Robert Gallagher in a Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval History at the University of Kent (UK).
He completed his degrees at the Universities of York and Cambridge, and prior to joining Kent, he held postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and UPV/EHU, the latter as part of the Languages of Early Medieval Charters (www.ehu.eus/lemc) project.
His research is focused primarily around early medieval England, its literary cultures and its international connections. He is particularly interested in understanding the social roles and values that the written word held and offered individuals within early medieval societies.
In exploring these issues, his work encompasses questions of language choice, literacy, identity, uses of the past, patronage, authorship and textual performance, while he utilises a wide range of sources, including manuscripts, poetry, liturgy and letters.