Humanities Research Centre
HRC Postdoctoral Research Fellows 2026-27
Katy Bennett
Research
I am a historian of late-medieval England and France, with a particular focus on Gascony, a territory in southwest France which was contested between both crowns during and after the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). My doctoral thesis examined thirteen case studies of Gascon lords who changed allegiance during this period. Using these case studies, my thesis began to pick apart how allegiance was made, broken, challenged, and debated. This allowed me to interrogate ideals and practice of governance in this period, as well as how the extension and negotiation of authority manifested in a borderland territory. One of my fundamental contributions is to argue that we must take into account ideas and language when approaching acts, like changes of allegiance, which have often been seen as purely pragmatic. More generally my research contributes to the study of ideas and their importance within late-medieval lordship and governance. During my time at the HRC, I intend to begin pilot research for a postdoctoral project which would expand the focus of my thesis, from a case study approach to a more comprehensive examination of allegiance and governance in Gascony over the highly important, yet still underexplored, period of the Hundred Years War. I additionally hope to begin reworking my thesis for publication, alongside developing some articles branching off from this research. At the same time as holding the HRC Fellowship, I will be a Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of York for the academic year 2026–27. I look forward to contributing to and benefitting from the interdisciplinary community in Heslington Hall during this fellowship.
Lucy Moore
Professional biography
Lucy Moore is a coin specialist, archaeologist and curator, who is passionate about making collections and the knowledge held within them freely accessible. Her PhD project re-examined coins, commonly known as 'stycas', which were produced in the kingdom of Northumbria during the ninth century. These small, copper alloy coins have been a much overlooked area of British numismatics. Her PhD was a collaborative doctoral award with the Yorkshire Museum, funded by the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities. During it Lucy worked to recontextualise these Nortumbrian pennies, working within a framework informed by recent findings of them at Viking winter camps. Her PhD proposed a new absolute chronology for the coinage and integrated data from antiquarian, excavated and metal-detected finds for the first time. Her PhD work led to her appointment as Associate Curator of Numismatics at the University of Leeds in 2024. She is also trustee of the Royal Numismatic Society. Beyond the world of coinage, Lucy a highly recognised Wikipedia editor, who was recently awarded a Silver Jubile Award by Wikimedia UK recognising her "outstanding contributions to open knowledge". Her work to address gender inequity on Wikipedia has been discussed by The Guardian, and she has appeared on BBC World Service and CNN Europe as a result.
Research
For my HRC postdoctoral fellowship, I will work on one of the recommendations I made for further work at the end of my thesis - chemical analysis of the coinage. In Spring 2026 I was able to undertake some preliminary portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis at the Yorkshire Museum and the University of Reading. These early results demonstrated an unexpected alteration in the brasses used in the later ninth-century, which refines my chronology further and will also be a key chronological anchor for comparative analysis of other copper-alloy finds from the period. The HRC Postdoctoral Fellowship will enable two things. Firstly, to expand the preliminary work with the Yorkshire Museum and work towards its a publication of it, as well as revisiting my PhD data. Beyond research-related activities, I think there’s a lot of potential to create pXRF themed public engagement activities. The technology bounces electrons out an atom using high intensity energy, so the fellowship will enable me to test some ideas for this, which may include creative ball games to simulate atoms bouncing, or using some simple augmented reality to simulate a phone as a pXRF machine.
Charlotte Brace
Research
My research examines disability in late medieval and early modern writing, focussing on nonfictional sources such as devotional writing, medical handbooks and regimens, and administrative records, which I analyse through a literary lens with a focus on metaphor, language and narrative. My PhD thesis identified a cross-genre and international linguistic pattern of metaphors of crafts such as clay sculpture, goldsmithing and tailoring to describe disabled bodies in this period, through which disabled bodies were understood as intentionally crafted and metamorphic forms. I also identified an early modern understanding of disabled bodies as translatory devices which communicated spiritual experience through somatic expression. This allowed for a nuanced and positive understanding of disabled bodies as agential, identity forming, and spiritually active.
