People

Project Directors

Michael J. Kelly is Visiting Assistant Professor in Classics and Comparative Literature at SUNY Binghamton. He is an interdisciplinary scholar who specializes in historical theory and the history of the early medieval Mediterranean. Michael received his PhD in History in 2015, from the University of Leeds, where he was supervised by Professor Ian Wood and wrote a thesis on Visigothic literature and law. At Leeds, Michael received a full PhD Scholarship, was twice awarded the annual extraordinary research prize, and served as an elected Postgraduate Representative on the History Research Committee. Michael is the General Director and Editor of the international open-access project Networks and Neighbours, and a co-editor of its Theory Series: Philosophies of History. He has published in English, Portuguese and Spanish, and is the author of historical and philosophical works, including Speculative Objectivity: A Radical Philosophy of History (NY: Punctum Books, 2017); with Arthur Rose, Theories of History: History Read Across the Humanities (London: Bloomsbury, 2017); and Alain Badiou: A Graphic Guide (London: Icon Books, 2014). 

Catalin Taranu is an Anglo-Saxonist who received his PhD from the University of Leeds, Institute for Medieval Studies in 2016. His work explores alternative modes of history-writing in Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia. His research interests include texts usually labelled ‘Germanic heroic poetry’ (Beowulf, the Waltharius, Norse fornaldarsögur), the deconstruction of those labels through a cultural studies paradigm, the modern and contemporary political uses and abuses of the early Middle Ages, and the philosophy of history (especially Walter Benjamin). Catalin has published in Viator and Florilegium, has taught medieval literature at Leeds, and organizes the Philosophies of History seminar series. He is currently working on publishing a monograph based on his thesis and is preparing an edited volume on the construction of truth in early medieval history-writing.