Researcher Summary
Chris is a medieval historian whose research explores the history of political thought and concepts of identity, with a particular focus upon France in the 13th and 14th centuries. He is especially interested in the thought of medieval chroniclers, and in the way in which ideas were transmitted and received in the Middle Ages. Among his other interests are the Dominican theologian John Quidort of Paris, on whom he edited a book in 2015, and the late 13th-century Benedictine chronicler Geoffroi de Courlon of Sens, concerning whose thought he recently completed a series of articles published in The Medieval Chronicle and Viator. Chris is also interested in the history of the book, editing Treasures of the University of Canterbury Library (Canterbury University Press) in 2011 and guest editing a special issue of the ANZAMEMS journal Parergon devoted to items in New Zealand collections in 2015. He is Director of the Canterbury Roll Project, an innovative and ongoing student-led digital venture that in 2017 produced a new edition and translation of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant medieval manuscript (www.canterbury.ac.nz/canterburyroll). A wider interest in the legacies of the medieval and Early Modern world in Aotearoa led him to edit (with Stephen Winter) Magna Carta and New Zealand - History, Law and Politics in Aotearoa for Palgrave Macmillan in 2017.
