Chris Jones

Click here for the website Canterbury's King James Bible

Position

Senior Lecturer in Medieval History

Qualifications

BA (Hons) in History, MA in Medieval History, PhD (Dunelm), LMS (Pontifical Institute), PGCertTertTchg (Canterbury), FRHistS

extramural

Committee Member, Australian & New Zealand Association for Medieval & Early Modern Studies

Editorial Board, Viator, UCLA

Editorial Adviser, International Encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages-Online (IEMA)

Room

Room 314, History Building

Contact Details

Phone: +64 (03) 364 2289
Internal Phone: 6289
Email chris.jones@canterbury.ac.nz

Postal address
History Department
School of Humanities
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8020
New Zealand

Background

Chris works in the field of medieval European history and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London. He read History as an undergraduate at Grey College, University of Durham (UK), before undertaking postgraduate research at Durham and the Université Paris X-Nanterre (France). He subsequently taught as an Associate Lecturer with the Open University (UK) and undertook postdoctoral research at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Canada).

Chris joined Canterbury as a Lecturer in 2006 and was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medieval History in 2009. Following a sabbatical in which he held a Sydney Holgate fellowship at Grey College, Durham, Chris returned to teaching at Canterbury.

From 2009 until 2012 Chris was a Council Member of the Medieval Association of the Pacific. In 2010 he was awarded the postdoctoral Licence in Mediaeval Studies by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, and in 2012 the Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching by Canterbury. He chaired the University Library Committee and held a seat on the University's Academic Board from 2009 until 2011. He is the general editor of the Treasures of the University of Canterbury Library project and co-curator of the 2012 Canterbury Tales exhibition.

Undergraduate Courses

Chris's teaching interests cover Late Antiquity, the Crusades, the medieval Muslim world, the Reformation, and the history of medieval political thought.
HIST133 Medieval Europe
HIST137 Modern World History
HIST253/373 Renaissance & Reformation Europe
HIST275/375 The Muslim World, 600-1650

Postgraduate Supervision

Chris welcomes Honours essay projects in all areas of medieval and Early Modern history. In 2012 he introduced Hist423: Special Topic in Medieval History at Honours-level. This course offers a thematic exploration of the medieval world between 1100 and 1350 with a particular focus on Capetian France.
Chris invites enquiries from potential MA/PhD candidates wishing to study late medieval European history, particularly those with an interest in France, concepts of identity, chronicles and political thought.

Hist423 Special Topic in Medieval History (Capetian France, 1150-1350)

Hist450 History as a Discipline

List of Recent Postgraduate Projects

Research Interests

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 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. He is also interested in the broader history of the book.

2007 saw the publication of Chris's first monograph, a study of French perceptions of the medieval Empire and concepts of political organisation in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries (Eclipse of Empire?). He is also the author of several recent articles concerned with late medieval political theory and hagiography.

In 2010 Chris published a chapter on medieval Paris in John Julius Norwich's The Great Cities in History. He is presently preparing a monograph on the perspective of Geoffroi de Courlon, a French chronicler who wrote in the late-thirteenth century, and editing a collection of essays on the Dominican John of Paris (Jean Quidort) for the Brepols series Disputatio. He is also general editor of the Treasures of the University of Canterbury Library project to which he has also contributed a number of articles. He is an editorial adviser for the on-line International Encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages, for which he wrote written several entries, and is a member of the editorial board of the leading American journal of medieval and Renaissance studies, Viator.

In 2011 he curated the exhibition ‘Through a glass, darkly’: Canterbury’s King James Bible – 400 Years of Mystery, Power & Imagination at UC's Central Library and co-wrote the website Canterbury's King James Bible that accompanies it.

In 2012 he is co-curating the Canterbury Tales exhibition jointly organised by UC and Canterbury Museum.