Professor Charles West
M.A. (Cambridge), MPhil (Birmingham), Ph.D. (Cambridge)
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Honorary Professor in Medieval History
+44 114 222 2608
Full contact details
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
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S3 7RA
- Profile
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I joined the Department of History as a lecturer in 2008, after studying in Birmingham, Cambridge and Oxford. I research and teach the history of Europe between the eighth and twelfth centuries.
My research has been supported by grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Humboldt Foundation and the British Academy, and I have held visiting fellowships at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, and the University of Edinburgh.
- Research interests
- Publications
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Books
- . Manchester University Press.
- The divorce of King Lothar and Queen Theutberga: Hincmar of Rheims's De divortio. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- . Routledge.
Edited books
Journal articles
- . Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 57(1), 347-380.
- . Reti Medievali Rivista, 23(1), 357-404.
- . Mittelalter: Interdisziplinäre Forschung und Rezeptionsgeschichte, 5, 1-33.
- . Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 73(2), 229-253.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 29(1), 86-108.
- . Mélanges de l’École française de Rome - Moyen Âge, 131(1), 87-117.
- Saints and Demons in the Carolingian Countryside. Vorträge und Forschungen, 87(Kleine Welten. Ländliche Gesellschaften im Karolingerreich), 67-99.
- . The Medieval Low Countries, 6, 75-94.
- . Medievales, 74, 165-178.
- . Medieval Worlds, 6, 2-6.
- . Speculum, 92(2), 372-404.
- . Mitteilungen des Instituts fur Osterreichische Geschichtsforschung, 124(2), 296-321.
- . Reti Medievali Rivista, 17(2), 301-317.
- . History Workshop Journal, 81(1), 1-16.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 24(2), 137-159.
- . The Medieval History Journal, 19(1), 151-153.
- . Past and Present, 226(1), 3-40.
- . ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, 127(526), 523-548.
- . Journal of Medieval History, 36(4), 295-311.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 17(2), 186-206.
Chapters
- The “schism of 1054” and the politics of church reform in Lotharingia, c. 1100 In Kohl T (Ed.), Konflikt und Wandel um 1100 (pp. 195-207). De Gruyter
- Royal estates, confiscation and the politics of land in the kingdom of Otto I In Bougard F & Lore V (Ed.), Biens publics, biens du roi. Les bases économiques des pouvoirs royaux dans le haut Moyen Âge (pp. 155-175).
- “And how, if you are a Christian, can you hate the emperor?”. Reading a seventh-century scandal in Carolingian Francia’ In Kellermann K, Plassmann A & Schwermann C (Ed.), Criticising the ruler in pre-modern societies – possibilities, chances and methods (pp. 411-430). Bonn.
- , Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium (pp. 429-443). Cambridge University Press
- In Screen E & West C (Ed.), Writing the Early Medieval West (pp. 169-182). Cambridge University Press
- In Große R & Sot M (Ed.), Charlemagne: les temps, les espaces, les hommes (pp. 227-244). Brepols
- , Writing the Early Medieval West (pp. 169-182).
- Hincmar's parish priests, Hincmar of Rheims (pp. 228-246).
- Competing for the Holy Spirit: Humbert of Moyenmoutier and the Question of Simony In Bougard F, Depreux P & Le Jan R (Ed.), Compétition et sacré au haut Moyen Âge: entre médiation et exclusion
- Le saint, le charpentier et le prêtre: l’Apparitio Sancti Vedasti et les élites dans la Francia du IXe siècle In Jegou L, Lienhard T & Schneider J (Ed.), Faire lien. Réseaux, aristocratie et échange compétitif au Moyen Âge. Mélanges en l’honneur de Régine Le Jan (pp. 237-245).
- Group formation in the long tenth century: a view from Trier and its region In Albrecht & Kleinjung (Ed.), Das lange 10. Jahrhundert – Struktureller Wandel zwischen Zentralisierung und Fragmentierung, äußerem Druck und innerer Krise (pp. 49-59).
- Meaning and context: Moringus the lay scribe and charter formulation in late-Carolingian Burgundy In McKinley & Jarrett (Ed.), Problems and Possibilities of Early Medieval Charters (pp. 71-87).
- All in the same boat? East Anglia, the North Sea world and the 1147 expedition to Lisbon In Bates D & Liddiard R (Ed.), East Anglia and Its North Sea World in the Middle Ages Boydell Press
- Dynastic Historical Writing In Foot S & Robinson C (Ed.), Oxford History of Historical Writing 600-1400 Oxford.
- Evaluating Conflict at Court: a West Frankish perspective In Becher M & Plassmann A (Ed.), Streit am Hof im frühen Mittelalter Ruprecht Gmbh & Company
- Urban populations and associations In Crick J & Houts EV (Ed.), A Social History of England, 900-1200 (pp. 198-207). Cambridge.
- Principautés et territoires, comtes et comtés In Gaillard M (Ed.), De la mer du Nord à la Méditerranée
- Legal culture in tenth-century Lotharingia In Rollason DWDW, Leyser C & Williams H (Ed.), England and the Continent in the Tenth Century Brepols Pub
- Exclusion et la paysannerie au XIe siècle au miroir des Versus de Unibove In Joye S (Ed.), Exclusion
Book reviews
- . The English Historical Review.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 27(4), 589-591.
- . The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 69(3), 628-630.
- . French History, 28(4), 591-592.
- . French History, 28(2), 287-288.
- . ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, 128(535), 1531-1532.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 21(4), 495-496.
- . History, 97(326), 303-304.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 20(1), 103-105.
- . History: the journal of the Historical Association, 96(324), 499-499.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 19(2), 243-245.
- . ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, 125(514), 673-675.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 18(2), 231-232.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 17(4), 469-470.
- . ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, 124(509), 914-916.
- . ENGL HIST REV, 124(508), 670-672.
- . ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, 123(502), 695-696.
- . Early Medieval Europe, 16(2), 245-247.
- . Global Intellectual History, 1-2.
Datasets
- Professional activities and memberships
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- - reviews editor
- - Associate Member
- - Fellow
- - Fellow
- - editorial collective
- - editorial board
- - Fellow
- - editorial board
Previous administrative roles
- Director of Graduate Studies
- Senior Admissions Tutor, Level II tutor
- Public engagement
My public engagement takes several forms. I run an active account, and recently developed a podcast on . From 2017, I began experimenting with integrating Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia, into my teaching, leading to the creation and improvement of many pages on medieval topics. These are read by thousands of people across the world each year.
In the past, I have also brokered public lecture series with Museums ߲ݴý (2011-12) and with ߲ݴý Cathedral (2016), set up the Witness Oral History project (2011-18), and contributed to an Arts Enterprise project on the medieval records of Tinsley. I have also talked about my research to public groups such as the University of the Third Age.
In the media
I have been interviewed on BBC Radio 4 and local radio stations, and have contributed to the department's . I have also written for , and the London Review of Books