My research prioritised the practical experiences of disabled people and their carers and demonstrated a deep integration between early modern care practices and religious experience. During the HRC fellowship, I will develop my thesis into a monograph analysing imaginative models of disability in different spheres of early modern life, looking at how use of analogy, metaphor and imagery surrounding disability and chronic illness is impacted by (and even impacts in return) institutions and settings such as the church, the physician’s office, the home/ local community, and the court. It will prioritise understanding early modern disability as a diverse and adaptive concept that resisted homogeneity whilst retaining coherence as a connected set of cultural ideas. I also plan to run a series of workshops in collaboration with the University of York Interdisciplinary Disability Studies Network, aiming to forge connections between HRC members and disability researchers from other University of York departments and identify connections between disability studies theory and current discourse in other disciplines.
Lacey Allen
Professional biography
My research investigates accessibility, neurodiversity and storytelling. I completed my PhD at York in 2025, where I was also a GTA; teaching on a range of modules, mainly relating to storytelling, genres, and the models of disability. I am passionate about education, which is reflected through my credentials as a qualified primary teacher and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I also have a background in theatre and performing arts, and I am generally a very creative person. In my spare time I enjoy reading and cross stitching.
Research
My PhD research focused on exploring the fairy tale structure and how this can be beneficial for neurodivergent audiences, specifically those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The research focuses on improving attention retention for ADHD audiences through storytelling and explores how the enjoyment of films and literature should be prioritised for all audiences. Fairy tales can hold the attention of their audience members and can also be a tool for guidance in life; the transition from adolescence to adulthood can be particularly challenging for individuals with ADHD. However, fairy tales contain narratives that show this transition and may be relatable as guidance for ADHD audiences. To establish whether the fairy tale structure can improve attention retention, I developed a succinct set of narrative functions that are reflective of the fairy tale structure, and investigated the benefits of the fairy tale in relation to attention retention of ADHD audiences. In my post doctoral fellowship, I am expanding upon my PhD research and investigating further into narrative structure by collecting data which will observe recall of story structures over time. I am also expanding upon my knowledge of Universal Design for Learning and how this research can also be applied to education, as well as media.
Samantha Lukic-Scott
Samantha is a researcher and museum engagement professional based in Yorkshire. She completed her departmentally funded PhD at the University of York in 2025, funded by the History of Art Department. Her thesis, ‘Beyond the Canvas: Multidimensional Translations, the Popular Canon and Printorial Reform in the Long Nineteenth Century’, identified a new category of ‘printorial’ objects that redefined nineteenth-century British visual culture by widening public access to imagery and fostering technological and artistic innovation. As objects reproducing the designs of famous paintings in a range of materials, these objects had previously received little attention but through this research have now been revealed as central to the cultural and technological developments of their time. Samantha’s research also incorporates a strong focus on underrepresented voices and communities, drawing on her experience working for museums and cultural charities. She is experienced in widening access to and creating opportunities for meaningful engagement with culture. Through her research and public engagement work, she continues to explore ways to both increase representation of underserved voices and make research and collections accessible and engaging for diverse audiences.
Research
Samantha’s research introduces the ‘printorial’ genre that arose during the early nineteenth century. ‘Printorial’ objects translated the designs of renowned artworks, already mediated and activated through reproductive prints, into a wide array of material forms. Such objects were made on a wide scale, but this expansion of images into multiple media has received limited analysis. In working with reproductions spanning varied media, handheld to architectural scales, locations across Britain, and two to three dimensions, Samantha’s research challenges the privileging of high art and returns to centre stage the creations of women, educational projects, amateurs and art-industrial firms, alongside more canonical professional artists. Reformulating restrictive boundaries between art forms, her research recovers artists and artworks that were widely reproduced, yet have since been disregarded or excluded as examples of poor taste, to reveal a popular canon that would be invisible without ‘printorial’ objects. For the HRC fellowship, Samantha will be further developing the research begun during her doctorate. She will be developing her thesis into a monograph, with a focus on establishing the ‘printorial’ as an essential and transformative concept.