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name: R.N. Swanson
about: Robert N. Swanson is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Birmingham. After studying for an undergraduate degree in History at Cambridge University, graduating in 1972, Swanson stayed at Cambridge for his doctoral research on the activities of European universities in the crisis caused by the division in the papacy between 1378 and 1417. In 1975 he was appointed Assistant Archivist at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research in York, moving to Birmingham as Lecturer in Medieval History in 1979. In 2001 he became Professor of Medieval Ecclesiastical History, and in 2005 Professor of Medieval History. In 2003 he was awarded the title of Guest Professor at Renmin University of China (Beijing), and at Tianjin Normal Universi Robert N. Swanson is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Birmingham. After studying for an undergraduate degree in History at Cambridge University, graduating in 1972, Swanson stayed at Cambridge for his doctoral research on the activities of European universities in the crisis caused by the division in the papacy between 1378 and 1417. In 1975 he was appointed Assistant Archivist at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research in York, moving to Birmingham as Lecturer in Medieval History in 1979. In 2001 he became Professor of Medieval Ecclesiastical History, and in 2005 Professor of Medieval History. In 2003 he was awarded the title of Guest Professor at Renmin University of China (Beijing), and at Tianjin Normal University, and in 2010 was made Guest Professor at Wuhan University. He has also lectured elsewhere in China. He held a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship in 2005-6, part of which overlapped with a Membership at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. In Spring 2010 he was a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina.His initial research interests on papal and university history were broadened and transformed by contact with the ecclesiastical archives at York, which stimulated his investigations of the role of the church in late medieval English society (c.1350 to the Reformation). This developed further at Birmingham, to become a major area of teaching; it remains a significant element in his work, leading (for instance) to his work on parishes and parochial incomes, and his investigation of the role of indulgences in late medieval English religion. The social aspect of church history is complemented by an interest in the history of medieval spirituality, which expands beyond England to the rest of western Europe. This interest is primarily reflected in his book on Religion and Devotion in Europe, c.1215-c.1515 (1995). (1995).Robert Swanson has been an active member of the Ecclesiastical History Society for several years, as committee member and office holder. He was President of the Society for 2007-8. Since 2007 he has been President of the British sub-commission of the Commission internationale d’histoire et d’etudes du christianisme (the international umbrella body for ecclesiastical history). From 1994 to 2001 he was editor of Studies in Church History, overseeing the publication of eight volumes of the series, overseeing the publication of eight volumes of the series. ...more