I'm Gregory Leighton
PhD, Medieval History.
I earned my doctorate in History and Welsh History at Cardiff University in the summer of 2018. My thesis primarily focused the military orders, specifically the Order of the Teutonic Knights (founded 1190) in the medieval Baltic region (present-day Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, and parts of Russia). The spirituality of the military orders as religious institutions, the evolution and origins of the concept of 'crusading', and the application of this concept to the last pagan frontier of medieval Europe, fascinate me. Religious life in the medieval Baltic 'off of the battlefield' is a further topic I have come to be very intrigued by, namely the use of pilgrimage shrines and relics by the local Christian population in the region. Translating sources and providing useful learning tools are also important goals of mine, and this is the current project that I am working on at the moment.
Published Works
Gregory Leighton
Journal of Medieval History 44, no. 4 (August: 2018), pp. 457-483.
‘Saint Patrick and the Conversion of Ireland (5th Century)’
Gregory Leighton
Great Events in Religion. An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History, volume 1: Prehistory to AD 600. Edited by Florin Curta and Andrew Holt (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2017), pp. 279-81.
Published Works
Journal of Medieval History 44, no. 4 (August: 2018), pp. 457-483.
'Reysa in laudem Dei et virginis Marie contra paganos: The Experience of Crusading in Prussia during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
'Military Order Castles in the Holy Land and Prussia: A Case for Cultural History'
Zeitschrift für Ostmittelauropa-Forschung 69, no. 1 (2020), pp. 1-25.
Templars, Hospitallers and the Crusades: Essays in Homage to Alan J. Forey, ed. by Helen Nicholson and Jochen Burgtorf (London: Routledge, 2020): pages tbd.
'The Teutonic Order and Re-Organizing Prussia as a Crusading Landscape in the Fourteenth Century'
After the Crusade – Ending the Fight, Re-Organizing Society. Publications from Diversity of Crusading – The Ninth Quadrennial Conference of the SSCLE, Odense 27 June – 1 July, 2016, ed. by Kurt Villads Jensen and Torben K Nielsen (Odense: University of Southern Denmark Press, 2020): pages tbd.
Blog, publications in preparation, and research interests
Modules and Teaching
2017-2018
HS1112 (Medieval Worlds)
Wide-ranging survey of human societies in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America (500-1500). Students create projects and presentations centered on comparative and interdisciplinary study of the medieval world.
2015-2017
HS1101 (Medieval Europe)
First year History course on Medieval Europe (9th century to 15th). Students complete essays and exams, in addition to attending seminars on historiography and historical research methods
2016
HST022 (Reading Latin)
Tutor for translation seminar, aimed at MA students studying Ancient and Medieval History. We met weekly, and students were assisted in their translation of the Res gestae divi Augusti. Meetings were typically 1.5 hours.
2015-2016
RT4103 (The Bible in Today's World)
Seminar class focused on the use of the Bible as a scholarly source, in addition to the study of the use of the Bible in the past. Seminars discussed content of the Bible, influences, and students did two presentations on any topic covered in class.