Harold Mawdsley

Dr. Harold Mawdsley serves as Assistant Professor of History (c.300–c.950) in Durham University's Department of History, specializing in the later Roman Empire and its western successor states. His research bridges legal, social, and political history with a focus on punishment and exile in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

His educational background includes a PhD from the University of Sheffield (2019), where he contributed to the AHRC-funded project 'The Migration of Faith: Clerical Exile in Late Antiquity, c.325–c.600' and developed a public-facing database of clerical exiles. Prior to his current role, he held research fellowships at the University of Tübingen supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung.

Mawdsley's research centers on exile as a lens for understanding societal structures, with current work examining female banishment and clerical exile through digital mapping. His monograph Exile in the First Barbarian Kingdoms (in progress) explores sanction mechanisms in post-Roman polities. Recent publications reveal a methodological evolution from traditional legal analysis to interdisciplinary approaches combining textual scholarship with spatial humanities.

His scholarly recognition includes:

• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft fellowship
• Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung fellowship

Research funding stems from major grants including the AHRC project during his doctorate and competitive fellowships enabling postdoctoral work at Tübingen. While no formal advisees are publicly documented, his public engagement includes contributions to the Historical Association's History Journal. Methodologically, he leverages digital humanities through the Sheffield-hosted clerical exile database and geospatial analysis of Vandal-era exile patterns.