Susannah Bain

Research Topic

History-writing, communication and the making of political connections in Italy, c. 1270-1347

Supervisor: Catherine Holmes and Philippa Byrne

My doctoral thesis reconsiders politics across the Italian peninsula and its engagements with the wider Mediterranean region through the lens of political communication. It considers changing approaches to written communication and archival practice in this period using urban history-writing (e.g., chronicles). This was a time of acute local and regional political conflict. I draw comparatively on narrative texts and archival materials from cities across northern Italy and Sicily, demonstrating how urban political elites used multiple media to create meaning around their political relationships and how the interpretations they perpetuated shaped local developments as well as those of Italy and the wider Mediterranean region. Beyond this, I am interested connections and mobility in the medieval Mediterranean region more broadly. I also enjoy thinking about comparative and environmental approaches to the study of the past.

I organised the 'Identity Abroad in Central and Late Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean Region' conference in January 2022, which explored the construction, expression, and practical implications of ‘identity’ among individuals and groups who chose or were forced to move ‘abroad’ permanently or temporarily in the central and late middle ages. We are currently working on the next steps of the project. 

I am co-organiser of the Environmental History Working Group: an informal forum open to all (including undergraduates) in which we discuss research and ways of approaching History from environmental perspectives. In relation to this, I co-organised 'Uprooting the Anthropocene:(Re-)Centring Trees in Tree-Human Relationships' in July 2021. Sponsored by TORCH, the one-day conference considered how trees engage/have engaged with humans and nonhuman others, prioritising tree agency and tree-ish perspectives. 

I teach tutorials on the central later middle ages (Europe and the World, Britain and Ireland, France) and the Crusades, as well as second- and third-year Disciplines classes on approaches to the study of History.

Before arriving at Oxford for my Masters, I completed my undergraduate degree at UCL (University College London). My doctoral research is kindly supported by the Oxford-David Jones Graduate Scholarship and the Arnold, Bryce, and Read Writing Up Fund. I am an Early Career Member of the Royal Historical Society.