It was a rather gloomy day last week as Assistant Medieval History Prof. Paul Kershaw sat in his office in Randall Hall. Kershaw was quite familiar with the weather, though, seeing as he is from and lived most of his life in England.
"I don't miss the terrible weather, and I don't miss the fact that everyone seems to be always grumpy in England," Kershaw said in his British accent.
Yet the region where Kershaw grew up, in the northwestern area near Manchester, played a large part in his fascination with history.
"Just up the road from where I was brought up is the remains of another Roman road," Kershaw said. A big influence was just "growing up and seeing remains of the past around."
He studied at Kings College in London and later lectured at Birkbeck College. Before coming to the University, Kershaw was a researcher in the history and archaeology departments at University College, also located in London.
"I was in a big project in which we were trying to put together, on computer in a database, inscriptions from all over the [area]," Kershaw said. "I was sitting in a basement, typing away, dealing with all these fascinating inscriptions from the early Middle Ages."
Kershaw has now been teaching at the University since 2001, having applied for the job once he heard there was an opening for a medievalist.
This semester, he is teaching two courses in the European History department -- HIEU 100: Europe in the Early Middle Ages and HIEU 314: Anglo-Saxon England.
"You end up in a conversation of sorts with these figures from the past and try to understand their world," Kershaw said. "It's an attempt to come to some kind of understanding, entering into a rather strange conversation sometimes, but that's what I like -- getting to know them."
Kershaw said he hopes his students will be able to get a sense of this "conversation" with the past.
"As a historian, U.Va.'s a very good place to be," he said. "You've got wonderful facilities, the library's fantastic. I'm definitely happy here ... I think the thing about U.Va. is that people actually like being here. I suspect that's not something that can be said for every institution."
Kershaw mentioned that, outside of teaching, he also enjoys playing the guitar and traveling through both Europe and the United States.
"I've always been stuck to the Eastern seaboard, and before I came here to teach, I've been here on various holidays, but I've never really explored much," Kershaw said. "I'd like to do some more of that, but I'll have to learn to drive."
Kershaw said though he has felt the need to learn to drive, he has just never gotten around to learning.
Some people "are convinced I will never drive, and if I learn to drive it will be a sign that something radical must be happening in the world," Kershaw said. "It limits me really, but I like walking, especially this time of year. It's nice to walk around, check on the squirrels and see what they're up to."
Kershaw admitted he seems to exist in a sort of medieval mode, but besides his incapability to drive, he could not think of anything else medieval-like that applies to him.
"I [teach] as late as about 1550, but that's very modern," Kershaw said. He normally teaches "between 500 and 900. That's where I'm happy -- back in the three-figure days"
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