(NEEDS IMAGE) Expert in medieval history hones her research skills at the University of Cambridge

Hope Williard received a scholarship from the Cambridge Overseas Trust, and studied an MPhil in Medieval History at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

Before coming to the University of Cambridge, Hope completed a Bachelor's degree in Medieval Cultures at Brown University. During this degree, she had the opportunity to study for a year as an exchange student at Oxford, which sparked her interest in returning to the UK for an advanced degree.

Hope completed her Brown degree in Spring 2011, graduating with Honours.

Hope’s work in Cambridge focused on a sixth-century Frankish letter collection. The medieval history MPhil requires a demanding and exciting amount of coursework, and her knowledge of manuscript studies and early medieval history advanced tremendously over the course of the year.

Outside of Hope’s academic work, she is a classical violist and violinist, and played in several Cambridge groups, such as the Cambridge University Concert Orchestra and Cambridge University String Ensemble.

On completion of her MPhil, Hope continued with a PhD in History at the University of Leeds, for which she was awarded a fully-funded International Research Scholarship.

Since 2017, she has worked as Academic Subject Librarian at the University of Lincoln. She first joined the university as an Associate Lecturer in 2016.

She continues her work as a researcher and published her first book, Friendship in the Merovingian Kingdoms: Venantius Fortunatus and His Contemporaries, in 2022.

Hope says of her time at the University of Cambridge, “I will leave Cambridge, but the friendships and knowledge I have gained here will go with me.”