Annabel Hancock

Research Topic

My research focuses on the formation of trust between groups of merchants and investors in Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca in the 13th to 14th centuries.

This stems from an interest in how and why group identities were formed, the ways in which groups reacted to ‘others’, and how trust/distrust was constructed and maintained within and between identity groups (including religion, gender, and citizenship). By focusing on sources related to long-distance traders and engaging with primary sources from a variety of language and identity groups, I plan to use developing approaches to historical trust and various theories about the formation of group solidarity to understand the ways in which groups express trust or distrust of each other as well as the ways in which governing structures influenced and maintained trusting behaviours.

An important part of my research and historical development is therefore working with various languages. I am currently working with documents and scholarship in Latin, Catalan, Spanish, and Arabic.

I also maintain an interest in digital humanities, exploring the uses of Network Science to study the past. I began this work with my MA dissertation ‘Tracing Connections: Using Network Analysis to Study Trade and Movement in the Mediterranean in the Eleventh to Fourteenth Centuries’ (University of York, 2019).

I gained a BA in History from Oriel College in 2018 and then studied an MA in Medieval Studies at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York, funded by the centre’s Anniversary Scholarship.

I am co-funded by the OOC AHRC DTP and St John’s College, Oxford, and am a Clarendon Scholar.

I am also proud to have been elected a Beeston Scholar at St John’s College (2021-23) and am an active member of the MCR community.

I was Lecturer in Medieval History at Oriel College for two years, 2022-2024, and acted as a Graduate Outreach Tutor for the History Faculty for three years, 2020-2023.
Outreach presentation 'Trust between traders in Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, 1240-1350' as part of the Historia Lectures.
Outreach article, 'Medieval Mediterranean Communities and Movement 1150-1350'.

I was a lead organiser of the interdisciplinary conference ‘Trust in the Premodern World’, which took place in the History Faculty, 13-14th January 2023.
Reports on the conferece for  OMS and the Past and Present Society.

I was co-organiser of the workshop 'Scales of Governance: Local Agency and Political Authority in Eurasia, 1000-1500', which took place in Worcester College, 12-13th January 2024.

Report on the workshop for OMS.

Publications:

Media engagement:

Interview on 'Les dones i els dies', Catalunya radio: La monarquia pot ser feminista? - https://www.ccma.cat/catradio/alacarta/les-dones-i-els-dies/pot-ser-la-m...

Supervisors: Professor Ian Forrest and Professor Julia Smith