Benjamin Iago Gibson

After taking both a BA in History and an MPhil in Medieval History from the University of Cambridge, and then taking some time away, I'm back at Cambridge as a doctoral candidate studying mediaeval history.

My research, supervised by Professor Carl Watkins and co-funded by the OOC DTP and Trinity Hall, prods at an intersection between mediaeval landscapes, literature, and natural philosophy. I'm interested in how people in the Middle Ages thought about the nature of time and of history, and the way in which they encountered and articulated the near and ancient past through sites in the landscape around them. Of especial interest is the way in which mediaeval writings deal with subterranean, buried spaces: treasure hoards; ancient tombs; the underground passages, lakes and caverns of the world; fossils and rock formations. Encounters with each of these phenomena forced the inhabitants of mediaeval Europe to reckon with historical and prehistoric timespans which potentially dwarfed the span of their own lives and civilisations. Attempts to grapple with these troubling intrusions left a mark in a broad range of literature, in romance, poetry, philosophy, and marvel-stories -- my home for the duration of this project.

When not in libraries, my other interests include performing and researching folk music, and going for unreasonably long walks.