Alaric Hall

Alaric Hall
Hall in 2021
Born	1979 (age 45–46)
Nationality	British
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Cambridge University of Glasgow
Academic work
Discipline	Anglo-Saxon studies Old Norse studies
Institutions	University of Leeds
Main interests	Anglo-Saxon England Icelandic Old English Middle English
Notable works	Elves in Anglo-Saxon England (2007)

Alaric Hall (born 1979) is a British philologist who is an associate professor of English and former director of the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. He has, since 2009, been the editor of the academic journal Leeds Studies in English and its successor Leeds Medieval Studies.[1][2]

Biography

Hall received his B.A. in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge, his M.Phil. in Medieval Studies from the University of Glasgow, and his Ph.D. in English from the University of Glasgow. His Ph.D. thesis was on elves in Anglo-Saxon England.[3]

He then became an associate professor of English and director of the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. Hall researches and teaches the languages, cultures and history of Northwest Europe in the Middle Ages. He has written and edited several works on these subjects. Hall has written on Icelandic language and literature.[4]

His 2007 book Elves in Anglo-Saxon England received positive academic reviews. The medievalist and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey described the work as an "exceptionally thorough study", while the Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi called it a "solidly scholarly work, with meticulous discussion of philological matters, and also an open-minded (although strictly evidence-based) attempt to look at the bigger picture."[5][6][7]

Politics

Hall is an environmental campaigner, and since 2018 has regularly stood for election to Leeds City Council for the Green Party of England and Wales.[8][9][10] For most of the 2010s he was a resident of the Leeds eco-building Greenhouse and was active in community organising in the local area of Beeston and Holbeck.[11][12][13][14] His activities included campaigning in relation to the United Kingdom cladding crisis.[15]

Within academia, Hall supports open-access publishing and has made his own research freely available online.[16] Correspondingly, he edits Wikipedia, and incorporates editing into his teaching and research at the University of Leeds.[17][18][19] He is a member of the University and College Union, campaigning during the 2013 and 2018–2020 UK higher education strikes.[20][21][22]

Select bibliography

• Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity, 2007
• Interfaces Between Language and Culture in Medieval England, 2010
• Útrásarvíkingar: The Literature of the Icelandic Financial Crisis (2008–2014), 2020

See also

• Songs for the Philologists

References

1. Hall, Alaric, "Editorial Preface", Leeds Studies in English, n. s. 40 (2009), [iii].
2. Hall, Alaric, "Editorial Note", Leeds Studies in English, n. s. 49 (2018), [iii].
3. "Alaric's CV". Alaric Hall. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
4. "Dr Alaric Hall". University of Leeds. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
5. Shippey, Tom A. (2008). "Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity". The English Historical Review. CXXIII (502): 694–695. doi:10.1093/ehr/cen116. ISSN 0013-8266.
6. Jolly, Karen (2008). "Alaric Hall, Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity". Anglia. 126 (3): 537–540. doi:10.1515/angl.2008.072. ISSN 0340-5222. S2CID 143497138.
7. Fimi, Dimitra (2008). "Review of Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity". Folklore. 119 (3): 349–351. doi:10.1080/00155870802352301. ISSN 0015-587X. JSTOR 40646474. S2CID 216643328.
8. 'Hunslet & Riverside Ward', South Leeds Life ([May] 2018).
9. 'Beeston & Holbeck Ward', South Leeds Life ([April] 2019).
10. Beecham, Richard, 'Full List of Leeds Local Election Candidates', The Yorkshire Evening Post (8 April 2021).
11. Lonsdale, Sarah, 'Eco Living: We Need More Energy-efficient Homes', The Daily Telegraph (19 March 2014).
12. Lonsdale, Sarah, 'A More Eco-Friendly Way of Life', The Sunday Telegraph (27 February 2014), supplement: lifestyle, p. 13.
13. Alaric Hall, 'Looking forward to 2019 with St Luke’s Tenants and Residents', South Leeds Life (3 January 2019).
14. McCormick, Sebastian (7 April 2022). "All the candidates and parties standing for election in Leeds". LeedsLive. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
15. Carlisle, Ed, 'Cladding: The Nightmare Continues', South Leeds Life (25 February 2021).
16. The University of Nottingham, 'Open Access and Creative Commons' (2012).
17. 'RDMengage Project Update: Local Before Global' (14 September 2018).
18. Hall, Alaric, 'How to Change (Medieval) History', The Public Medievalist (7 February 2019).
19. Sheppard, Nick, "Wikimedia in Universities: An Untapped Potential", Wikimedia: Information Literacy Group (9 December 2019).
20. Stevens, Robert, 'UK Lecturers and Academic Staff Stage One-day National Strike', World Socialist Web Site (2 November 2013).
21. Leeds Green Party, 'The Green Party Supports University Staff in their Strike to Protect Pensions in Leeds' (22 February 2018).
22. Sherratt, Madeline, 'We Rally With You: Why the University Strikes are a Force of Good', The Postit (28 November 2019).