Project Manager and Co-Editor: Maryanne Kowaleski (Joseph Fitzpatrick SJ Distinguished Emerita Professor of History and Medieval Studies) has designed the database structure, set the protocols for name linkage, done initial name linkage, written the descriptions of sources and other text on the site, and serves as the contact person with external collaborators. She is also Webmaster for the Center for Medieval Studies and has published research on medieval maritime history, towns, demography, gender, and the digital humanities.
Technical Director and Contributing Editor: Katherina Fostano, MLIS (Visual and Digital Resources Coordinator for the Art History and Music Department and for the Center of Medieval Studies at Fordham). She helps define the technological strategies for MLD in conjunction with the editors and Fordham IT. She oversees the technical design for the MLD database, the Omeka S theme and module, along with the development of the MLD RDF vocabulary and ontology for our Linked Open Data initiative. Katherina has a Masters in Information and Library Science, and in the History of Art and Design from Pratt.
Co-Editor and Digital Advisor: John A. McEwan (Assistant Professor, Digital Humanities, Saint Louis University; Director of the Walter J. Ong, S.J. Center for Digital Humanities) joined the project in summer 2019 and will be contributing data from his previous research on twelfth- and thirteenth-century Londoners to MLD. He also advises on digital matters, including plans for a mapping component. His publications include research on medieval seals, medieval urban communities, the history of information technology, and digital humanities.
Associate Editor, Data Developer and Analyst: Elizabeth Duchovni (M.A. student, Medieval Studies) heads our efforts to automate the conversion of html source material into database records within our Londoners schema. Using a variety of open source tools (primarily Perl and jq), she has helped create customized programs for data validation, extraction, and reformatting. In addition, she advises on issues of database content and name linkage. She has a Ph.D. in Mathematics and is writing a thesis on medieval English navigation between the years 1200 to 1500. Her interests also include medieval Icelandic literature, paleography, and the history of the English language.
Contributing Editor: Christie Olek (Ph.D. student, History) has focused her efforts on entering data on the London Grocers, MPs, hosptial personnel, cases in the coroners’ rolls, and the assize of nuisance. Her doctoral research focuses on the trial of a female medical healer in medieval Paris. She wrote a prosopographical study of apothecaries in medieval London for her M.A. thesis in Medieval Studies at Fordham.
Contributing Editor: Grace Campagna (M.A. Medieval Studies, Fordham University) joined the project in spring 2020 and has entered data on members of the Merchant Taylors company and on women into MLD. She wrote a Mannion Society History Honors thesis at Fordham University on the wives and widows of Merchant Taylors in 1450-1520/ Her M.A. thesis centered on a Zooniverse crowdsourcing project she created, “Get To Know Medieval Londoners.”
Contributing Editor: Kristin Uscinski, PhD (Lecturer, SUNY Purchase; Podcaster, Footnoting History) joined the project in Summer 2020 and has worked on material for Southwark, including the poll tax. She completed her PhD thesis at Fordham University on “Recipes for Women’s Healthcare in Medieval England” and is working on a Middle English edition of a medical recipe collection in the British Library.
Contributing Editor: Frances Eshleman (Ph.D. student, History, Fordham University) joined the project in Spring 2022 to work on transferring and structuring data from Sylvia Thrupp’s biographies of merchants in The Merchant Class of Medieval London, 1300-1500 (1948) for MLD. She is now entering notaries and summoners in MLD. For her M.A. in Medieval Studies, Frances wrote her thesis on “A Debt Unpaid: Proving Impotence in Late Medieval Ecclesiastical Courts.” She also served served as Project Lead for the Siege of Antioch Project at Fordham University from 2020 to 2022.
Contributing Editor: Morgan McMinn (Ph.D. student, History, West Virginia University) has recently drawn on a wide range of sources to complete a dataset of Londoners who worked as embroiderers. She is now entering the names of all male heads of religious houses in medieval London, as well as records for other London clergy. Her dissertation research focuses on a comparative analysis of internal and external relationships in three female and three male Benedictine houses in the diocese of Lincoln.
Contributing Editor: Olivia Geraci (MA student, Medieval Studies) joined the project in summer 2022 and started by structuring a dataset of all female heads of religious houses in London. Her next dataset pr0ject focuses on anchorites, hermits, and vowesses in London, which reflects her interest in women, religion, and piety.
Contributing Editor: Malcolm Richardson (Taylor Professor Emeritus, Louisiana State University) joined the project in 2021 and has been working on the clerk/lawyers in the royal courts at Westminster, especially those who had demonstrable connections with London other than simply parliamentary service. He also contributed the biographies of the royal chancery clerks during the c. 1377-1435 period. His previous work in the area includes The Medieval Chancery under Henry V (HMSO, 1999) and Middle Class Writing in Late Medieval London (Pickering and Chatto, 2011). He continues to research royal officials who had strong London connections and/or residences in the city, mostly 1377-1500.
Contributing Editor Marija Blašković (PhD, University of Vienna; Postdoctoral Fellow, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain) joined MLD in 2022 when she was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University. After focusing her efforts on the guild records of the Pinners and Wiresellers, she will use the prosopographical approach in her current research project FEMIber: Digitizing Women of Medieval Iberian Historiography.
Dylan Warnasiri (BA student, Fordham University) joined the project in 2023 to enter biographical information about the professional activities and business dealings of lawyers in medieval London. He is a double major in History and Medieval Studies who is writing a senior thesis on “Rights of Patronage in Medieval Portugal.” He plans to apply to law school
Project Alumni
Contributing Editor and Visual Design: David Howes (M.A. Medieval Studies, Fordham University) has taken the lead on the WordPress design of the website, entered information on civic officeholders into the database, worked on name linkage, and helped to correct data before upload to the Omeka database. He wrote his M.A. thesis on the development of the mayoralty in medieval England, including an analysis of the cursus honorem of the mayoralty in London and Exeter. His other interests include civic ceremonies, English-French relations from the twelfth to the thirteenth centuries, and urban culture. Active 2018-2020; now an officer in the U.S. Army.
Contributing Editor: Rachel Podd (Ph.D., History, Fordham University) joined the project in spring 2019 and has concentrated on entering data and doing name linkage for medical practitioners in medieval London. Her doctoral dissertation is on “Health in Late Medieval England: The Impact of Age, Sex, and Income on the Lived Experience,” and she recently published an article on maternal mortality in Continuity and Change (2020). She is currently teaching at St John’s School in Houston.
Contributing Editor: A. Peyton Seabolt (PhD student, History, Fordham University) is entering data on saddlers for MLD, focused for now on the Letter Books and deeds. She completed a M.A. thesis at Trent University on “The Social Impact of Horses in Medieval France, 1150-1300,” and is working to extend this research on medieval equestrian culture for her doctoral dissertation.
Contributing Editor: Ellie O’Dwyer (Junior, Kingston High School) contributed to MLD as part of an independent study project since she is interested in majoring in history in college. Her efforts focused on entering data on the London goldsmiths into MLD.