Dr Shane McLeod
Institute for Northern Studies
Webster Building Room 823
Perth College UHI
Crieff Road
PH1 2NX
Available to talk to the media about
- The Vikings in England and Scotland, particularly in regard to migration, settlement and acculturation
- Viking warrior women
- The 'Great Viking Army'
In these languages
EnglishBiography
Dr Shane McLeod is originally from Australia, where he completed his PhD on The Beginning of Scandinavian Settlement in England: the Viking ‘Great Army’ and early settlers, c. 865-900 (published by Brepols in 2014) in 2011 at The University of Western Australia. He was an Impact Research Fellow at the University of Stirling 2013-2015 working on the landscapes of Viking burial sites in Scotland - Viking Burials in Scotland | Landscape and burials in the Viking Age (wordpress.com). He joined the Institute for Northern Studies in 2022.
Current research
Dr McLeod is currently investigating Viking harbours and sailing routes in Western Scotland.
Research groups and interests
Dr McLeod has a strong interest in the Viking migrations to Britain and Ireland, including issues of migration routes and demographics, cross-cultural identities and migrant adaptation. His work on migration led to an investigation of the sex ratios of Viking settlers, resulting in one of the formative articles in the surge of interest in ‘shieldmaidens’. He has worked extensively on the ‘great army’ in England, including a paper in-press which tries to locate the overnight camps used by the army on their campaigns. He is also interested in performative aspects of Viking funerals and was part of the Funeralscapes team who hosted re-enactments of medieval funerals at archaeologically attested burial sites on the Isle of Eigg in 2014.