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Christina Lee

Lecturer in Viking Studies, Faculty of Arts

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Biography

I was born in Germany and did my first degree (English major with a History and German minor) at the Westfaelische Wilhelms University at Muenster before relocating to the UK where I did my MA and PhD at Manchester University. During this time I begun to work as a research assistant for the Manchester Medieval Textiles project which taught me about the value and importance of material culture.

In 2001 I was offered a lectureship in Viking Studies at the University of Nottingham. This has opened a raft of opportunities and I am in a lucky position of having been part of major research networks, as well as extensive travel across the Viking world. My research has moved into the area of disease and disability and I am considering the impact that epidemics had on early medieval societies.

Expertise Summary

MA (Manchester), PhD (Manchester) Areas of expertise - Viking studies; disease and disability, Old English and Old Norse language and literature.

My first book considers the relevance of food and drink in Anglo-Saxon funerary rites (published by Boydell & Brewer). My current research is on the position of the disabled and diseased in the early Middle Ages, as well as the impact of epidemics on medieval societies. I have published on leprosy in Anglo-Saxon England and have published various articles on disability and disease in Anglo-Saxon England. I am a founding member of the cross-disciplinary research network on 'Disease, Disability and Medicine in Early Medieval Europe', which meets regularly and the general editor of Studies in Early Medicine.

Apart from feasting and disease I have written on medieval historiography, textiles as grave goods and perceptions of medieval myth. I have just completed a research project on the Viking impact on the Irish Sea region, which included the study of genetics:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~aezweb/conference/doku.php?id=genes:home

http://concept.ie/wip/viking/index.html

I was one of the four collaborators on the Viking Identities Network (VIN http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/csva/vin/) and am involved in the Gender Histories Group.

PhD supervision: I welcome to proposals on aspects of Anglo-Saxon and Viking culture (especially the relationship between material culture and text), and any aspect of medieval disease, health care and disability studies..

UG modules taught: Apart from being the convenor of the BA in Viking Studies. I teach on the Level 1 modules 'Beginnings of English' and the level 2 module 'Medieval Englishes'. I convene 'The Viking World' and the Level 3 module 'Burning Desires: Vikings in Britain'.

PG modules taught: I convene the MA in Viking and Anglo-Saxon, and convene and teach the following MA modules: 'The Hammer and the Cross', 'Warriors and Valkyries: Gender in the Viking Age', 'Voyages of Sea Kings' and I co-teach on 'Basic Techniques in Medieval English Studies'.

Areas of Research Supervision:

Disease, disability and the body in Anglo-Saxon and Viking Studies; concepts of 'otherness'; gender in the early medieval world; food and feasting; the interplay between Old English and other Germanic literatures. I am particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches.

Current PhD students:

Malte Ringer: 'Imagining the Pagan Past in Early Medieval Europe'

Teva Vidal: 'Domestic Life in the Viking Age'

Harry Buxton: 'The scop in Old English Poetry

Marjolein Stern

Brent LaPadula

Research Summary

My research interest is in the interplay of text and culture in early medieval Britain. As part of the VIN (Viking Identities Network) research group I was involved in questions of identity and… read more

Selected Publications

  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2012. 'A Useful Great-Grandmother'. In: LEE, CHRISTINA AND NICOLA MCLELLAND, ed., Germania Remembered: The post-medieval reception of the Germanic past MRTS. (In Press.)
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2012. Signs of the Flesh. In: STODNICK, J. AND R. TRILLING, ed., Theorizing Anglo-Saxon Studies Blackwells. (In Press.)
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2012. Invisible Enemies. In: D. BANHAM, ed., The Missing Link Archaeopress. (In Press.)
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2011. Body Talks: Disease and Disability in Anglo-Saxon England. In: ROBERTS, JANE AND LESLIE WEBSTER, ed., Anglo-Saxon Traces MRTS. 145-164

Current Research

My research interest is in the interplay of text and culture in early medieval Britain. As part of the VIN (Viking Identities Network) research group I was involved in questions of identity and cultural hybridity in Viking-Age England and Scotland. With my co-organiser Dr Cathy Swift (Limerick) I have been working alongside scientists to look at potential research overlaps between arts and sciences in the AHRC/Irish Research Council - funded network 'Genes of the Gallgoidil' project: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~aezweb/conference/doku.php?id=genes:home

I am currently working on a project on 'Disease and Disability in Early Medieval Britain' and I have published a monograph on food in the funerary rites of the Anglo-Saxons (Feasting the Dead, Boydell and Brewer June 2007).

View my vodcast about Viking Studies.

Past Research

I have published on female historiography, leprosy and disability in Anglo-Saxon England, textiles as markers of identity and the role of myth in creating national identities.

