Dr Mike Bintley
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Mike’s research and teaching cover the early middle ages. He has expertise in the literature, material culture, and archaeology of early medieval England and Scandinavia, and a research focus on landscape, environment, and settlements. He joined Birkbeck in 2018, after teaching at UCL, Oxford, and Canterbury Christ Church University.
Professional activities
Mike is series editor of ‘Nature and Environment in the Middle Ages’ for Boydell and Brewer, a founder and co-chair of the Northern/Early Medieval Conference Series, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is also the current chair of Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland.
Professional memberships
International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England
Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland
Viking Society for Northern Research
Honours and awards
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, The Royal Historical Society, November 2016
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Advance HE, November 2016
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Research
Research
Research interests
- Texts and Material Culture
- Landscapes
- Old English and Old Norse
- Environment
- Ecotheory and ecocriticism
- Mind and cognitive approaches to textual and material cultures
- Settlements and the built environment
Research overview
The relationship between the material world, literature, and other kinds of writing is at the heart of my research. My particular interests include landscape, environment, settlements, religion, materiality, ecotheory and ecocriticism, mind, and cognitive approaches to literature and material culture.
After studying a BA in English Literature and an MA in Medieval Literature, I wrote my PhD thesis on ‘Trees and Woodland in Anglo-Saxon Culture’ (’09), supervised in the Department of English Language and Literature and at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL.
In my first edited book Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World (OUP, 2013), and my monograph Trees in the Religions of Early Medieval England (Boydell, 2015), I investigated the role of trees and woodland in the belief systems of early medieval England before and after the conversion to Christianity, and explored the way in which this aspect of the environment shaped contemporary thought and practice.
I went on to co-edit three interdisciplinary volumes that each, in their own way, consider human interactions with aspects of the material world: Representing Beasts in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia (Boydell, 2015); Sensory Perception in the Medieval West (Brepols, 2016), and Stasis in the Medieval West? Questioning Change and Continuity (Palgrave, 2017).
In collaboration with Professor Richard North I produced Andreas: an Edition (Liverpool University Press, 2016) for the Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies series. This is the first parallel text and translation of this important Old English poem, in which I discuss the environment and landscape of the city of Mermedonia, a forbidding domain inhabited by pagan anthropophagi.
I went on to work on the HLF-funded project ‘Finding Eanswythe: the Life and Afterlife of an Anglo-Saxon Saint’ in Folkestone. This community heritage and archaeology project focused on Folkestone’s patron saint, a Kentish princess connected with the foundation of the seventh century minster, and led to the dating of her supposed relics to the mid-seventh century.
Last year I published my second monograph, Settlements and Strongholds: Texts and Landscapes in Early Medieval England (Brepols 2020), which addresses connections and disjunctions between representations of the constructed landscape in early medieval English texts and evidence for their form and function in the archaeological record.
I am currently co-editing a volume of essays with Dr Pippa Salonius entitled The Surrounding Forest: Tree as Symbol and Metaphor at the Time of the European Middle Ages, and co-authoring Landscapes and Environments of the Middle Ages with Dr Kate Franklin. My current long-term book project is provisionally entitled Minds in the Landscape: Texts, Environment, and Material Culture in Early Medieval England. I am also currently writing several article-length works on water, woodlands, and topography in Old English, Old Norse, and early Middle English texts.
Research Centres and Institutes
- Medieval and Early Modern Worlds
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Mike has supervised doctoral work on medieval kingship, landscapes, and familial relationships, and is currently supervising work on ideology and performance. He welcomes proposals from students interested in working on any aspects of the early Middle Ages related to landscapes, environment, ecotheory/ecocriticism, and interdisciplinary approaches to textual and material cultures.
Teaching
Mike has taught Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and the History of the Language at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and has supervised undergraduate work on literature from the early middle ages to the present day.
This year he is teaching on the following modules taught on BA programmes in the Department of English, Theatre, and Creative Writing, and on the MA in Medieval Literature and Culture:- The Arts: Perspectives and Possibilities (Foundation Year)
- Doing English (BA)
- Reading Literature (BA)
- Storytelling (BA)
- Transcultural Encounters (BA)
- Medieval and Renaissance Body, Mind, and Soul (BA)
- Medieval Text and Intertext (MA)
- Approaching Research into Medieval Culture (MA)
- Reading and Writing the Contemporary (MFA)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Bintley, Mike (2019) Hrinde Bearwas: the trees at the Mere and the root of all evil in Beowulf. Journal of English and Germanic Philology ISSN 0363-6941. (In Press)
- Bintley, Mike (2013) City of the living dead: the Old English Andreas as urban horror narrative. Horror Studies 4 (1), pp. 3-20. ISSN 2040-3275.
- Bintley, Mike (2011) Landscape gardening: remodelling the Hortus Conclusus in Judgement Day II. Review of English Studies 62 (253), pp. 1-14. ISSN 0034-6551.
- Bintley, Mike (2009) Demythologising urban landscapes in Andreas. Leeds Studies in English 40, pp. 105-118.
Book
- Bintley, Mike (2020) Settlements and strongholds in Early Medieval England: texts, landscapes, and material culture. Studies in the Early Middle Ages. 45, Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. ISBN 9782503583846. (In Press)
- Bintley, Mike and Boulton, M., eds. (2019) Insular iconographies: studies in honour of Jane Hawkes. Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture. Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781783274116.
