Alex Woolf

Biography

After an abortive year of Scandinavian Studies at UCL in 1982-3, he returned to University to take a Joint Honours Degree in Medieval English and Medieval History at Sheffield in 1989. This was followed by an M.Phil. by Research in the Archaeology of Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Remaining in Sheffield he embarked upon doctoral study looking at Ethnic Replacement in Sub-Roman Britain, before being appointed to a Lectureship in Archaeology at the University of Wales, Lampeter, in 1995. Two years later he took up a lectureship in Celtic and Early Scottish history and Culture at the University of Edinburgh, where he remained until 2001. Since 2001 he have been first a lecturer and later senior lecturer in History at St Andrews.

Research Interest

Alex Woolf research falls into two main areas. Firstly there is ‘teaching-led’ research relating to early Scottish History which has resulted in his textbook From Pictland to Alba and numerous articles. Beyond this the focus of much of his work could be said to be the development of centralised kingdoms from Iron Age societies and the relationship between language shift and socio-economic history. This thematic focus explains the broad geographical and chronological spread of my work. Within this broad range my central area of interest lies in the period c.450-1050 with something of a bias towards the earlier part of the period. His teaching, in which he attempt to maintain a balance between my commitment to the Scottish History programme and the wider cultural context which is necessary for understanding it, attempts to reflect this range.