Professor Sarah Hamilton

I research the religious, social and cultural history of early medieval Europe between c. 900 and c. 1200. I am particularly interested in medieval liturgy and ritual, bishops, the delivery of pastoral care, penance, excommunication and heresy.

My first degree was in history at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge . After spending some time out of academic life as an accountant, I returned to do an MA in Medieval History at King's College, London and went on to do a PhD there on 'The Practice of Penance, 900-1050' under Professors Janet L. Nelson and Anne Duggan.

I taught at Birkbeck, University of London, King's College, London, the Universities of Glasgow, Manchester and Southampton before being appointed to a lectureship at the University of Exeter in 2000. I held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship from 1999-2002, first at Southampton, then at Exeter. I have also held grants from the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and HERA.

I am happy to supervise research students interested in investigating the religious, social and cultural history of medieval England and the mainland Europe, especially in the years roughly 800 to 1200 AD.

I am especially keen to supervise students on the following topics:

• medieval Church (or rather ecclesiastical institutions)
• medieval liturgy
• medieval ritual
• medieval bishops and medieval priests
• medieval heresy
• ecclesiastical thought
• pastoral care
• penance
• excommunication