitious nature. In most readings of lines 3472–87, the frantic recitation of the “nyght-spel” over Nicholas’s agape form has been seen as a reflection of John’s innate credulity.
Much less, however, has been said about the rationality of John’s actions, both in terms of the prevailing moralistic attitudes towards judicial astrology and folk beliefs regarding the aetiology of demonic attacks, specifically the incubus-nightmare. In this paper I will evaluate the social, religious, and medical logic of John’s apotropaic response.
Dr Christopher Parry - title to be confirmed
18 April 2023
John Percival Building, Room 4.44
Roundtable discussion about interdisciplinary collaboration - various speakers from CMS
2 May 2023
John Percival Building, Room 4.44