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Staff Profile - Toby Purser

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Toby has been teaching Education Studies at the University of Northampton for seven years, with special interest in the History of Education, Heritage, Politics and Culture. He is the author of six books, including four history textbooks for A level, GCSE and two novels plus several research articles.

Studying Modern History at the University of Oxford (Mansfield College), Toby returned to study for a Masters in medieval history before completing a PhD at the University of Southampton. He is a qualified secondary teacher (PGCE University of Bath) and has taught in a range of schools and colleges across the United Kingdom in the Independent, Maintained and FE sectors. Toby was head of department in several schools and assistant head including curriculum.

Toby’s teaching and research has taken him to Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, Istanbul, Normandy, Jerusalem, Jordan and the battlefields of France, Belgium and Gallipoli. At UON, Toby leads trips to London (British Museum, Museum of Childhood), Leicester and locally and participated on an SU study visit to Poland (Krakow and Auschwitz). In 2017 Toby was nominated for a STAR award by students for innovation in teaching technologies.

Toby is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Currently, Toby is writing a book on The Making of England: from Rome to Reformation due for publication in late 2021.

Toby teaches on eight modules across levels 4-7 for the Education Studies programme, leading on 5 modules, including Introduction to Education Studies, Recent and Contemporary Issues, History of Childhood, Education & Heritage, Education, Culture & Society and Critical Perspectives on Current Educational Practices and contribute to the MA Education. Toby also contributes to other programmes within the field of Education, such as BALT, FDLT and Childhood & Youth when required.modules.

Toby is currently finishing research and completing a book on the history of England, c400-c1600 titled The Making of England: from Rome to Reformation under contract with Amberley Publishers, due for publication late 2021. Toby is a historical consultant and script writer for a Magna Carta exhibition in Washington DC in 2021.

Books
  • The First Crusade and the Crusader States, 1073-1192, (Heinemann, 2010) ISBN 978-0435312695
  • Raiders and Traders: The British Isles c.400-1100 (Heinemann, 2006) ISBN 978-0435311247
  • Power and Control: Kingship in the Middle Ages c.1100-1500 (Heinemann, 2006) 978-0435311254
  • Medieval England, 1042-1228 (Heinemann 2004) ISBN 978-0435327606
  • The Devil’s Inheritance (historical novel, Kindle Direct Publishing, 2013) ISBN 978-1490371542
  • The Zaharoff Conspiracy (historical novel, Methuen, 2014) ISBN 978-0413777546
Articles
  • ‘A community in the county? Sir John Sandys and social mobility in later medieval Hampshire’ Southern History (2020)
  • ‘All Quiet on the Western Front?’ Innovations teaching magazine (2008)
  • ‘Excavation Stations’ TES Magazine (Feb 2008)
  • ‘The Origins of English Feudalism? An Episcopal Land-Grant Revisited,’ Historical Research 73;180, pp80-92 (2000).
  • ‘William FitzOsbern, Earl of Hereford: Personality and Power on the Welsh Frontier, 1066-1071,’ in Armies, Chivalry and Warfare in Medieval France and Britain, ed. M Strickland, p133-146 (Paul Watkins 1998).
  • ‘Castles of Herefordshire’ Medieval History (1994)