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Academic position:听Professor听of Medieval History
Department:听History
Telephone number:听0207679 3619
Email:听sophie.page@ucl.ac.uk
Biography:
I am a historian听of medieval social, cultural and intellectual history with a particular focus on the history of magic, science and religion, cosmology and approaches to nature. My current research and teaching听on the medieval history of animals, magic and ritual goes back to 2007 but is increasingly concerned with questions about how we can use the past to reflect on and rethink our current exploitative relationship to animals and isolation from nature.听My听publications include:听鈥楪ood Creation and Demonic Illusions: The Medieval Universe of Creatures', in听A Cultural History of Animals, vol. 2 (2007).
Research Projects:
Medieval people lived in close proximity to animals and assigned important meanings to them, creating connections that our modern world has lost. I听am investigating听how medieval ideas of proximity with, and symbolic meanings of, animals can be positive things to take forward in our ecologically fraught and pandemic-stricken world, while testing the negative impact of the influential medieval Christian idea of human superiority over animals.听My听current research听also听addresses medieval ideas about the fluidity of the border between animal and human, especially in relation to images of hybrids, stories of shapeshifting and magical, moralistic and socio-political identification with animals. Finally, I am working on ideas about magic and the forest (and deforestation)听as a听starting point for examining the meanings of animals past and present, native and introduced, extinct and exotic.
Teaching:
HIST0512/HIST0513:听The Medieval Universe
HIST0103/HIST0317:听Identity, Cosmology and the Supernatural
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