Dr Kirsten Fenton


Dr Kirsten Fenton

MA (Hons) (Glasgow), MPhil (Glasgow), PhD (Liverpool), FRHistS

Contact Details

E-mail - kaf21@st-andrews.ac.uk
Telephone - +44 (0)1334 462893
Fax - +44 (0)1334 463334

 


Teaching and Research Interests

My research interests focus on the themes of gender, nation and conquest within the Anglo-Norman world of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. My first monograph focused on these three themes in relation to the writings of the twelfth-century Benedictine monk, William of Malmesbury. Current research considers questions of female power and authority in relation to Norman noblewomen using a combination of both narrative and charter evidence.

I was co-organiser of the AHRC sponsored Anglo-Norman Research Group – an interdisciplinary group set up between the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow for scholars working on this area in Scotland which ran until 2009. For further details see: http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/projects/anrg/        

 

Publications

Books:

  • Intersections of Gender, Religion and Ethnicity in the Middle Ages, ed. Cordelia Beattie and Kirsten A. Fenton (Basingstoke, 2011)
  • Gender, Nation and Conquest in the Works of William of Malmesbury, (Woodbridge, 2008)

Articles and book chapters:

  • "Women, Property, and Power: Some examples from Eleventh-century Rouen Cartularies," in Society and Culture in Medieval Rouen, 911-1300, ed. Elma Brenner and Leonie Hicks (Brepols, 2012) Forthcoming
  • "The tale of Queen Ælfthryth in William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Regum Anglorum" in Gender and Historiography in the Earlier Middle Ages in Honour of Pauline Stafford, ed. Janet L. Nelson and Susan Reynolds (London, 2012) Forthcoming
  • "Gendering the First Crusade in William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum," in Intersections of Gender, Religion and Ethnicity in the Middle Ages, ed. Cordelia Beattie and Kirsten A. Fenton (Basingstoke, 2011), pp. 125-139.
  • ‘Clare Evans Prize: Ideas and Ideals of Secular Masculinity in William of Malmesbury’, Women's History Review 16.5 (2007), 755-772.
  • ‘The question of masculinity in William of Malmesbury's presentation of Wulfstan of Worcester’, in C P Lewis (ed.) Anglo-Norman Studies Anglo-Norman Studies XXVIII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2005 (Boydell Press, 2006) 28, 124-137

Teaching Duties

Dr Fenton participates in sub honours course ME1006 and offers the following honours courses:

Men, Women and Family in the Middle Ages
Henry I: Perceptions and Practice of Kingship in Anglo-Norman England

 

Research Students

I am happy to supervise students undertaking research in the Anglo-Norman world, particularly those with interests in historical writing, marriage, gender, women, national identity, and the process of conquest.

Current doctoral students:

  • Eilidh Harris, Gender and Identity in Anglo-Norman Latin Hagiographies of the Long Twelfth Century [with John Hudson]

 

Main Publications