Profile

Biography

MA (Cantab), MSt (Oxon), PhD (London)

Tom Johnson is a Lecturer in Late Medieval History.  Before joining the History Department at York in January 2016, Tom did his doctoral work at Birkbeck, University of London and held a research fellowship at the University of Cambridge.

Tom works on the social and cultural history of England, 1300-1550, and is currently writing a book on popular legal culture during this period.

Research

Overview

Tom's research explores the lives of ordinary people during the Middle Ages and their interactions with institutions and authorities.  In particular, his current work explores the way that law and legal ideas were used in everyday life in fifteenth century England, in order to better understand this period of dramatic social, cultural and political transformation.

Tom's work is based upon the extensive use of archival sources to understand the actions and motives of non-elites, which can often shed light on more unexpected aspects of medieval society and culture; his ongoing side-projects look at the history of buried treasure, the relationship between law courts, soothsayers and ghosts, and popular ideas about nations and nationality.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Vagabonds, Thieves, and Gossips: Dealing with Disorder in Late-Medieval England (first year Period Topic module)
• Demanding Justice: Cultures of Government in Medieval Europe, c.1300-1500 (second year Histories and Contexts module)
• The Making of Maritime England, 1200-1500 (second year Explorations module)

Postgraduate

• Common Knowledge: Publics, Power and Information in Fifteenth-Century England (MA Option module)