Professor Joanna Story, Principal Investigator

School of Historical Studies

Jo's research has focused on the history of Anglo-Saxon England and Francia, and the connections between them in the seventh to ninth centuries.  She has a special interest in early manuscripts and in their transmission, and in the interplay between textual and physical evidence in early medieval Europe.

Dr Turi King, Project Manager/Research Fellow

Department of Genetics/School of Historical Studies

Turi's research focuses on the link between patrilineal surnames and the Y chromosome. Turi is interested in the uses of this link within the fields of population genetics, population history, forensics and epidemiology. 

Professor Steve Brown, Co-Investigator

Department of Management

Steve's research focuses on the social psychological aspects of memory   He is interested in ideas of social remembering and the memorialisation of British identity.

Dr Jayne Carroll, Co-Investigator

School of English Studies, University of Nottingham

Jayne's research is centred on the literary and linguistic links between Viking Age Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England, Old English and Old Norse poetry, and on English place-names as linguistic records. A current project focuses on the place-names recorded as sites of mints on Anglo-Saxon coins.

Jayne is also the co-director of the Institute for Name Studies at the University of Nottingham. 

Hayley Dunn, PhD student

School of Archaeology and Ancient History/Department of Genetics

Hayley's research combines archaeological, surname and genetic information to explore the history of Britain, and of the Isle of Man in particular.

Dr Martin Findell, Research Associate

School of Historical Studies/School of English

Martin's research focuses on the phonology of early Germanic dialects in Britain and on the Continent.  He is especially interested in runic inscriptions as evidence for the vernacular dialects of the Migration Period (5th-8th centuries A.D.).

Dr Helen Foxhall Forbes, Research Associate

School of Historical Studies/School of Ancient History and Archaeology

Helen's research integrates theology and intellectual history with social history and archaeology to explore how far beliefs, ideas and ideals affected reality in early medieval England and Europe. Her recent work has focused on the transmission of theological ideas from monastic (academic) contexts to the wider world, and the practical effects of this in Anglo-Saxon England.

Dr Simon James, Co-Investigator

School of Ancient History and Archaeology

Simon's research interests are centred on the Roman world and societies with which it interacted, and on issues of identity and conflict – especially 'the Celts' ancient and modern, and the nature of 'Romanisation'. Also important is Roman soldierly identity, and its construction through material culture (seen especially in his book on the arms and armour from Dura-Europos, Syria).

• Dr James' home page
• Dr James' Ancient Celts page

Professor Mark Jobling, Co-Investigator

Department of Genetics

Mark and his team are interested in human genetic diversity, the molecular mechanisms that give rise to it, and the processes within populations that pattern its distribution. Their focus has been on the paternally-inherited Y chromosome, which provides a relatively simple record of the past. The way that the Y chromosome is inherited is similar to that of a cultural marker, the patrilineal surname, and the similarity permits examination of some aspects of past population structures by sampling using specific regional surnames.

Dr Richard Jones, Co-Investigator

Centre for English Local History, School of Historical Studies

Richard's research focuses on the links between people and the land, c.400 and c.1500 AD, and how the landscape was exploited both as an economic resource, and as a medium through which personal and community identities (particularly of the non-elite) were negotiated.

• Centre for English Local History

Dr Rita Rasteiro, Research Associate

Eleanor Rye, PhD Student

Institute of Name Studies, University of Nottingham

Eleanor is researching the linguistic impact of Scandinavian settlement in areas of England by looking principally at minor names, such as field names.

Dr Marc Scully, Research Associate

Dr Philip Shaw, Co-Investigator

School of English 

Philip has three main strands to his research: Old English language and literature; Pre-Christian religion and conversion in the Germanic-speaking world; and Onomastics (the study of names and naming practices).

Dr Jon Wetton, Research Associate

 Return to the Impact of Diasporas homepage