Steven Ellis

Professor Ellis read History at Manchester University before working at the Institute of Irish Studies, Queens University, Belfast. He joined the History Department in Galway in 1976, was awarded a personal chair in 1991, and was appointed to the established chair of History in 2009. He served as Head of History 2004-11, and is presently Head of the School of Humanities. Elliss writings have been published in ten countries and in eight languages.  His early work focused on English society and institutions in Ireland.  Since the mid-1980s a prominent aspect of his research has been the development of perspectives on Irish history in a British context and on Ireland as one of the Tudor borderlands.  These perspectives were first explored in his Tudor Ireland , long the standard survey of the subject (extensively revised and extended for a new edition in 1998).  More recently, he has also worked on his native north of England and on British state formation more generally.  This work produced a pioneering analysis of marcher lordship and frontier society in the form of a monograph comparing Tudor Ireland and the English far north, and a comparative survey of early modern Britain and Ireland written from a New British perspective.  In recent years, he has been working on frontiers and regions in a European context:  his latest research has appeared in several edited volumes, particularly collections of essays associated with CLIOHRES, a Network of Excellence supported by the European Commissions 6supthsup Framework programme.  At present, he is completing a comparative study of Meath and Northumberland as frontier societies in the early Tudor state.  Ellis has taught a wide range of history undergraduate courses, in English and in Irish, covering aspects of Ireland 1169-1689, Britain 1272-1707, and continental Europe 1450-1789.  He has also contributed courses to interdisciplinary taught Masters programmes in Culture amp; Colonialism and Irish Studies.  In recent years, he has contributed sections on the English Pale in Ireland and the far north of England on team-taught modules for the MA in History.  Besides regularly serving as external examiner for PhD and Masters dissertations, and on Quality Reviews of History programmes, Ellis has also served at different times as external examiner for First-Cycle degree programmes in the Department of History, University of Ulster at Coleraine; the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen; the Department of History, University of Malta; and the Department of History, University of Strathclyde.

Ellissearly research focused on English society and institutions in Ireland. Since the mid-1980s a prominent aspect of his research has been the development of perspectives on Irish history in a British context and on Ireland as one of the Tudor borderlands. More recently, he has also worked on his native north of England and on British state formation more generally, with a comparative focus onmarcher lordship and frontier societies inTudor Ireland and the English far north, and workon late medieval and early modernBritain and Ireland written from a New British perspective.He has recently published a comparative study of Meath and Northumberland as frontier societies in the early Tudor state.

 I have taught at all levels of the undergraduate History programme, and also offered modules on the taught MA programmes in History, Irish Studies, and Culture amp; Colonialism.  The focus of my teaching has been on the late middle ages and early modern period in Ireland and Britain, plus Reformation Europe.  My teaching also reflects my interests in regional history, frontiers, and state formation, particularly the perspective now commonly described as The New British History.  Doctoral students whom I have recently supervised have completed dissertations on such topics as the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536-7), the rebellion of Leonard Dacre (1570) in northern England; and in regard to the Tudor conquest of Ireland, on the Reformation in the diocese of Meath, the extension of Tudor rule in Gaelic Leinster, the nobility of the English Pale in Ireland (1496-1566), and the transition from Gaelic lordship to English shire in Co. Galway.