معرفی
Professor Julia Smith holds the Chichele Professorship of Medieval History at the University of Oxford since 2016. She is affiliated with All Souls College and the Department of History. Her research focuses on the materiality of sacred objects in medieval Christian practice, particularly relics from the 4th to 11th centuries, combining ethnographic methodologies with interdisciplinary approaches to material remains. She has held prestigious fellowships including the Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2013-2016) and multiple fellowships at Princeton's Shelby Cullom Davis Center.
Her educational background includes a DPhil from Oxford (Corpus Christi College) and an MA from Cambridge (Newnham College). Previous positions include Edwards Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow (2005-2016), Reader at St Andrews (1995-2005), and earlier roles at Trinity College Hartford, Manchester, and Sheffield universities.
Research interests span late antique and early medieval history (c.400-1100), gender studies, and cultural dimensions of religious practices. Her work on saints' cults and relics integrates cross-cultural perspectives and material evidence from European church treasuries.
Her major publications include Europe After Rome (2005), Cambridge History of Christianity III (2008), and articles on medieval relic cults. She has supervised numerous interdisciplinary projects and serves as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Historical Society.
