Dr Nick Evans

Overview

Biography

I am an early medieval historian, specialising in Byzantium, the Caucasus and the Eurasian steppe. I joined Birkbeck in 2024, having previously held research posts at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Clare College, Cambridge and teaching posts at King's College London and the University of Leeds. My undergraduate and postgraduate studies were at the University of Oxford.

My first book, currently under review with Oxford University Press, investigates the early medieval history of the highlanders of the North Caucasus, in what is now the Russian Federation. My current research projects concern the medieval history of the western steppes, and medieval economic anthropology in Islam, Byzantium and the west.

I am a Researcher on the Ukrainian History Global Initiative (https://uhgi.org/), an Associate Researcher at the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge, and a College Research Associate at King's College, Cambridge.

Visiting posts

• Associate Researcher, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge,
• College Research Associate, King's College, Cambridge,

Professional memberships

• Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

• Member of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies

• Member of the British Association of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies

• Member of the Slavonic and East European Medieval Studies Group

• Co-convenor of the Medieval Caucasus Network

• Member of Middle East Medievalists

• Member of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies

• Member of the British Association for the Study of Ukraine

ORCID

0000-0001-8725-0042

Research

Research overview

My research integrates material culture and the textual sources to investigate the social and economic history of the West Eurasian steppe and the frontiers of the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. I am also interested in the cultural and intellectual contexts of Ukrainian, Russian and Soviet archaeological scholarship.

One focus of my current research is medieval economic anthropology. The project compares western medieval, Byzantine and Muslim writing about economic behaviour in other societies, and explores the underlying assumptions about how economies work that this writing reveals. I am currently editing a special issue for the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society related to this research (https://royalhistsoc.org/five-research-projects-receive-transactions-workshop-grants/).

My other project concerns the nomadic empire of the Khazars, who controlled the steppes north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus in the early middle ages. I have been commissioned to write a book on the Khazars for the Brill Research Perspectives in Byzantine Studies series. I am also researching the significance of the Khazar Empire for Ukrainian history, within the Ukrainian History Global Initiative (https://uhgi.org/).

Supervision and teaching

Teaching

Teaching modules

• Medieval Text and Intertext (AREN190S7)
• Research Skills for Historians (SSHC386Z7)
• The Medieval World: From Constantine to the Khans (SSHC409S4)
• Space, Architecture and Landscapes of the Middle Ages (SSHC467S5)

Publications