Miss Lizzie Williams
Expertise
I study medieval manuscripts and visual historiography, examining how images, marginalia, and manuscript design shaped historical knowledge in the Middle Ages.
Current positions
Contact
Press and media
Many of our academics speak to the media as experts in their field of research. If you are a journalist, please contact the University’s Media and PR Team:
Biography
Before beginning my doctoral research, I completed an MSt in Medieval Studies at the University of Oxford and hold a First-Class BA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art. My academic training combines art history with interdisciplinary approaches to medieval culture, including palaeography, codicology, and historical interpretation. This background has shaped my interest in how visual and material features of manuscripts contribute to intellectual and cultural life in the Middle Ages.
Alongside my research, I have developed practical experience working with historical collections and public audiences. I have been involved in manuscript cataloguing projects, worked with numismatic collections, and contributed to museum education and public engagement initiatives. These experiences inform my broader interest in how medieval objects can be studied, interpreted, and communicated to both scholarly and public audiences today.
Research interests
I am a PhD researcher in the History of Art, specialising in medieval manuscript culture and visual historiography. I previously completed an MSt in Medieval Studies at the University of Oxford and hold a First-Class BA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art.
My doctoral research adopts a comparative approach to the visual historiography and marginalia of Matthew Paris’s Chronica Majora and Historia Anglorum, with a particular focus on omission as a historiographical and visual strategy. It examines how practices of visual storytelling, selective absence, reader interaction, and material design contribute to the construction of historical knowledge. My work combines palaeographical and codicological analysis with approaches from art history and sensory history. I also have experience in manuscript cataloguing, numismatics, museum education, and public engagement.
Research interests:
-
Matthew Paris and St Albans historiography
-
Visual historiography and medieval historical thought
-
Marginalia, annotation, and reader interaction
-
Codicology and manuscript production
-
Medieval visual storytelling and diagrammatic practices
-
Sensory history and embodied reading
-
Sacred space and the materiality of devotion