Sinéad O’Sullivan, DPhil (Oxon), is Professor of Early Medieval Intellectual History, Queen’s University Belfast. Her research focuses on the reception of classical, biblical and late antique texts in the early medieval West. Her books establish the significance of annotations as evidence for the intellectual culture of the period, providing foundational groundwork on medieval ethics and learning. Early Medieval Glosses on Prudentius’s Psychomachia (Brill) is the first study (plus edition) of an influential gloss tradition on a late antique poem, the ‘Soul Battle’, that had profound influence throughout the Middle Ages and into the Early Modern era. Glossae aevi Carolini (Brepols, 654p.) is the first study (plus edition) of the oldest gloss tradition on Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis, the textbook for the liberal arts in the medieval West. Sinéad’s current book project probes unexplored glosses on Virgil and the Psalms as basis for a Carolingian poetry of empire, c. 750-900.

A fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London, Sinéad is associate editor for The Journal of Medieval Latin (Brepols) and contributes to international research projects at Galway, Oslo, Princeton and Vienna. She held an AHRC Leadership fellowship for her project on crafting knowledge in the early medieval West (2020-2021), a Leverhulme International Fellowship on encoding knowledge in the textual culture of the early Middle Ages (2017), and an AHRC Research Fellowship on Martianus Capella (2009-2010). She was chief editor of a major research volume (2023), co-editor of another (2011), and guest editor for an international digital project at the Huygens Institute, Leiden (2004-2009). Sinéad has organised/co-organised international conferences (The Hague, Leiden, Belfast) and a public exhibition (Belfast, 2021). She has held fellowships at the Huygens ING, Amsterdam (2017); Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris (2017); Greek and Latin Philology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich (2017); Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Galway (2017); Scaliger Institute, Leiden (2005).

Previous awards include a National University of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship (2003-2005), Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship, Irish Research Council (2001-2002), Wingate Scholarship, Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, London (1998-1999), Rhodes Scholarship, Rhodes Trust, Oxford (1995-1998), Olwyn Rhys Scholarship, St Anne’s College, Oxford (1995-1997), DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) awards (Munich 2002 and Heidelberg 1991), and a Research Fellowship, University of Konstanz (1992-1993). 

Sinead O'Sullivan teaches on the following programmes / modules:

Undergraduate/Postgraduate

Relevant Websites

Full CV at https://sineadosullivansite.wordpress.com/

Current project: https://craftingknowledge.wordpress.com/

Colloquium: Crafting knowledge in the early medieval book: practices of collecting and concealing, Queen’s University, Belfast, 12-13 July 2021

Public Exhibition: ‘Ciphers, Codes and Notes: Crafting Knowledge in the Medieval and Modern Worlds.’ The McClay Library.

Online Exhibition: Ciphers, Codes, and Notes: Crafting Knowledge in the Medieval and Modern Worlds. 

Public Engagement Event: Ciphers and Codes, Past, Present, Future, The Great Hall, Queen's University, Belfast (Schools of HAPP and EEECS & Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London)

Online Lecture: IHR Earlier Middle Ages Seminar: Reading the Psalms in the Carolingian Age.

Podcast: How and Why History: Who was Charlemagne https://tv.historyhit.com/?fbclid=IwAR244owq5LwBnOUweKqbAYbAEDTYx19SUq10hivHJhURN_Gn1xFxwhp7rOc