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Dr Kathryn Hurlock

Reader in Medieval History, Interim Head of the History Research Centre

My profile

Biography

Academic and professional qualifications

I gained my BA (Hons) at Royal Holloway in 2002, University of London and my PhD on Wales and the Crusades in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in 2007.

Other academic service (administration and management)

Postgraduate Research Lead for History, Politics and Philosophy (May 2019-March 2022)

History Research Centre Management Committee (Sept 2019-present)

History Leadership Team (Sept 2018-present)

Faculty Research Degrees Co-ordinator for History (Jan 2019-March 2022)
Faculty Research Degrees Committee (Jan 2019-MArch 2022)

MA History Programme Leader (Sept 2018-August 2019)
Undergraduate Admissions Tutor (Sept 2012-Sept 2018)
Nations and Civilisations Research Cluster

Languages

Reading Latin, Welsh, French.

External examiner roles

Christie Majaros, ‘The Function of Hospitaller Houses in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales’, PhD Cardiff, 2016.

External Examiner at the University of Manchester for undergraduate and postgraduate Medieval history.

Expert reviewer for external funding bodies

I am a member of the AHRC Peer Review College (2017-22). I have also been a reviewer for the University of Wales Press, Palgrave MacMillan, Historical Research, Womens’ History Review, Boydell and Brewer, Routledge, Court Studies and others.

Consultancy and advisory roles

Served on the panel of advisors on the reconstruction of the medieval court of Llys Rhosyr (National Museum of Wales, St Fagan’s, Cardiff)

Other distinctions

  • Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
  • Gladstone Library Research Scholarship, 2020
  • HLSS RKE Fellow for 2015-2016

Expert reviewer for external funding bodies

  • AHRC Peer Review College Member 2017-2022
  • I have also reviewed projects funded by the Marie Sklodowska Curie Innovative Training Network

Visiting and honorary positions

  • Honourary Research Fellow, Cardiff University, 2008-13

Editorial Board membership

Series Co-Editor (with John D. Hosler), War and Conflict in Pre-Modern Societies, ARC Humanities Press

Member of the board for Borders, Boundaries, Landscapes, Brepols

Membership of professional associations

  • Members of ANZAMEMS (Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies)
  • Member of SHOW, the Society for the History of War
  • Member of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East
  • Steering Committee Member for the Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades 
  • Member of the Northern Network for the Medical Humanities http://nnmh.org.uk/ 
  • Member of the Communities of Print 1400-1600 Network https://communitiesofprint.wordpress.com/ 

Get in touch

0161 247 6726
449 Geoffrey Manton Building
Please email for days and times.

Impact

In 2015, I contributed to the Diamond Review of Higher Education in Wales.

Teaching

Postgraduate teaching

Current Teaching:

  • Case Studies in Medieval Warfare
  • The Returning Soldier - Veterans’ Histories 
  • I also run sessions on the core Skills module on Using Archives, Latin, and Palaeography

Previous Teaching

  • Britain, Ireland and the Crusades (MA taught module)
  • Culture and Identity in the Medieval North (MA Taught Module)

Subject areas

Pilgrimage, medieval and modern; veterans’ histories; medieval Wales.

Supervision

I am able to offer postgraduate supervision (MA, MRes, MPhil or PhD) in the following subject areas:

  • Medieval British History, c.1000-1500
  • The history of pilgrimage, medieval and modern

PhD students (completed)

  • Peter Johnstone, PhD by Publication, ‘The Benefit of Clergy in Medieval England and the New World’ (Director of Studies), October 2017
  • Gavin Moore, ‘Lordly Power and Lordship: Earls Ranulf III and John le Scot of Chester, a case study, c.1181-1237.’
  • Ian Bass, ‘The Crozier and the Cross: Crusading and the English Episcopate.’ VC Scholarship (Director of Studies)
  • Jessica Purdy, ‘Reading the Reformation: The Impact of Print in the Early Modern Parish, 1580-1660.’ (1st Supervisor, Director of Studies Dr Rosamund Oates) 

PhD students (in progress)

Sarah Norton (Principal Supervisor)

Katrina Ingram (Principal Supervisor)

Nathan Atherton (Principal Supervisor)

Sarah Hitchen (1st Supervisor)

Phillipa Vincent Connolly (2nd Supervisor)

Research outputs

I am an historian of medieval Britain, and on pilgrimage both medieval and modern. 

I lead the network on The Returning Soldier with colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University and elsewhere to examine the figure of the Returning Soldier from the Ancient World to the early twenty-first century. My particular interest in this lies in the impact of crusading on those who return from conflict, and the potential transformative impact of fighting a holy war. I am interested in how successful campaigns compared to those deemed failures, the impact of mental and physical injury, and the ways in which returning crusaders sought to remember, commemorate and deal with their own participation. My first article coming from this research on Geoffrey Dutton, a crusader who returned to Cheshire following the Fifth Crusade (c.1218-1222) was published in Northern History in 2017, while a second on the psychological consequences of medieval warfare will be out next year with Bloomsbury.

Our next The Returning Soldier event will be our conference on Dealing with the Dead held at Manchester Metropolitan, in June 2022.

I am also working on a history of pilgrimage to St Winefride’s Well Library. I am researching the changing activities of pilgrims to the Well over a thousand-year period, looking at how concepts of authenticity and tradition, and the performance of pilgrimage, changed during that time.

Press and media

Media appearances or involvement

I have written for The Conversation, and been interviewed by BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, and a number of print and online newspapers, including the Daily Mail, iNews, The Western Mail, The New European and Walesonline. I have also appeared on BBC Breakfast, and p a podcast for BBC History Magazine, and been a guest on BBC You’re Dead to Me.

In May 2018, I am speaking at the Hay Literary Festival on Wayfaring, focussing on my works on crusade and pilgrimage travel in Wales: https://www.hayfestival.com/p-14118-kathryn-hurlock.aspx