Erika Maelan Graham-Goering

Erika Maelan Graham-Goering is an Associate Professor in the Department of History within the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oslo. Her academic career spans multiple prestigious institutions across Europe, including Durham University in England where she served as Lecturer in Late Medieval History (2021-2023) and Ghent University in Belgium where she held positions as FWO Senior Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2023) and ERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2016-2020) working on projects related to lordship and state formation in medieval Europe.

Dr. Graham-Goering received her educational foundation through a BA (honors) in History with Medieval and Renaissance Studies from Grinnell College (USA) in 2010, followed by an MA (distinction) in Medieval Studies from the University of York (UK) in 2012, and ultimately a PhD in History from the University of York in 2017.

Her research focuses on the complex dynamics of power in late medieval France, particularly during the first half of the Hundred Years' War (c. 1337-1453). Graham-Goering examines how both women and men navigated aristocratic power structures, challenging simplified views of medieval politics. Her groundbreaking work on Duchess Jeanne of Brittany demonstrated how princely power depended on flexibility in adapting to contradictory demands rather than merely imitating royal authority. She has expanded this research to examine regional profiles of lesser aristocracy across France, particularly in Languedoc, arguing that local lordship remained crucial even as European kings supposedly centralized power.

Currently, Graham-Goering is pioneering research on 'co-lordship,' investigating how multiple lords shared authority within the same territory. She challenges the traditional assumption that fragmented power was disadvantageous, instead arguing that collective authority served the complex needs of local elite families. Her methodology combines traditional archival research with innovative digital approaches for quantitative and spatial analysis, enhancing our understanding of lordship as the fundamental basis of power in medieval Europe.

• Gladstone Book Prize (runner-up), Royal Historical Society, 2021
• Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship, Research Foundation – Flanders, 2020
• Overseas Research Scholarship, University of York, 2012

Graham-Goering actively mentors the next generation of historians, having co-supervised doctoral theses at Ghent University including Ysaline Bourgine de Meder's 'Lords and Lordship in the Bailliage of Caen, 1400–1552' and Gert-Jan Van de Voorde's 'Lords and Lordship in Languedoc (1400–1541).' Her research has been supported by significant grants including the ERC-funded project 'Lordship and the Rise of States in Western Europe, 1300-1600' and the FWO project 'Lordship as Corporative Government across Late Medieval France.'

As an engaged academic citizen, Graham-Goering serves as Associate Editor for French History, is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (2021), sits on the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, and is a member of the Society for the Study of French History. Her expertise has been sought by media outlets including BBC Radio 4 for the program 'In Our Time: The Battle of Crécy' and the University of Oslo's Humanities Faculty for discussions on medieval women's power.