Alaric is a lecturer in the School of English, University of Leeds.
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Ph.D. (2001-4) on 'The Meanings of Elf and Elves in Medieval England', Department of English Language, University of Glasgow (2003-4 at Department of English, University of Helsinki). Funded by the AHRB (now AHRC), supplemented in 2003-4 by SOCRATES.
M.Phil. (taught) (2000-1) in Medieval Studies, Glasgow Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Distinction.
B.A. (1997-2000) in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. Magdalene College, Cambridge. Part I: 1st; part II: 2/1.
Secondary education (1991-97) at Aylesbury Grammar School, including A-levels in Latin, History and English.
University of Leeds Teaching Award (professional standard 2) (2008-9).
Graduate Teaching Assistant training course (2005): 'Approaches to teaching, learning and assessment', Teaching and Learning Service, University of Glasgow.
Lecturer in Medieval English Literature, School of English, University of Leeds (2007-).
Research fellow, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2005-7).
For details of Alaric's teaching and supervision, present and past, click here.
Publications
For Alaric's publications (and free-access texts thereof) see publications.Other Experience and Activities
- Research collaboration:
- Collaborating scholar at Varieng, the Research Unit for Variation, Contacts and Change in English (Universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä; 2003-).
- Member of the Anglo-Saxon Plant-Name Survey.
- Project leader, Cultural contacts and the rate of toponymic change in early medieval Britain.
- Grant capture:
- £2,445 for 'Sigrgarðs saga frækna: the manuscript tradition' (British Academy, 2009).
- £4,000 project funding + £1,000 honorarium, Leeds University Teaching Fellowship (University of Leeds, 2009).
- €2,110 for Hel-Lex II conferences on English historical lexis, Department of English, University of Helsinki (Finnish Academy, 2005).
- Recent positions of responsibility (scholarly):
- External examiner: M.Litt. thesis, Aberdeen, 'Perspectives on Nature in the Middle Ages' (2010).
- Editor, Leeds Studies in English (2009-; editoral board member 2007-).
- Editorial assistant for Viking and Medieval Scandinavia (2008-).
- Council member of the Viking Society for Northern Research (2009-).
- Vice-chair of the Finnish Society for Celtic Studies (2006-8).
- Recent positions of responsibility (administrative):
- School of English, University of Leeds: single honours year tutor, level 2, 2007-10; library committee 2007-9; staff-student forum 2007-10; IT rep. 2008-; learning and teaching committee 2008-; department development team 2009-; MA English Literature co-ordinator (2009-).
- Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds: learning and teaching committee (2007-); language committee (2008-); external audit committee (2010); International Medieval Congress standing committee (2010-).
- University of Helsinki: member of committees for workplace wellbeing (Research Unit for Variation, Contact and Change in English, 2006-7); events (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, 2005-7); assessing student feedback forms and plagiarism (Department of English, 2004).
- Glasgow Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies: executive committee 2000-5 (originally as a student representative).
- IT: Alaric is an advocate of the use of information technology in teaching and research, with a can-do attitude to acquiring new skills in this area.
- Alaric provides scans and webspace to http://www.septentrionalia.net (2006-).
- For Alaric's contributions to Wikipedia, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Alarichall.
- In 2006-7 Alaric piloted the use of the online learning environment MOODLE for the University of Helsinki.
- In 2004-5, Alaric led a team for the complete redesign of the peer-reviewed postgraduate e-journal eSharp (though note that the site was revised again in late 2007). This included implementing designs and training colleagues in web-weaving.
- In 2006-7, Alaric redesigned and maintained the website of the Finnish Society for Celtic Studies; in 2001-3 and 2004-5, he designed and maintained the website of the Glasgow Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
- Conference organisation:
- Session organiser for Leeds International Medieval Congress 2010 ('Riddarasögur: Icelandic Romances'); 2009 ('Reassessing Early Medieval Charms'); 2008 ('Reassessing Early Medieval Charms'); 2006 ('Public Spaces and Public Faces', two sessions); 2005 ('Thoughts on Thinking: Cognition in the Medieval West'); 2003 ('Medieval X-Files: From Pagan to Christian in Romance'). Member of organising team and webmaster for sessions on 'Doing Interdisciplinarity' 2004.
- Member of organising committee for VIII Symposium of Societas Celtologica Nordica, Helsinki 2006.
- Member of organising committees for Hel-Lex conferences on English historical lexis, Department of English, University of Helsinki.
Alaric's favourite non-academic pastime is playing Latin American and African percussion. Back in the good old days he also used to call for ceilidhs. In Helsinki he played with Johnny Badapple, in Glasgow with Unkle Bob, and in Cambridge with the Cambridge University Ceilidh Band (and various peripherally related projects, including a brief but groovy band with Harriet Earis), and the Brazilain Samba group Arco Iris. These days, Alaric's also spending quite a lot of time messing about learning things like Swedish, French and Icelandic.