Dr Rebecca Oakes 

Research Fellow 

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences 

Rebecca.Oakes@winchester.ac.uk 

Department of History University of Winchester Winchester SO22 4NR

Biography

In 2002 I completed my undergraduate studies in History at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth before moving to the University of York for my MA in Medieval studies. I held a PhD studentship at the University of Winchester 2004-7 and in February 2009 I was awarded my doctorate. My doctoral thesis focussed on mortality and life expectancy among the medieval scholars of Winchester College and New College, Oxford and was examined by Professor Richard Smith (University of Cambridge) and Professor Anne Curry (University of Southampton). I am the recipient of the Economic History Society Eileen Power fellowship for 2009-10 and I am currently working on a comparative study of mortality among scholars at King’s College, Cambridge as a Visiting Scholar at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. (Details of this project can be found at http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/kingsmortality/ )

Expertise

Rebecca’s main area of expertise is the economic and social history of late medieval England. Her doctoral research on late medieval mortality and life expectancy has also allowed her to develop a range of skills in demographic history and analysis. Through this research she has become proficient with the design and construction of databases, demographic techniques and statistical analysis.

Rebecca has taught on a number of undergraduate history modules in both historical methods and medieval history. She also has experience teaching history at A-Level and Key Stage 4 as a sabbatical cover teacher at Winchester College.

Publications

In Preparation:

  • Greater Expectations: new evidence for medieval mortality and life expectancy (This article is based upon my doctoral research and is currently in preparation)

Unpublished work:

  • Mortality and life expectancy: Winchester College and New College, Oxford c. 1393 – c. 1540, unpublished PhD, University of Southampton

Seminars and Conference Papers:

  • ‘Greater expectations: new evidence for medieval mortality and life expectancy’, British Society for Population Studies annual conference, Bournemouth, September 2009
  • ‘New Perspectives on mortality in medieval England: a comparison of Winchester and New Colleges (c. 1393 – 1540) with the Benedictine monasteries at Canterbury, Westminster and Durham’, HPSS Wellcome Trust workshop: Death, disease, environment and social status, Cambridge, May 2009
  • ‘Greater Expectations: new evidence for mortality and life expectancy in late medieval England’, History for Population and Social Structure lunchtime seminar, University of Cambridge, February 2009
  • ‘Death in the classroom: mortality at Winchester College and New College, Oxford 1393-c.1540’, Fifteenth Century conference, Aberystwyth, September 2008
  • ‘A demographic study of Winchester College and New College, Oxford, 1392-1540’, Economic History Society annual conference, Nottingham. (New Researcher paper), March 2008
  • ‘Mortality among the young in fifteenth century England: new evidence from Winchester College and New College, Oxford’, Institute for Historical Research Late Medieval Seminar, October 2007
  • ‘Medieval colleges: the value of Winchester College and New College, Oxford as case studies in the examination of late medieval demographic history’, British Society for Population Studies annual conference, St. Andrews, September 2007
  • ‘Winchester Scholars – their origins and later careers, 1392 – 1540’, Historical Association Centenary Celebration day conference (Winchester Branch): The History of Winchester College, June 2006
  • ‘The scholars of Winchester College – a demographic case study for the late medieval period – preliminary results’, Economic History Society residential course for postgraduate students in economic and social history, June 2006
  • ‘A prosopographical study of the scholars of Winchester College and New College, Oxford c. 1392 – c. 1540’, ESRC Social Change in the History of Education, March 2006
  • ‘The scholars of Winchester College and New College Oxford c. 1392 – c. 1540’, Centre for Wessex History and Archaeology Seminar series, March 2006
  • ‘Post Black Death population changes – Winchester College and New College Oxford as a demographic case study’, University of Winchester Research and Knowledge Transfer day, February 2006
  • ‘York Minster – the offertory box of York?’, Leeds International Medieval Congress, July 2004
  • ‘Late Medieval health and diet at the Gilbertine priory, Fishergate, York’, York – Canterbury postgraduate conference, June 2003
  • ‘Pennies to Heaven – donations to York Minster in the 1460s – 1480s’, Richard III Society conference, April 2003

Research Interests

My research interests focus primarily on the population history of late medieval period after the Black Death. Using medieval colleges as a case study I have been employing demographic techniques to examine mortality and life expectancy from the late fourteenth to mid-sixteenth centuries. I am currently developing my research to examine the demographic transition between the late medieval and early modern period.

I am also interested in medieval colleges more generally, including the living conditions within them, their relationship to their parent towns, and the role of these institutions in the formation of an ecclesiastical elite in medieval England.

Funding Awards and Professional Membership

Funding Awards

  • 2009/10 Economic History Society Eileen Power Fellowship, Institute of Historical Research
  • 2006/7 Scouloudi Fellowship, Institute of Historical Research
  • 2004-7 PhD studentship, University of Winchester (February 2004 – January 2007)
  • 2003/4 University of York MA studentship, University of York, Centre for Medieval Studies
  • 2003/4 MA bursary, Richard III Society

Membership

  • Member of Institute of Historical Research
  • Member of The Economic History Society
  • Member of The British Society for Population Studies
  • Committee member of the Winchester Branch of the Historical Association