Centre for Medieval Studies
Diana Wallis
Research Interests
Diana recently completed an MA in Medieval Studies at CMS as a mature student. She is pursuing a research interest in the York Merchant Adventurers, bringing her own eclectic comparative law and political background to consider the legal and political activities of the York mercantile and civic community towards the end of the fifteenth century and the implications for our understanding royal justice and governance at this moment.
She also has a deepening interest in the so-called ‘heptarchy’ diagrams of Mathew Paris and the way in which they represent a nation founding narrative which continues to have a persistent resonance. She is currently working on a book chapter on this to be included in an up-coming post conference publication.
Biography
Originally Diana completed a BA in History from London and an MA from Kent at Canterbury in Local Government, followed by law studies in Zurich and Liege. Then qualifying as a solicitor, she went on to specialise in European cross border disputes in London and latterly Hull. She was a European politician, MEP 1999-2012 and Vice President of the European Parliament from 2007 – 2012. Thereafter as a legal scholar she was until 2021 a part-time Senior Lecturer and Fellow of the Law School at the University of Hull and also during this time, for 4 years, President of the European Law Institute based in Vienna. She was an Honorary Associate of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford and a Vrije Universiteit Brussel Fellow in Law. More biographical details can be accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Wallis
Diana continues some legal work as a mediator and arbitrator particularly for the British Library in connection with non-print legal deposit. She is also Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the European House of History in Brussels.
