Dr. Sarah Foot

Biography

Professor Sarah Foot is the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford, focusing on ecclesiastical history during the early Middle Ages. Her research interests include medieval monasticism, particularly the role of monasteries within the Anglo-Saxon Church, and the contribution of medieval women to religion. She has initiated a project on the Venerable Bede, studying his extensive writings, which encompass biblical exegesis, homilies, scientific texts, hagiography, and historical writing in a broad patristic and early medieval context. Her wider scholarly interests address the place of the Church and societies in medieval Western Europe, Christian-pagan relations, the invention of the English imagined community, and the development of historical writing in the early medieval West. Among her significant projects is the completion of an edition of Anglo-Saxon Charters for Bury St Edmunds Abbey and St Benet’s Holme, published with the British Academy in 2018. She is also working on a biography entitled 'Bede: Venerable Bede: Located Life' contracted with Princeton University Press and a revised translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History for the Oxford World Classics series. Professor Foot supervises graduate students focusing on various aspects of medieval ecclesiastical history, particularly those interested in the period before c. 1200, and has overseen numerous doctoral theses in related fields.

Research Interests