The Committee for Dark Age Studies

 

The Committee for Dark Age Studies In 1955 the University of St Andrews appointed F. T. Wainwright, a pupil of the great Sir Frank Stenton, to the post of Senior Lecturer in Dark Age Studies. Wainwright held this post until his early death in 1961. His work was characterised by a commitment both to interdisciplinarity (he himself contributed in the scholarly fields of History, Archaeology and Toponymy) and to a vision which penetrated the traditional ethnic ghettos which frequently separate the Anglo-Saxonist, the Celticist and the Scandinavianist. Since Wainwright’s time St Andrews has continued to show a commitment to teaching and research in this area and first Nicholas Brooks and then Barbara Crawford took on Wainwright’s mantle.

In the 1990s, together with a nucleus of committed colleagues, both within and beyond the University, Barbara Crawford established the Committee for Dark Age Studies with the aim of promoting the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study of early medieval Scotland within its Insular and European context. The committee has organised a series of biennial conferences, the proceedings of most of which have been published, as well as occasional seminars and other events. Since Barbara Crawford’s retirement in 2002 Alex Woolf has taken on the chairmanship of the committee. Purchase Committee for Dark Age Studies publications online

Enquiries to Alex Woolf: aw40@st-andrews.ac.uk