A Thank You and Goodbye from Johannes Kratz (Visiting PhD Researcher at CMS)

Posted on Monday 19 October 2026

My research stay as a Visiting Researcher at the Center for Medieval Studies at the University of York has been a magnificent, highly productive, and inspiring experience.  Both students and faculty of the CMS welcomed me wholeheartedly and made my stay not only professionally rewarding but incredibly enjoyable. From the very beginning, I felt like a part of the faculty and the PhD cohort. I am first and foremost grateful to Dr. Steve Ashby and Prof. Kenneth Clarke, who helped me to initiate my research stay in York and furthermore supported me throughout my stay as well as enabling my attendance at the Conference of the Society for Medieval Archaeology and providing many useful resources to me. Additionally, my deepest thanks to Brittany Scowcroft and Peter Twigg for helping me with my arrival, their warm welcome and kind guidance.

Further gratitude and thanks go to the many scholars I had the chance to meet and discuss my research with, and their sincere interest they took in my work: Dr. Eleanor Rye, Prof. Matt Townend, Prof. Knut Øystein Høvik (Director of the Norwegian Study Centre), Dr. Katherine Cross (York St. John University), Prof. Elizabeth Tyler, Dr. Steve Ashby, Dr. Pragya Vohra and Dr. Dawn Hadley. Each and every single one of them left a mark on my work through the conversations we had and I am truly thankful for their feedback and thought-provoking comments.

And a last cordial thank you goes to the other PhDs that I had the pleasure to get to know during my stay here: Hadley, Helen, Jessie, Joe, Josh, Sam and Sam, Susie, Rosa, Theo, and Tom. They immediately incorporated me into departmental activities, introduced me to the facilities and campus, and invited me to various research groups. Thus, another special thank you goes to Hadley and Theo, who invited me to present my research at SCRAMS, and to Jessie and Joe for inviting me to the Viking Studies Research Group, which I will still be able to follow from afar in the future.

Through this combined experience, my short time here has been the most wonderful research stay that I could have imagined. It has shown me the excellence of the
University of York’s thriving academic community. I am deeply grateful for everyone I have met, and I will cherish the inspiration and impressions that I have gained here for my future work.

For now, this is merely a goodbye, and I am sure I will see many of you again!