Caitlin John
Thornley Fellow 2022-23
Caitlin is a final year PhD candidate at University College London. Her research interests are in medieval urban and comparative history. Her doctoral thesis is titled ‘Cities of the Living and the Dead: Cemeteries in Late Medieval Cairo, Paris and Beyond’.
Caitlin's Research
Caitlin’s PhD thesis adopts a microhistorical approach to illuminate the understudied space of the cemetery in late medieval Cairo and Paris. It argues that cemeteries were key urban spaces and that, by focusing on them in a comparative perspective, much can be revealed about the dynamics of space, power and people in these cities.
This work is supervised by Dr Patrick Lantschner (UCL) and Professor Yossef Rapoport (QMUL). She completed her Master’s degree at the University of Oxford, before returning to UCL, where she also completed her undergraduate degree, having been awarded a LAHP doctoral studentship.
Publications
‘Urban Space, Power and People through the Optic of Cemeteries in Late Medieval Cairo and Paris’, Urban History, published online at Urban History, First View. Forthcoming in print volume (winner of the 2021 Dyos Prize)