Emeritus Professor Peter Ainsworth

Telephone: (0114) 222 2883

email: p.f.ainsworth@sheffield.ac.uk

Qualifications

BA Hons First Class, French Studies (University of Manchester), MA by research (University of Manchester), Doctorat de 3ème Cycle (Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris-III)

Biography

After two years at the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, I joined the University of Manchester in 1972 as a Lecturer, later becoming Senior Lecturer and Head of Department. In 1996 I went to a Chair of French at the University of Liverpool where I was Director of the Humanities Graduate School and Head of French and of the School of Modern Languages. In January 2001 I came to my Chair at Sheffield. Between 2003 and 2005 I was Director of Research for the Arts and Humanities Division. In September 2007 I was appointed Head of French. On 1st November 2009 I retired from the University and received the title Emeritus Professor of French.

I hold the title Chevalier dans l'ordre des Palmes Académiques (awarded by the French prime minister for services to French culture) and am a member of the Société de l´Histoire de France and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Research activities

Medieval French historiography, especially the Chronicles of Jean Froissart (c. 1337-c. 1404).
Applications of e-Science (digitisation and data grids) to the study of medieval manuscripts and edited texts.
PI on the AHRC-funded Online Froissart.

Professional activities

• Member of the AHRC Peer Review College to 2010
• Served on the Executives of the Universities Council for Modern Languages and Association of Professors and Heads of French
• Advisory Board, Reading Online Medieval Studies
• Editorial Committee, Advisory Board and Publications Committee, International Medieval Chronicle Society
• Comité de publication et de patronage, Nouvelle Bibliothèque du Moyen Age, Editions Honoré Champion, Paris
• Advisory Board, Liverpool Online Series

Current and recent research projects

• AHRC-funded Online Froissart (interactive electronic edition of a 14th-century chronicle)
• Online Froissart, Christine de Pizan Queen's Manuscript project (University of Edinburgh) and "ATILF" Laboratory, Dictionnaire du Moyen Français project (University of Nancy), CNRS and British Academy (linking the Online Froissart and Christine de Pizan resources to the online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français)
• "Cy commencent": Jehan Froissart et la guerre de Cent Ans, exhibition at the Musée de l'Armée, Invalides (Paris), 2 April to 4 July 2010, Galerie de l'Arsenal.
• Virtual Vellum, manuscript viewing tool for laptop, PC or grid (AHRC/EPSRC/JISC e-Science)
• Pegasus, online exhibitions and the grid (EPSRC and NSF)
• Froissart exhibition, Royal Armouries, Leeds (Dec 2007-April 2008); related events: Marseilles, Avignon, Carpentras and Aix-en-Provence libraries, 2008

Publications since 2007

• (with G. Croenen et al), Online Froissart, hrionline press (Sheffield, 2010)
  http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/onlinefroissart/
• ‘Editing, e-Science and exhibitions’, in Essays in later medieval French Literature. The legacy of Jane H.M. Taylor, edited by Rebecca Dixon, Durham Modern Languages Series, Manchester University Press (Manchester, 2010), 107-25.
• 'Les Chroniques de Froissart', catalogue de l'exposition du Musée de l'Armée, Art de l'enluminure déc 2009-fév 2010, no 31, Editions Faton (2009)
• ‘e-Science for medievalists: options, challenges, solutions and opportunities’, Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol 3 number 4 (2009), issue on e-Science for the Arts and Humanities (ed. S. Dunn and T. Blanke), 12 p.
• ‘Technologies nouvelles, manuscrits virtuels. La guerre de Cent Ans à travers les Chroniques de Jean Froissart’, in Medieval Historical Discourses. Essays in Honour of Professor Peter S. Noble, ed. Marianne J. Ailes, Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Françoise H.M. Le Saux, Reading Medieval Studies vol XXXIV (Reading, 2008), 21-34
• ‘Les représentations de villes dans les manuscrits de Froissart : d’un codex à l’autre’, Villes en guerre, XIVe-XVe siècles, sous la direction de Christiane Raynaud, Publications de l’Université de Provence, coll. « Le temps de l’histoire » (Aix-en-Provence, 2008), 13-42
• Jean Froissart, Chroniques, Troisième Livre. MS 865 de la Bibliothèque Municipale de Besançon, ed. Peter Ainsworth, tome 1, Editions Droz, “Textes Littéraires Français” (Geneva, 2007)
• Affective Communication in Design. Challenges for Researchers. Proceedings of a conference organised by The White Rose University Consortium, Leeds, UK June 21-22 2007, Taylor & Francis, CoDesign vol 3, supplement 1 (2007), 1-2, Guest Editors Tom Childs, Chris Rust, Peter Wright, Peter Ainsworth, Jim Nobbs. 210 p

Full list of publications

Postgraduate supervision

Thesis topics that I have supervised include:

• Study and edition of Jean Froissart's Chroniques Book IV, British Library MS Harley 4379-4380
• Study and edition of Jean Froissart's Chroniques Book I, Besançon Public Library MS 864
• 17th-century ornithological treatise by Faultrier (with Animal and Plant Sciences and History)

Teaching interests

To 2009, undergraduate language courses at all levels.

Specialist modules included "Reading French Poetry" and "Perceptions of Women in the Later Middle Ages and Early Renaissance". Taught postgraduate courses (Medieval French Language, Literature, and Research Skills for the Medievalist).