Future Research

I am currently collecting data on attitudes towards disease and disability in Early Medieval Britain. This project has two approaches: the first part considers mainly archaeological data in order to examine whether there are marked differences in the burial of people with disease or disability in the early medieval period (with a main focus on clearly visible pathology, such as leprosy, polio and congenital abnormalities). The second part is to examine how disease and disability is portrayed in texts sources. The aim is to shed light on whether there are discernible differences in the treatment of diseased people in the pre-Conquest period.

  • LEE, CHRISTINA AND NICOLA MCLELLAND, ed., 2012. Germania Remembered: The post-medieval reception of the Germanic past MRTS. (In Press.)
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2012. Invisible Enemies. In: D. BANHAM, ed., The Missing Link Archaeopress. (In Press.)
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2012. 'A Useful Great-Grandmother'. In: LEE, CHRISTINA AND NICOLA MCLELLAND, ed., Germania Remembered: The post-medieval reception of the Germanic past MRTS. (In Press.)
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2012. Signs of the Flesh. In: STODNICK, J. AND R. TRILLING, ed., Theorizing Anglo-Saxon Studies Blackwells. (In Press.)
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2011. Earth's treasure: food and drink in Anglo-Saxon England. In: CLEGG-HYER, M. AND G. OWEN-CROCKER, ed., Daily Living in Anglo-Saxon England Exeter UP. 142- 156
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2011. Body and soul: disease and impairment in Anglo-Saxon England'. In: CLEGG-HYER, MAREN AND G. OWEN-CROCKER, ed., Daily Living in Anglo-Saxon England Exeter UP. 293-309
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2011. Body Talks: Disease and Disability in Anglo-Saxon England. In: ROBERTS, JANE AND LESLIE WEBSTER, ed., Anglo-Saxon Traces MRTS. 145-164
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2011. Disease. In: HAMEROW, H. and HINTON, D AND S. CRAWFORD, eds., Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology OUP. 704-723
  • CRAWFORD, SALLY and LEE, CHRISTINA, eds., 2010. Bodies of knowledge: cultural interpretations of illness and medicine in medieval Europe BAR/ Archaeopress. (In Press.)
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2010. Introduction to select proceedings from the VIN 2 workshop Viking and Medieval Scandinavia. 5, 251- 2
  • CRAWFORD, SALLY AND CHRISTINA LEE, 2010. Introduction. In: CRAWFORD, SALLY AND CHRISTINA LEE, ed., Bodies of Knowledge: Cultural Interpretations of Illness and Medicine in Medieval Europe BAR/ Archaeopress. 1- 4
  • LEE, CHRISTINA, 2010. Virtual Vikings: Delivering an Interdisciplinary Y2 module. In: MILLS, ROSIE and COLBERT BENJAMIN ET AL, eds., Online Discussion in English Studies: A Good practice Guide 21. English Subject Centre. 13-14
  • LEE, C., 2008. Forever Young: Child burial in Anglo-Saxon England. In: LEWIS-SIMPSON, SHANNON, ed., Viking Age: Perspectives on Youth and Age in the Medieval North Brill. 17-36 (In Press.)
  • LEE, C., 2007. Feasting the Dead: food and drink in the burial rituals of the Anglo-Saxons Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.
  • LEE, C., 2007. Children of darkness: Arminius/Siegfried in Germany. In: GLOSECKI, S., ed., Myth in early northwest Europe Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 281-306
  • LEE, C., 2007. þær wæs symbla cyst: food in the funerary rites of the Anglo-Saxons. In: VITULLIO, J. and THOMASIK, T., eds., At the Table: Metaphorical and material cultures of food in medieval and early modern Europe Turnhout : Brepols. 125-144
  • J. CARROLL and C. LEE, 2007. Introduction/ Selected Papers in Memory of Christine Fell Nottingham Medieval Studies. 51, 201-5
  • LEE, C., 2006. Changing faces: leprosy in Anglo-Saxon England. In: KARKOV, C and HOWE, N., eds., Conversion and colonization in Anglo-Saxon England Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 59-81
  • LEE, C., 2004. Grave matters: Anglo-Saxon textiles and their cultural significance Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. 86(2), 203-221
  • LEE, C., 2003. 'Eclectic Memories: In Search of Eadgyth' Offa. 58, 277-285
  • LEE, C., 1998. 'Straight from the Harlot's Mouth', a comparison of Mary of Egypt with the Old English Frauenlieder ManuScript. 3(2), 19-32
  • LEE, C., 1998. Why Old English?, a defence of Anglo-Saxon and medieval studies 3(1), 123-125

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