Frances Murray received her BA (Hons) in 2013 (University of Oxford), MLitt in 2014 (University of St Andrews) and PhD in 2018 (University of St Andrews). Her PhD thesis examined the representation of weeping rulers in the early middle ages, focusing particularly on the Carolingian empire in the eighth and ninth centuries. She has been employed on the “Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity” Research Project (ERC Advanced Grant) since November 2017. In this role, she concentrates on evidence for the cult of saints in literary evidence from Late Antique Italy and Gaul. More generally, she is interested in the history of the emotions, particularly with reference to the construction of gender and power, in the late antique and early medieval West.
Selected Conference Presentations
- “The limits of ritual: Royal weeping in the Ottonian Reich”, German Historical Society Annual Conference, University of St Andrews, August 2017
- “'Uncontrollable delights and boundless exultation': Weeping as a rex et sacerdos in Hrabanus Maurus' exegesis”, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2017
- “Tears, judgement and royal authority: Christ’s tears in Paschasius Radbertus’ Commentary on Matthew”, Powerful Emotions, University of York, June 2017
- “Remorse and reconciliation: the tears of rulers and rebels in the tenth century”, After Empire: Using and Not Using the Past, Freie Universität Berlin, May 2017
- “Two types of tears: Weeping between individual, community and God”, The Medieval Brain, University of York, March 2017
- “Tears, prayers and the reception of power in the reign of Louis the Pious”, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2016
- “Masculinity, rulership and tears in Carolingian panegyric”, Gender and Medieval Studies Conference, University of Hull, January 2016
- “‘Bursting with sobs’ and ‘wet with tears’: weeping and monastic identity in Carolingian hagiography”, ARDIT International Congress of Medievalists, Universitat de Barcelona, May 2015