Our People

Dr Philippa Byrne

Fellow, Official Fellow

Associate Professor in History, 1000-1500

Oxford Lifelong Learning

BA(Hons), MSt, DPhil Oxford

Philippa Byrne works on the intellectual history of the central Middle Ages (c.1050-c.1300). Her research examines intellectual culture and communities of learning from three perspectives. First, it addresses the ways in which the foundation of schools and universities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries created new intellectual elites and catalysed political transformations. Secondly, her work considers the transfer of knowledge between Arabic, Greek, and Latin, and acts of translation and borrowing in the medieval Mediterranean. Finally, she has a longstanding interest in comparative history, and particularly in the comparative history of education in medieval Christian and Islamic societies. These strands combine in her current book project, which investigates the place of the Kingdom of Sicily in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance.

Before taking up her position at Kellogg, Philippa was an Assistant Professor in Medieval History at Trinity College Dublin. Earlier in her career, she held posts as a Departmental Lecturer in Oxford (2019-2023) and as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow.

She is keen to hear from any students interested in working on medieval intellectual history and/or the history of the medieval Mediterranean.