Dr Stuart Pracy
Lecturer in Medieval History
Overview
My research confronts inequity by studying state power, land-lording, violence, and the agency of labourers. To this end, I examine subaltern groups (peasants and the urban poor) in the medieval world and unpick discourses of power, how relations of exploitation were and are legitimized, and local vs. supra-local experiences of state control. Concentrating on medieval England, c. 900-1200 CE, my research counters the dominance of elite sources which overshadow the historical record to find the voices of labourers who actively shaped their local societies. These subaltern experiences are put into conversation with the processes of exclusion which marginalize communities of labourers today, seeking to problematise entrenched historiographical and political narratives.
As an extension of my research and to promote the production of global analyses of pre-modern labourers—an endeavour beyond the reach of any individual—I founded the Global Medieval Peasants Research Network with the mission to foster international discourse on peasants from the across the world and establish an innovative global partnership.Publications
Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.
| 2024 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
2024
- Pracy SDP. (2024) 'Both to Bind and to Loosen': Royal Power and the Heriots of Ealdormen and Bishops, The Reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig, 939-959 New Interpretations, Boydell & Brewer, 80-97.
2022
- Pracy S. (2022) J. escalona monge, O. vésteinsson, and S. brookes (eds), Polity and Neighbourhood in Early Medieval Europe (Brepols, 2019). 446 pp. 26 illus. 39 maps. 6 graphs. €110, Agricultural History Review, volume 70, pages 148-148.
2021
- Pracy S. (2021) Rosamond Faith, The moral economy of the countryside: Anglo-Saxon to Anglo-Norman England (Cambridge University Press, 2019). xii + 235 pp. £19.99, The Agricultural history review, volume 69 (1), pages 146-147.
2020
- Pracy S. (2020) Social Mobility and Manumissions in Early Medieval England, The Haskins Society Journal: studies in medieval history, volume 31, pages 1-20, DOI:10.2307/j.ctv18x4jdh.6.
2019
- Pracy S. (2019) Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England edited by Rory Naismith and David A. Woodman, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018. xxx + 335 pp., £90.00 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1-1071-6097-2, English Studies, volume 100, no. 6, pages 730-732, DOI:10.1080/0013838x.2019.1642649.
Teaching
Modules taught
- HIH1410 - Understanding the Medieval and Early-Modern World
- HIH1421 - Understanding Medieval and Early Modern History
- HIH1597 - Serfdom in Late Medieval England
- HIH1616 - Producing Poverty: Peasants in a Global Perspective, 700-1300CE
- HIH2001 - Doing History: Perspectives on Sources
- HIH2002 - Uses of the Past
- HIH3005 - General Third-Year Dissertation
- HIH3053 - Death to the Traitors: Rebellion and Resisting Tyranny in the Middle Ages (Sources)
- HIH3054 - Death to the Traitors: Rebellion and Resisting Tyranny in the Middle Ages (Context)
- HIH3110 - The Celtic Frontier: Sources
- HIH3111 - The Celtic Frontier: Context
- HIH3117 - The Age of AEthelred 'the Unready': Sources
- HIH3118 - The Age of AEthelred 'the Unready': Context
- HIH3633 - Revolutions
- HISM003 - Critical Approaches to Imperial and Global History
- HISM042 - Working with Medieval Manuscripts and Documents
- HISM045 - Medieval Masterclass
- HISM400 - Dissertation in History
Biography
I began my current role as a Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Exeter in the spring of 2021, after completing a PhD at the University of Manchester under the supervision of Drs Charles Insley and Paul Oldfield.
