Centre for Medieval Studies
Makayla Nicholis
Shaping the Atlantic Through Belief: Early Medieval Empire and the Limits of the Known World (c.6th-11th)
My thesis is an examination of the shaping of the Atlantic in the early middle ages and its impact on notions of empire. The works of theologians and pseudo-theologians of the early middle ages are defined by a shared interest in the shape of the world and the description of its constituent parts, whereby the Atlantic consistently plays a distinctive role as both a liminal space and a limit of the world. My research will seek to explain how this boundary of the external Ocean interacted with notions of empire inherited from the Roman past. It will explore the ways in which early medieval perpetuations of classical geographical motifs of the Ocean shaped, or provided a framework for, the Atlantic as it would come to be known, thereby challenging preexisting notions of lacking interest in geographical and cosmographical matters in the early middle ages.
Biography
Makayla completed a BA in English with a minor in Anthropology at the University of Kansas in 2019. She continued her studies at the University of York, completing an MA in Medieval Literatures & Languages in 2023 with a distinction. Makayla began her PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of York later that same year under the supervision of Dr Michele Campopiano and Dr Mary Garrison. Her research interests broadly include medieval geography and cartography, the interdisciplinary study of cultural memory, and pre-Christian insular archaeology.
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