Maya Smith
College affiliation:
Wolfson College
Previous Degrees:
- Completed concurrent triple bachelor’s degrees in Economics (BA), Classics (BA), Medieval History (BA) at Brown University from 2018-2022.
- Completed MSt Medieval Studies from Oxford, St. Cross College in 2024, with a thesis entitled ‘Pre-Conquest English Manuscript Pigments as Hallmarks of Trade and Exchange: Contacts, Communication, and Scribal Practices’, receiving a first on both the thesis and my English paleography examination.
Research Interests:
Manuscripts, medieval economics, application of scientific theory to historical research (Hyperspectral Imaging, Raman Spectroscopy).
Dissertation:
My first master’s thesis developed a new framework for understanding the medieval economy by demonstrating that that prestigious pigments in manuscripts, often found in a limited set of geographies in the medieval period, can serve as a previously-inaccessible indicators of trade. By identifying the composition of pigments through non-invasive scientific techniques and coupling this evidence with centuries of paleographic scholarship, which allows manuscripts to be ascribable to a distinct scriptorium and timeframe, the framework allowed me to trace unrecognized trade routes which spanned the medieval world.
While my work has previously focused on early medieval England, during my research at the Khalili Centre I will be broadening my horizons and turning to the manuscripts of the Mediterranean and Near East, incorporating new geographies to better-understand the interconnectedness of the Islamic world and the medieval economy as a whole.
Scholarships/Awards:
- Classics Department Grant (Brown University) - Granted funding for materials to create a manuscript from scratch using contemporary materials and technique. See: https://classics.brown.edu/news/2020-02-03/maya-smith
- Wolfson Marriott Scholarship (Oxford University)
