Centre for Medieval Studies
Rebecca E. Searby
Rebecca completed her BA (Hons) in History at the University of Hull (2014) and MLitt in Mediaeval History at the University of St Andrews (2015), before completing her interdisciplinary PhD at the Centre of Medieval Studies in 2020. She currently teaches History at a secondary school in Hull alongside continuing her research into Christian-Jewish relations and the law in thirteenth-century England. She is in the process of writing a series of articles that have emerged from this research.
Thesis title: England’s Jewish Community in the Royal Courts, c. 1216-1235.
Research areas: Jewish history, Christian-Jewish relations, the systematisation of English government, and the development and record of English Common Law.
Publications
‘Reading Jewish Speech in Royal Court Records’. In progress.
‘England’s Jewish Community and the Poitevin Regime: Rethinking the Royal Prosecution of 1234’. In progress.
Selected recent papers
‘England’s Jewish Community and the Systematisation of the Common Law, c.1194-
1235’ at The Institute of Historical Research as part of their Late Medieval Seminar Series (February, 2020).
‘England’s Medieval Jewish Community and the Christian Common Law’ as part of the Andrew Marvell Seminar Series at the University of Hull (December, 2019).
‘The Problems and Possibilities of Reading Jewish Agency’ at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, sponsored by Medieval Prosopography (July, 2018).
‘Constructing Jewish Testimony in the Court Coram Rege’ at Law and Legal Agreements 600-1250, University of Cambridge (January, 2018).
Awards
Rebecca's PhD research was funded by the Wolfson Foundation.
In June 2019, Rebecca was awarded the Departmental Award for Teaching Excellence (History), which was nominated and selected by student committee.
In June 2018, Rebecca was awarded a Humanities Research Centre Doctoral Fellowship at the University of York.