- Bintley, Mike and Locker, M. and Symons, V. and Wellesley, M., eds. (2017) Stasis in the Medieval West? Questioning Change and Continuity. The New Middle Ages. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. ISBN 9781137561992.
- North, R. and Bintley, Mike (2016) Andreas: an edition. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781781382714.
- Thomson, S. and Bintley, Mike, eds. (2016) Sensory perception in the Medieval West. Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy. 34, Brepols. ISBN 9782503567143.
- Bintley, Mike (2015) Trees in the religions of Early Medieval England. Anglo-Saxon Studies. Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781843839897.
- Bintley, Mike and Williams, T.J.T. (2015) Representing beasts in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia. Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781783270088.
- Bintley, Mike and Shapland, M., eds. (2013) Trees and timber in the Anglo-Saxon world. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199680795.
Book Section
- Bintley, Mike (2020) Romans, Britons, and the Construction of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Identity. In: Kaminski-Jones, F. and Kaminski-Jones, R. (eds.) Celts, Romans, Britons: Classical and Celtic Influence in the Construction of British Identities. Classical Presences. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 31-49. ISBN 9780198863076.
- Bintley, Mike (2020) Reading early Medieval landscape and environment: materially engaged approaches to documentary sources. In: Willard, T. (ed.) Reading the Natural World: Perceptions of the Natural World and Environment in the Global Middle Ages and Renaissance. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: (incl. Co-Publications with Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies [MRTS]). Brepols. pp. 3-20. ISBN 9782503590448.
- Bintley, Mike (2019) The stones of the wall will cry out: lithic emissaries and marble messengers in Andreas. In: Boulton, M. and Bintley, Mike (eds.) Insular Iconographies: Essays in Honour of Jane Hawkes. Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture. Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781783274116.
- Bintley, Mike (2018) “How deserted Lies the City, Once So Full of People”: the reclamation of intramural space in Anglo-Saxon literature. In: Boulton, M. and Hawkes, J. and Stoner, H. (eds.) Place and Space in the Medieval World. Routledge Research in Art History. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 63-73. ISBN 9781138220201.
- Bintley, Mike (2017) Beacons of belief: seasonal change and sacred trees in Britain from Prehistory to the Later Middle Ages. In: Bintley, Mike and Locker, M. and Symons, V. and Wellesley, M. (eds.) Stasis in the Medieval West? Questioning Change and Continuity. The New Middle Ages. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. pp. 27-45. ISBN 9781349950331.
- Symons, V. and Wellesley, M. and Bintley, Mike (2017) Introduction: stasis in the Medieval West? Questioning change and continuity. In: Bintley, Mike and Symons, V. and Wellesley, M. (eds.) Stasis in the Medieval West? Questioning Change and Continuity. The New Middle Ages. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. pp. 1-26. ISBN 9781349950331.
- Bintley, Mike (2016) Plant life in the Poetic Edda. In: Thomson, S.C. and Bintley, Mike (eds.) Sensory Perception in the Medieval West. Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy. Brepols. pp. 227-244. ISBN 9782503567143.
- Bintley, Mike (2015) Where the Wild Things are in Old English Poetry. In: Bintley, Mike and Williams, T.J.T. (eds.) Representing Beasts in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia. Anglo-Saxon Studies. Boydell and Brewer. pp. 205-228. ISBN 9781783270088.
- Bintley, Mike and Williams, T.J.T. (2015) Representing beasts in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia: an introduction. In: Bintley, Mike and Williams, T.J.T. (eds.) Representing Beasts in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia. Boydell and Brewer. pp. 1-12. ISBN 9781783270088.
- Bintley, Mike (2015) Settlements in transition: where are the wīcs in Old English poetry?. In: Boulton, M. and Hawkes, J. and Herman, M. (eds.) The Art, Literature and Material Culture of the Medieval World: Transition, Transformation and Taxonomy. Four Courts Press. pp. 153-163. ISBN 9781846825613.
- Bintley, Mike (2015) The translation of St Oswald’s relics to New Minster, Gloucester: royal and imperial resonances. In: Hamerow, H. (ed.) Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History. Oxbow Books. pp. 171-181. ISBN 9781905905348.
- Bintley, Mike (2013) Brungen of Bearwe: ploughing common furrows in Riddle 21, The Dream of the Rood, and the Æcerbot Charm. In: Bintley, Mike and Shapland, M. (eds.) Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World. Medieval History and Archaeology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 144-157. ISBN 9780199680795.
- Bintley, Mike (2013) Recasting the role of sacred trees in Anglo-Saxon spiritual history: the South Sandbach Cross ‘Ancestors of Christ’ panel in its cultural contexts. In: Bintley, Mike and Shapland, M. (eds.) Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World. Medieval History and Archaeology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 211-227. ISBN 9780199680795.
- Bintley, Mike and Shapland, M. (2013) An introduction to trees and timber in the Anglo-Saxon world. In: Bintley, Mike and Shapland, M. (eds.) Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World. Medieval History and Archaeology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 1-18. ISBN 9780199680795.
- Bintley, Mike (2011) Material culture: archaeology and text. In: North, R. and Allard, J. (eds.) Beowulf and Other Stories - Second Edition. Pearson. pp. 246-273. ISBN 9781408286036.
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Business and community
Business and community
Media
I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:
- Early medieval landscapes
- Early medieval environment
- Old English literature