Alex Traves
Lecturer in Early Medieval History

Profile

Biography

BA (Hons), MA, PhD (University of Sheffield)

Alex Traves is an Associate Lecturer in Early Medieval History. Before joining the department in 2022, he taught at the University of Sheffield, where he completed his doctoral thesis. His research focuses on early medieval Europe between the sixth and eleventh centuries, with a particular emphasis on Britain and Francia during this period. He also specialises in early medieval social and gender history, and has previously published and presented on these topics

Teaching

Undergraduate

• The Barbarian Migrations: Politics and Society in the Late Roman West, c. 350 - 550 (second year Explorations module)

Postgraduate

• Punishing the Body (CMS Option Module)

Research

Overview

Alex’s research explores the social, cultural and gender history of early medieval Europe. He is currently working on his first monograph, provisionally entitled ‘Family and Society in Early Medieval England: AD 600 – 1050’. Through the incorporation of a diverse range of source material, the book will seek to challenge received wisdom about the family’s place in early medieval society and its relationship to political culture, while also recognising the gendered experiences of kinship and the relationship between kinship and religion. His next major research project will develop some of these themes further through an examination of the much-neglected topic of early medieval fatherhood, which will have important implications for our understanding of gender and masculinity, socio-economic status, and the foundations of temporal power. 

Alex has previously published on the genealogies of royal women and their hitherto underappreciated importance in West Saxon politics and society, and also has another article forthcoming which explores the influence of Christianity on close family bonds in the early medieval West through the themes of penance and exile. In addition to this, he has previously co-published two open access primary source translations, the most recent of which was a treatise written by ninth-century Carolingian cleric Hrabanus Maurus entitled De honore parentum, or ‘On honouring parents’.