Rob Houghton

I have been a student at St Andrews throughout my university career completing first an MA and then an MLitt (both in Medieval History) before starting my PhD in 2007. My interests at undergraduate level migrated from the early crusades to Byzantium to high medieval Germany and settled in the cities of northern Italy during my MLitt.

My thesis investigates social and political change in Mantua and Parma in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries. It seeks to critique the discussion of social groups and their role in the emergence of the proto-communes in this period. In particular I argue against the over eager application of models of class distinction within these changing societies. By investigating narrative and diplomatic sources I have reassessed key events in the two cities arguing that these events have often been oversimplified and that the motivations of the sources have not been fully considered. This has been used as the basis for a reconsideration of the use of particular words and phrases within the sources which I have argued are more representative of the rhetorical and political needs of the author than of any social hierarchy. Finally, I have looked at other evidence for class structure in the two cities and found that although there is clear evidence of collective action within both Mantua and Parma, there is very little evidence for firm ideas of class division in either city.

Thesis Title: Class and collective action in the cities of Italy c. 1000-1150

Supervisors: Prof. Frances Andrews and Dr. Simon MacLean

Publications:

  • “Donizo”, R. F. Thomas, J. M. Ziolkowski (Eds.), The Virgil Encyclopedia (Wiley-Blackwell, In Press)

Academic Papers:

  • “It’s More of a Guideline Really: Breaking Rules and Boundaries in Mantua (c. 1000-1150)”, International Medieval Congress (Leeds, 11 Jul 2012)
  • ““The single voice of a woman was heard: “If you allow him to live, you will destroy our friendship with the king!””: Using gender to underline transgression in Donizone’s Vita Mathildis”, Gender and Transgression, (St Andrews, 4 May 2012)
  • “Deposed for a day: The Uprising against Bishop Bernard of Parma”, International Medieval Congress (Leeds, 12 Jul 2011)
  • “Using violence to enact legislation, using legislation to justify violence: Mantua, Matilda of Canossa, and Henry V”, Law, Violence and Social Bonds (St Andrews, 17 Jun 2011)
  • “Cadalus bishop of Parma: Imperial anti-pope or loose canon?”, St Andrews-Aberdeen History Postgraduate Conference (St Andrews, 21 May 2011)
  • “When are the cives not the cives? The appearance of the arimanni in eleventh and twelfth century Mantua”, Medieval Studies Research Seminar (St Andrews, 6 Dec 2010)
  • “Legitimacy through Memory: The Use of the Archaic in Eleventh Century Italy”, “Remembrance of Things Past”: Time and Memory in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Durham, 21 Jul 2010)
  • “The diplomata of the German Kings to the Mantuans in the 11th Century: Purpose of the charter of 1014”, International Medieval Congress (Leeds, 12 Jul 2010)
  • “The 1037 “Riot” in Parma: Assertive Community Action in an Italian city”, International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, 13 May 2010)
  • “Written Expression of Authority in Early Medieval Italy: A diploma of Lothar II”, Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Europe (Durham, 27 Jul 2009)
                           

Teaching:

• ME2003 Europe in the High Middle Ages
• ME2004 Europe in the Late Middle Ages
• ME1004 East and West: The Mediterranean in the Middle Ages

Other:

 2010-2012    Organised sessions and strands for the International Medieval Congress in Leeds
June 2011     Co-organiser of Law, Violence and Social Bonds, c. 900-1250 at  University of St Andrews
May 2010     Organised session for International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo
2011-2012    Reader for Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies
2008-2010    School of History Postgraduate Representative