Professor Kim Marie Phillips

Biography

Kim Phillips is Professor in History at the University of Auckland, where she has taught since 1997. Kim's teaching and research centres on medieval Europe in its global context, with special interest in histories of women, gender, and sexualities. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, she studied at the University of Melbourne (BA Hons, 1991) and the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, UK (DPhil 1998).

Research | Current

• Medieval Europe, c. 1100-1550
• Women's and gender history
• Youth and lifecycle history
• History of sexuality and the body
• Medieval travel and ethnographic writing
• Cross-cultural encounters

Kim Phillips’s research explores medieval European cultures, societies and global interactions (1100–1550), with particular interests in women, gender, sexualities, life cycle, travel, cross-cultural encounters, and ethnicities. She is the author or co-author of three books, editor or co-editor of four collections of scholarly essays, and author of many refereed journal articles and book chapters, encyclopaedia entries, and review essays. At present she is working on a book on meanings of the female breast in medieval European cultures and societies and has publications forthcoming on medieval youth, premodern beauty ideals, wet-nursing in medieval England, and medieval women travellers.

Teaching | Current

HISTORY 300 Thinking History: Approaches to the past

HISTORY 736 Medieval Women, c.1100-1500

Postgraduate supervision

PHD (2017-2020)                                                                                                                                                     

 

Victoria Munn, 'Flowing Tresses: The Practical Treatment and Cultural History of Hair in Early Modern Europe' (2020-ongoing, second supervisor)

John P. Collins, ‘The Professionalisation of Surgery: An Examination of Surgeon-Patient Encounters in Britain 1750-1850’ (2016-2020, second supervisor)

Emma Sadera, ‘A wench was condemn’d: Sexual Transgression and Infanticide in Late Seventeenth-Century England’ (2015-ongoing, main supervisor)

Alexandra Donnison, ‘Women, the Body, and Society in Late Renaissance Italy: Medicine and the Female Patient’ (2013-ongoing, main supervisor).

Past PhDs

Lisa Hawes, "Kissing Christ: The Masculine Performance of Religious Ecstasy" (2007- 2012, main supervisor).

Michelle Smith, "Assessing Gender in the Formation of Medieval Scottish Identities, c. 1286-c. 1586" (2005-2009, main supervisor).

Kerryn Olsen, "Questions of Identity: Rewriting Anglo-Saxon Female Saints in Post-Conquest England, c. 1066-c. 1500" (2005-2009, co-supervisor and main supervisor).

Lindsay Diggelmann, "Marriage, Inheritance and the Balance of Power in Twelfth-Century England and France" (2001-2004, main supervisor).  

MA (2017-2020)

Nicholas Ringwood, 'A Micro-Study of Sexual Offenses in Late-Medieval England: The Evidence from the Courts of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, 1336-1349’ (2020-22, sole supervisor)

Tessa Myers-Oxnam, 'Magic, Blood, and the Feminine in Medieval Jewish Medicine' (2018-20, sole supervisor)

Hannah Pym, ‘Royal Daughters: Princesses in England c. 1300-1550' (2017, sole supervisor)

Jessica Thomas, ‘Healing in the Old English Herbarium’ (2017, sole supervisor)

Past MAs: 18 MA projects (1998-2013)

BA (Hons) Dissertations and Research Essays (2017-2020)

Ian Jost, ‘The Modern Reinvention of Hildegard of Bingen: Medievalism and Contemporary Approaches (2020, sole supervisor).

Ceilidh Neilson, ‘Twelfth Century Renaissance and Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium’ (2020, sole supervisor).

Leticia Pala, ‘Melisende of Jerusalem: Rulership, Power and Patronage in the Latin East’ (2020, sole supervisor)

Kieran van Leeuwen​, 'Contemporary Accounts of Timur: Ibn Arabshah, Clavijo and Ibn Khaldūn' (2019, sole supervisor).

Quein MacLeod, 'The Rise and Function of Holy Women' (2019, sole supervisor).

Megan Shaw, 'Beauty and Ugliness in Medieval Europe' (2019, sole supervisor)

Kristina Mannes, ‘Christina of Norway, Infanta of Spain’ (2017, sole supervisor).

Past BA (Hons) Dissertations: 23 projects (2000-2016)

 

Distinctions/Honours

2018, December. Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index, 'Article of the month' for 'The Breasts of Virgins: Sexual Reputation and Young Women’s Bodies in Medieval Culture and Society." Cultural and Social History 15, 1 (2018): 1-19. https://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/ArticleOfTheMonthPrevious.aspx

2015. Nominated for the Jerry Bentley Prize in World History (American Historical Association) for Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014).

2005-9. President, Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS).

2005. Faculty of Arts Teaching Excellence Award, for ‘Sustained Excellence in Teaching’

2005-7. Marsden Fast-Start Award, Royal Society of New Zealand

2001-3. Early Career Research Excellence Award, University of Auckland

1993-6. Commonwealth Scholarship to the University of York

 

Responsibilities

Current

Graduate Studies Advisor (History)

Undergraduate Studies Advisor (History)

Past

Deputy Head of School, Academic (2017-2019)

School Director, Academic (School of Humanities) (2016-2017)

Graduate Studies Adviser (History) (2005-2007, 2014)

Undergraduate Studies Adviser (History) (2008-2010, 2013, 2015-2018)

Study Abroad Adviser (2015-2018)

Deputy Head of Department (2013)

 

 

Areas of expertise

Medieval Europe, c. 1100-1550. Medieval women's and gender history, youth and lifecycle history, history of sexuality and the body, travel and ethnographic writing, cross-cultural encounters, .