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Biography
Euan defended his Ph.D. dissertation at UCL in 2019, where he has also lectured for the past five years. He was named the winner of the 2020 David R. Tashjian Award for the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. His work is currently being supported by a Research Continuity Fellowship from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. He holds an MLitt in Early European Art and Architecture from the University of Glasgow, for which his thesis on so-called "speaking" and cephalophoric reliquaries was awarded a distinction and the 2010 Robert. E. Cummings Prize. Before joining UCL, he worked in research and education, most recently as a Librarian and Archivist at Christie’s, following two years as a pre-doctoral Research Assistant to the Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Thesis
A Cathedral Encountered: Stories and Storytelling in Medieval Durham
Research into reception and the affective agencies of historic objects and images has developed swiftly in recent decades. As in other disciplines, medievalists working with a variety of subjects, methods and goals have followed the broad path first laid by the Konstanz school’s work on Rezeptionsästhetik, literary criticism and reader-response theory. This thesis contributes to this larger ongoing project, but it is also an attempt to address a particular deficit of such analyses in the field of Anglo-Norman (or English Romanesque) studies. The cathedral complex at Durham (begun 1093) is a primary case study, but this research is also global by nature, interdisciplinary, and of value potentially to a broad spectrum of academic interests. In an attempt to consider, on a par, both object and subject, both cause and effect, evidence for the analyses it pursues is sought out in “stories” and “storytelling”. How art and architecture thrilled, attracted, persuaded, frightened or even annoyed, these (and more) functions are all corroborated in medieval sources. Just as critical, however, is the historically-contingent medieval viewer, for whom, in her particularity, such impressions neither sprang consistently, nor without mediation. Building throughout on the innate political and cultural alterity of the medieval world, a plurality of viewing communities is therefore emphasised along regional, social, professional and gendered lines. Over and above the conclusions provided, these embodied perspectives are key: not just insofar as they might differ from, but ultimately complement and augment, existing scholarship.
Supervised by Professor Robert Mills and Professor Alison Wright, funded by a UCL Stipend and Studentship.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Forthcoming – 2022 A Cathedral Encountered: Stories and Storytelling in Medieval and Early Modern Durham (under initial submission/review process)
2020 ‘Space, it’s about Time too: Architecture and Identity in Late Medieval Northumbria’, Northern Lights: New Directions in Late Medieval Insular Sanctity, ed. by Christiania Whitehead, Denis Renevey and Hazel Blair (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming)
2019 ‘A Storied Cathedral’, Stories and Storytelling in the Medieval World: Multimedia and Multitemporal Approaches, ed. by Simon Thomson, Francesca Brooks, and Emily Klimova (Turnhout: Brepols, in press)
2019 ‘Strangers in the Cathedral’, Strangers at the Gate: The (Un)Welcome Movement of People and Ideas in the Medieval World, ed. by Simon Thomson (Leiden: Brill, in press)
2017 ‘A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe’, Object: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture, 19, 124-5
2016 ‘Celts, Art and Identity’, Object: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture, 18, 77-9
In Preparation
2022 A Cathedral Encountered: Stories and Storytelling in Medieval and Early Modern Durham (under initial submission/review process)
Upcoming/Recent Conference Papers
2020 ‘Building in Stories: Construction and Community in Late Medieval Durham’, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, USA
2020 ‘Books, Bodies and Buildings: Triangulating Early Medieval Meanings’, Space and Settlement in the Middle Ages XI Annual Conference, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
2020 ‘Space, Place and Early Modern Gender’, Gender and Feminism Research Network, Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), UK
2019 ‘Reusing the Cathedral: Space, Ritual and Community in Late Medieval Durham’, Northern Lights: Late Medieval Devotion to Saints from the North of England, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2019 ‘The “Audacious” Presence of a Medieval Woman”’, The Ecclesiastical History Society Postgraduate Colloquium 2019, De Montfort University, UK
2019 ‘Brexit: A Shakespearean Tragedy?’, In Shakespeare’s Footsteps: Early Modern Drama, May Term London Program, University of Redlands, USA
2018 ‘The Power of Images: Time Covers and President Trump’, Access and Widening Participation, The Elmgreen School, UK
2017 ‘Imagining the Cathedral: The Invention of a Tradition in Symeon of Durham’s Libellus de Exordio’, Strangers At The Gate: The (Un)Welcome Movement of People and Ideas in the Medieval World, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
2017 ‘Performing the Cathedral: Space, Ritual and Imagination in The Rites of Durham’, Mobility & Space In Late Medieval And Early Modern Europe, University of Oxford, UK
2017 ‘A Multi-Story Cathedral: Power, Place and Persuasion in Symeon of Durham’, Medieval Settlement Research Group Spring Conference 2017: Power and Place in the Middle Ages, Newcastle University, UK
Teaching
2020 PGTA/Additional Marker, Advanced Lecture in the History of Art: The Making of Early Modern Visual Urban Culture (HART0035), UCL
2019 Instructor of Record, Architecture in Medieval London (HART0024), UCL
2019 PGTA/Additional Marker, Foundation Course: Renaissance to Modern (HART0006), UCL
2019 PGTA/Additional Marker, Foundation Course: Classical to Renaissance (HART0005), UCL
2018 Instructor of Record, Architecture in Medieval London (HART0024), UCL
2017 Invited Speaker, Professional Development Programme, Christie’s Education
2017 Instructor of Record, Art in London (HART1701), UCL
2015 PGTA, Undergraduate Core Course: History of Art and its Objects (HART1001), UCL
2011 Instructor of Record, Introduction to Sculpture (HART165), University of Redlands, USA
2011 Instructor of Record, Fine Art Studio: Contemporary Sculpture (ART165), University of Redlands, USA
2010 Teaching Assistant, Early European Art and Architecture, Christie’s Education
Other/Awards
2020 Winner, David R. Tashjian Award, International Congress on Medieval Studies, The Medieval Institute and the Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research, Western Michigan University, USA
2020- Tutor, Talent Bank, City Literary Institute (City Lit), UK
2017- Board Member/Editor, Digital Rolls and Fragments Project (DEMMR), Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, USA
2016 Volunteer Speaker and Coordinator, Access and Widening Participation, UCL, UK
2014-17 Board Member, Object: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture, UCL, UK
2016-17 Student Academic Representative (StAR) [elected], Art History Department, UCL, UK
2016 Recipient, Summer Conference Scholarship, Romanesque Art, Oxford: Saints, Shrines and Pilgrimage, British Archaeological Association (BAA) Romanesque Conference, University of Oxford, UK
2014-15 Student Academic Representative (StAR) [elected], Art History Department, UCL, UK
2010 Winner, Robert. E. Cummings Essay Prize, University of Glasgow, UK
2009 Recipient, Scholarship and Student Bursary, University of Glasgow Trust, UK
Research Interests
Anglo-Norman Architecture; Space and Place; Critical Theory; Thing Theory; Political Science; Visual Culture; Nostalgia.
Research Themes
Thoughts, Beliefs & Philosophy; Language, Linguistics & Literature; Heritage, Histories and Cultures; Art, Design & Architecture; Medieval Visual Culture; Saints.