Naomi Allen

Naomi's doctoral research on the English Cluniac province is supervised by Professor James Clark (History) and Professor Eddie Jones (English). Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach, exploring the culture and identity of the English Cluniac congregation from the Black Death to the Henrician dissolution. Set within the context of current and emerging late medieval monastic historiography, her research is challenging the status quo on late medieval English Cluniacs, vis. that they were a stagnant and failing monastic order after Cluny's golden era in the high Middle Ages. Her particular interest lies in the distinctively Cluniac self-expression that can be traced in their buildings and their relationships with patrons.