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Samuel Cardwell
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Arts
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Biography
I completed my PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto in 2023, writing on the development of ideas of evangelisation in Late Antique and Early Medieval Christianity. I previously completed an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, as well as undergraduate degrees in History and Classics at the University of Melbourne and Monash University.
Teaching Summary
I teach across the whole period from c.400 to c.1100AD. Although early medieval Northumbria (especially before the 'Viking Age') is my heartland, I also enjoy teaching early medieval British, Irish… read more
Research Summary
My British Academy project is on 'The Beginnings of Biblical Interpretation in Northumbria, c.650-800'. Between the establishment of Christianity in the early seventh century and the death of Alcuin… read more
Recent Publications
SAMUEL CARDWELL, 2021. Augustine, Prosper and the Stirrings of Missionary Consciousness Studia Patristica. 119, 117-28
I teach across the whole period from c.400 to c.1100AD. Although early medieval Northumbria (especially before the 'Viking Age') is my heartland, I also enjoy teaching early medieval British, Irish and Scandinavian history, as well as the history of the post-Roman world in the West.
Current Research
My British Academy project is on 'The Beginnings of Biblical Interpretation in Northumbria, c.650-800'. Between the establishment of Christianity in the early seventh century and the death of Alcuin in 804 there was a remarkable period of cultural production in the kingdom of Northumbria, particularly in the field of biblical exegesis - the interpretation of the Bible through commentary, glossing, paraphrase and translation. While the biblical commentaries of the Northumbrian monk Bede have received much scholarly attention, no one has yet produced a comprehensive study of the broader development of biblical interpretation in this kingdom. My project will offer a complete reassessment of exegetical material produced in or strongly influenced by Northumbria before the Viking Age, including recently discovered and previously unstudied material. The research will set Bede's writings in their proper context and shed light on larger problems in early English history, including the process of Christianisation and the shifting nature of ecclesiastical and intellectual authority.
I am also currently working on turning my PhD dissertation into a monograph. This work will offer the first history of the development of the idea of evangelisation in the Latin West from the Early Church to the eighth century. In addition, I am working on a translation of Bede's Retractatio (revisions) on the Acts of the Apostles for Liverpool University Press. I have previously published on ideas of nationhood and kingship in Bede and contemporary authors, as well as on the development of Christian ideas of marriage in later Anglo-Saxon England. I also have interests across the broad spectrum of early medieval studies, including Old and Middle English literature, early Welsh literature and history, the relationship between England and Ireland, and the influence of the 'Vikings' on the islands of Britain and Ireland.
SAMUEL CARDWELL, 2021. Augustine, Prosper and the Stirrings of Missionary Consciousness Studia Patristica. 119, 117-28