Jude Seal's Notebook

It's almost the time of year where people start writing reviews of the year so I thought I'd get slightly ahead of the game and present a very quick round up of 2018.   The Lows There are a few that I won’t detail for personal reasons – this year has been a tough one, and I’m still processing a lot of the things that have happened.   However, a short summary of the lows : -           Spending vast amounts of time hunting highly specific paperwork. -           The DLA-PIP transfer.   I’m not going to call it Kafkaesque.   It’s worse than that. -           Getting barged out of the way while attempting to get to a train, causing me to miss the train and a talk I was excited about hearing. -           While it could have been worse dealing with the worst case of student mental...

While the first record (yes, actual vinyl thing) I bought was Iron Maiden’s Run to the Hills, the first album I ever listened to from end to end without any breaks was Clannad: Legend – also known as the soundtrack to Robin of Sherwood.   The second album was also by Clannad, Macalla (Gaelic for Echoes).    The themes in Clannad’s music, the sense of place, of past and present spoke to me in a way that, at that point, few things really had.   It seemed to bring places alive.   I’d often find myself wandering through places, thinking about all the people who had wandered that way before, what they looked like, how they felt.   Wandering around old churches (pretty easy when you’re a Clergy child – more on that in other entries), I’d find myself wondering about the lives of all the people who had done the same.   The music seemed to do the same thing.   The song which probably summed it up best was the song Poison Glen, also by Clannad...

At the IMC Leeds 2018 the traditional session on medieval animals turned to the topic of bears.  Much was made of their significance of bears in the cultures of northern European nations.  Little was remarked upon of the existence of bears in the Central Eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East – primarily the Syrian Brown Bear ( Ursus Arctos Syriacus ).  In response to a question stemming from her paper Irina Metzler remarked on the legal restrictions which were placed on people described as ‘those who keep bears’ – with the implication that this speaks to individual people rather than a particular group of people.  I would suggest an alternative possibility, which may stem from a confusion over a single term – Ursari.

Recently someone asked me the question 'So, what made you choose Medieval Studies?'. After a few moments thought I said non-noncommittally that there were a lot of reasons.  It got me thinking about the things which inspired me to make that choice, and what continues to inspire me in my research.  It led to a few surprising reflections.  And while it didn't start there one of the first physical objects that led me to this field of research was a rather battered book from a very underfunded school library. 

While scheduling conflicts meant I was only able to be there for two days, as I’ve done in the past after major events, here are the highs, lows, and unsung heroes of my time at IMC Leeds 2018.

Today at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, I was part of a round table discussion on current challenges in Academia.  It was an honour and privilege to be invited to be a part of this – which I managed despite a last-minute scheduling clash.  It was a powerful discussion about the current challenged faced by Medievalists with Disabilities in our research environment and work.  I’m grateful to those who organised it, and to all who contributed.  My own short paper was on the concept of Active Accessibility.   In my view too often accessibility is seen as a standard, and only related to the built environment.   I would argue that accessibility should be an active process – one of continued change, based on asking the questions – is this accessible, how can we ensure it stays accessible, and how can we improve it?    Active accessibility also involves widening our view of accessibility to include not just the built environment but a...

This post is basically a very quick introduction to me. I'm known as Jude.  I'm a postgraduate student in Medieval Studies.  I'm currently reading for my PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London, but all views expressed here are entirely my own and unrelated to the institution where I study. My main research topic is to do with disability in miracle literature from around AD 1100 to around AD 1350.  I look at a combination of magic, miracle, medicine and palaeopathology.  My other primary research is in the archaeology of disease - particularly pathogens and pandemics. My other main interests include the civil war in England between 1135 and 1153, and the ecclesiastical politics of the Papal Reform movement. Most of my research relies on a combination of literary and archaeological evidence.  I'm passionate about sharing history in new ways. I have a wonky brain - due to oxygen starvation at birth I have motor function problems and suffer from seizur...