Alex Crawford, PH.D., FSAScot

Dr. Crawford is the Assistant Dean of Student Success and an Instructor of History. He completed his BA in history (2013) at Ave Maria University and an MLitt in Medieval & Early Modern Studies (2014) and PhD in  History (2019) at the University of Aberdeen. His teaching interests include Medieval Warfare, Medieval Court and Culture, Medievalism, and the influence of medieval art and mythology on the works of JRR Tolkien.

Dr. Crawford’s research examines the Scottish comital milieux at the royal court, considering the ways in which elite power was incorporated into the institutional government of the Scottish kingdom from the reign of David I to Alexander II (1124 to 1249). He is completing a monograph, which examines the earls’ governmental and legal capacities both within the provinces of their earldoms and at the Scottish royal court during this period. He is a member of the Society of Scottish Medievalists and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Academic Profile: https://avemaria.academia.edu/AlexanderCrawford

Current Research Projects

• Magnate and Court: The Earls and Realm of Scotland, 1124-1249: Monograph
• “Beyond Proximity: The Attendance of Elite Witnesses at the Scottish Royal Court (1153 to  1249)’: Journal Article Selected Conferences and Presentations
• “Marriage Alliances and the Transfer of Power: Marriages of  Princesses and Countesses in Thirteenth Century Scotland”. Presented at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, May 9-11,  2024.
• “Beyond Proximity: The Attendance of Elite Witnesses at the Scottish Royal Court (1124-1249)”. Presented at the 42nd    International Haskins Conference in Richmond, November 3-5,  2023.
• “Magnates and Curiales: Attestation Appearances of Witnesses in Twelfth Century Scottish Royal Acts”. Presented at the  Conference, “Status, Rank, or Office?: Social Boundaries in England, c. 900-1200”,  in Durham, July 8-10, 2023.
• “‘Rank and File’: A Quantitative Approach to the Evidence of Scottish Charter Witness Lists (1165-1249)’. Presented at the International PG Symposium of the Universities of Aberdeen and Trinity College Dublin. Scotland, Ireland and Empire:    International Postgraduate Symposium, 2-4 April  2017.
• “Inclusivity and Exclusivity; Participation and Alienation’: A Comparison of Radical Protest and Rebellion in Thirteenth Century Scotland and England’. Presented at the  Workshop on Radical Protest in Constitutional Democracy organized by the Centre for Studies on Citizenship, Civil Society, and Rule of Law, 6-9 June 2016.
• ‘‘Ceterisque Probis Hominibus Suis Universis’: ‘Political Community’ in the Reigns of William I and Alexander II (1165-1249)’. Presented at the Conference on Political Community: Historical Perspectives hosted by the Centre for Studies on Citizenship, Civil Society, and Rule of Law and the Centre for Early Modern Studies, 27 May 2016.
• ‘Inter Magnates Scotiae Potentissimus Habebatur’: Comital Precedence and Prestige in Twelfth and Thirteenth Century    Scottish Witness Lists’. Presented at the Northeast Postgraduate History Conference including the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, St. Andrews, and Highlands and Islands, hosted by the University of Aberdeen History Department, 30 April  2016.
• ‘‘Tot Erant Reges Vel Reguli’: Family, Faction, and Political Interactions in Thirteenth Century Scotland’. Presented to the History Department of Ave Maria University, Ave Maria University, 19 November 2015.
• A. Crawford, W. Peters, and A. Wyner, ‘A Text Analytic Approach to Urban and Rural Legal Histories’. Presented at the Workshop on Textual Digital Humanities and Social Sciences hosted by the University of Aberdeen, 21-22 September 2015.
• ‘New Horizons in Scottish Medieval History: A Computer Assisted Prosopography of Scottish Noble Society, 1153-1249.’ Presented at the 21st Annual Postgraduate Medieval Studies Conference hosted by the History Department of Bristol University, 28 February- 1 March  2015.
• ‘Tot erant reges vel reguli’: Family, ‘Faction’, and Political Interactions in the Reign of Alexander II: 1214-1249’. Presented at the Conference of Scottish Medievalists, 10-11 January 2015. Conferences Organized
• ‘Political Community: Historical Perspectives’, hosted by the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society, and Rule of Law (CISRUL) and the Centre for Early Modern Studies (CEMS), University of Aberdeen, May  2016.-https://cisrul.blog/historicalperspectivespoliticalcommunity/
• ‘Northeast Postgraduate History Conference’, hosted by the History Department’s Postgraduate Seminar Series, University of Aberdeen, April 2016.