Peter Heather

Peter Heather is a Professor of Medieval History at King's College London, Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Department of History. His career spans institutions including University College London, Yale University, and Worcester College, Oxford.

• Education: Maidstone Grammar School, New College Oxford (PhD)
• Research Foci: Late Roman Empire, successor states, barbarian migrations, legal systems evolution, and Christian authority structures (200-1200 AD)

His research interests center on the intersection of Roman and barbarian societies, with thematic focus on:

• Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (c. 200-800 AD)
• Barbarian identities and the Roman Empire
• Legal sources and social history of dispute settlement
• Post-Roman Christian development
• State operations and ideological frameworks

Recent publications analyze migration patterns, identity formation, and imperial strategies. His projects include comparative studies of intellectual elites during periods of transformation. Active in conferences across Europe, he engages with topics like papal rise, early Russian statehood, and Late Antique legal systems.

He contributes to King's research hubs including the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War, Empires and Decolonizations Research Hub, and Centre for Late Antique & Medieval Studies.