Patrick J. Geary

Geary researches and writes about European history between the end of the Roman Empire until ca. 1200. His influential studies have focused on culture and society in a period of weak state authority. He has written on such topics as the cult of saints' relics, aristocratic society, conflict resolution, the history of memory and oblivion, and the nature of ethnic identity and group identity in the Early Middle Ages. His scholarship on the misuse and instrumentaization of early medieval history by modern ethnic nationalist movements has been particularly influential and translated into over a dozen European and Asian languages. Currently he is co-PI of HistoGenes, a European Research Council Synergy Grant project studying population structure and mobility in the Carpathian Basin between ca. 400 and 900.