John Latham-Sprinkle is joining SHOC as a postdoctoral researcher.
John studied for his BA in History at King’s College London, and for MA degrees in Medieval History and Historical Research Methods at the University of Leeds and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He gained his PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2019. He is a specialist in the pre-modern history of the North Caucasus– a fascinating region at the crossroads of Eurasia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. His research studies the interaction of the indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus with the empires that contended over this region, while seeking to place the Caucasus within broader narratives of global history. He has previously held teaching positions at Saint Xavier University and Wilbur Wright College in Chicago, USA, and postdoctoral fellowships at Ghent University, funded by the university’s Special Research Fund and the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO). He is also a co-ordinator of the Medieval Caucasus Network (https://medievalcaucasus.org/).
John’s PhD research concentrated on the links between medieval North Caucasian Christianisation and the formation of kingdoms. A book deriving from this PhD, entitled The North Caucasian Kingdom of Alania, 850-1240, will be published next year by Cambridge University Press. John’s research at SHOC will concentrate on the North Caucasian slave trade. The Northwest Caucasus was one of medieval Europe’s largest sources of enslaved people, and became a principal source of slaves for the Egyptian Mamlūk Sultanate, the Iranian ṣafavīd Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. However, the study of this slave trade, the study of Caucasian societies, and the study of global processes have remained disconnected, largely due to contemporary political and historiographical barriers. John’s research will seek to bridge these gaps, concentrating on the transfer of techniques of enslavement from the Black Sea to the Atlantic, and emergent regimes of racialisation.