
Dr Benjamin Pohl
BA(BAMBE), MA(BAMBE), PhD(BAMBE)
Current positions
Senior Lecturer in Medieval History
Department of History (Historical Studies)
Contact
Media contact
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Research interests
Dr Benjamin Pohl joined the University of Bristol in 2015 as a Lecturer in Medieval History c.1000-1400. Since 2018, he has been Senior Lecturer in Medieval History.
Benjamin received his PhD from the University of Bamberg. Prior to his appointment at Bristol, he held research fellowships at the Universities of Bamberg, Cambridge and Ghent. He is also a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, as well as a former research associate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. His main research interests are in Norman and Anglo-Norman history and historiography, with a special focus on manuscript studies, palaeography and codicology, book history, historical writing and cultural memory. Benjamin has published widely on the history of medieval Normandy, England and other parts of Europe (incl. Germany). His list of publications includes numerous (40+) peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, the monograph Dudo of Saint-Quentin’s Historia Normannorum: Tradition, Innovation and Memory (Boydell/York Medieval Press, 2015) and the edited volumes A Companion to the Abbey of Le Bec in the Central Middle Ages (11th–13th Centuries) (Brill, 2017) and Record, Relate, Remember: Narrative Constructions of Memory and Generation in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Bamberg University Press, 2012). He is currently writing his new monograph Medieval Abbots and the Writing of History (Oxford University Press) and editing The Cambridge Companion to the Age of William the Conqueror for the Cambridge Companions series (Cambridge University Press).
Visiting Fellowships
- Next Generation Visiting Fellowship, Univ. of Bristol (host for S. Bruce) (2021/22)
- Gangolf Schrimpf Visiting Fellowship, Univ. of Fulda, Bibliotheca Fuldensis (2019)
- Visiting Fellowship, Fordham Univ., NYC (2019)
- Center for Renaissance Studies Faculty Fellowship, Newberry Library, Chicago (2019)
- Lendrum Priory Residential Research Library Fellowship, Durham Univ. (2019)
- Arts Faculty Visiting Fellowship, Univ. of Bristol (host for N. Paul) (2019)
- Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professorship, Univ. of Bristol (host for S. Vanderputten) (2017)
- Visiting Fellowship, John Rylands Library and Research Institute (2016)
- Feodor Lynen Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2015)
- Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Faculty of History, Univ. of Cambridge (2013–15)
- Associate Fellowship, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (2013–15)
- FNK Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Univ. of Bamberg (2013)
- Visiting Scholarship, German Historical Institute, London (2011)
Research Grants
- Costed Extension to Mid-Career Fellowship, British Academy (2020–21)
- Mid-Career Fellowship, British Academy (2019–20)
- Neil Ker Memorial Fund, British Academy (2018)
- Postdoctoral Research Grant, National Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) (2015)
- Neil Ker Memorial Fund, British Academy (2014)
- Postdoctoral Research Grant, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (2013–15)
- Postdoctoral Research Grant, German Research Foundation (DFG) (2013)
- Postdoctoral Research Grant, Commission for Research and Young Academics (FNK) (2013)
- Doctoral Research Grant, German Research Foundation (DFG) (2009–13)
- Foreign Exchange Scholarship, National Univ. of Ireland, Galway, ERASMUS (2006–2007)
Prizes, Awards and Smaller Grants
- Seedcorn Research Grant, Centre for Material Texts, University of Bristol (2020)
- Research Initiatives Fund, University of Bristol (2019)
- CREATE Excellence Award in Research and Teaching, University of Bristol (2018)
- BIRTHA Research Grant, University of Bristol (2015)
- Best Doctoral Dissertation Prize, University of Bamberg (2013)
- Muriel Brown Bursary, Allen Brown Memorial Trust (2011)
- Postgraduate Bursary, Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies (2011)
Linguistic profile
- German (native speaker)
- English (bilingual)
- French
- Dutch
- Latin (classical and medieval)
- Medieval vernaculars (various)
Contact
Office: 26/27 St Michael’s Park, G.02
Tel.: 01179 2(88396)
Email: benjamin.pohl@bristol.ac.uk
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Rework of History for the community: monk-historians and communal heritage (2019-1162)
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of History (Historical Studies)Dates
01/09/2019 to 28/05/2021
Developing a Strategic Alliance of the Arts and Humanities: Bristol-Macquarie
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
This project explores common approaches, questions and interests between the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bristol (UK) and Macquarie University (Australia). It concentrates on three areas in this…Managing organisational unit
Department of FrenchDates
08/10/2018 to 30/06/2019
A medieval abbot-historian at work - Ellinger of Tegernsee
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of History (Historical Studies)Dates
01/10/2018 to 31/12/2018
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
01/01/2022The Cambridge Companion to the Age of William the Conqueror
The Cambridge Companion to the Age of William the Conqueror
Anglo-Norman Histories
Routledge Medieval Encyclopedia Online
Guest Editor’s Preface
History & Community
History and Memory
The Cambridge Companion to the Age of William the Conqueror
Nothing to see here! Hidden changes of authorship and genre in a twelfth-century manuscript (Durham, Ushaw College, MS 6)
Models of Change in Medieval Textual Culture