Dr Sihong Lin
- Lecturer in Early Medieval History (History)
email:
Sihong.Lin@glasgow.ac.uk
Room 405, 10 University Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QH
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775Research interests
I am a historian of cross-cultural exchanges in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Although this period is frequently seen as when the unity of Christendom fractured, my research argues that cross-cultural exchanges remained vibrant and that we should still study the Greek East and the Latin West together. As a result, I have been interested in how religious and intellectual networks allowed for the spread of ideas from the sixth- and seventh-century Middle East to western Europe, even to as far as Britain, and how these networks were influenced by the papacy in Rome. I remain a keen Byzantinist, however, and I have also published on the political and religious history of the eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, with a particular focus on the sixth-century emperors Justinian and Justin II.
My work has also addressed the influence of eastern ideas on post-Roman authors, particularly Gregory of Tours in Gaul and the Venerable Bede in Northumbria, and together they argue for a more interconnected Christendom at the end of late antiquity. I am therefore keen to also emphasise the importance of taking a transnational, even global, perspective on early medieval history.
Supervision
I would be keen to hear from potential PhD candidates who are interested in the eastern Roman Empire, the post-Roman kingdoms (particularly in Merovingian Gaul and Britain), as well as cross-cultural connections in the world of late antiquity. My work so far has focused on the sixth and seventh centuries, but I will in the future broaden the chronological and geographical scope of my work on networks/church history, so I am likewise interested in supporting broader research projects on late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.