Experiencing Climate change in the Middle Ages

Notas do episódio

Andrew Moore successfully defended his PhD thesis, “Manorial Regulation and Negotiation in a Late Medieval Environment: Land and Community at Herstmonceux, 1308-1440,” on 17 November 2021. His dissertation examines the role that environment played in the negotiation of rights and responsibilities on a fundamental socioeconomic institution of rural communities in late medieval England — the manor. It analyzes all of the extant documentation generated by the manor, especially a series of fourteenth-century court rolls, and uses it as a lens through which to observe this process. What emerges is a picture of continuous negotiation of power that affected, and was affected by, the environment. Some effects of this negotiation included the creation of new bureaucracies, the increasing standardization of procedure and documentation, and regulations promoting intensive, rather than extensive, land use. This occurred during a period of significant environmental crises, including marshland flooding, disease, and the increasingly unsustainable clearing of woodlands. Andrew is currently teaching a fourth-year seminar at St. Jerome’s University (SJU) in the University of Waterloo, and is coordinating research internships for UW’s Digital Research Arts and Graphical Environmental Networks (DRAGEN) Lab. Housed at SJU, the lab as part of the SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant, Environments of Change, directed by Dr. Steven Bednarski. Andrew is next planning to explore publication opportunities for his thesis. He is also investigating post-doctoral fellowship opportunities, with the aim to expand the geographical scope of his research to more coastal North Sea regions, and to analyze the relationship between environment and conflict in those areas during the Hundred Years’ War. The Tri-University Program in History was a great support to Andrew during his time at UW.