New Podcast Episode on the New Books Network: Rebecca Hardie

Medieval Institute Publications partners with the New Books Network, a consortium of author-interview podcast channels dedicated to introducing scholars to a wide public via new media, to produce podcast episodes featuring interviews with MIP authors.

In this episode on the New Books Network, we talk to Rebecca Hardie about Æthelflæd, the "Lady of the Mercians"; "exceptional" women; gender, power, and agency in early medieval England; and more. As always, we end with a fascinating discussion based around what the book can tell us about what it has meant to be human throughout the ages.

Æthelflæd (ca. 870–918), political leader, military strategist, and administrator of law, is one of the most important ruling women in English history. Despite her multifaceted roles and family legacy, however, her reign and relationship with other women in tenth-century England have never been the subject of a book-length study. This interdisciplinary collection of essays redresses a notable hiatus in scholarship of early medieval England. This volume argues for a reassessment of women’s political, military, literary, and domestic agency. It invites deeper reflection on the female kinships, networks, and communities that give meaning to Æthelflæd’s life, and through this shows how medieval history can invite new engagements with the past.

ISBN: 978-1-50151-761-7 (clothbound), 978-1-50151-242-1 (PDF), 978-1-50151-225-4 (EPUB), © 2023