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Feltham Benjamin, The North Sea world in the 8th to 11th centuries, (dir. Mark Whittow, University of Oxford)En cours depuis 2013/In preparation since 2013Résumé/abstract :My research concerns the North Sea and its societies from the ninth to twelfth centuries, aiming in particular to consider the extent to which engagement with the North Sea shaped those societies and tied their fortunes together. Central to the thesis is the question of whether the North Sea can, or should, be viewed as a distinctive historical unit, akin to the Mediterranean. Methodologically I am interested in dealing with some of the problems and possibilities of regional history, and especially with the legacy of Fernand Braudel; some of which issues have been brought back into the frame of current debate by work such as Horden and Purcell’s The Corrupting Sea, which partly inspired my approach. The study is broken up into manageable regional chunks, to be examined with specific themes in mind: the Humber Estuary, the Elbe Estuary, Orkney and both the Danish and Norwegian sides of the Skaggerak. The evidence being used is primarily archaeological and topographical, with a view to developing a strong sense of place as much as of local ecological circumstances and socio-economic forms and changes.[Source : http://www.ohgn.org/profile/benjamin-feltha/705]