Dr. Allison Fizzard

Professor of History
BA Hons (Memorial), MA, PhD (Toronto)

allison.fizzard@uregina.ca
Phone: 306.359.1242 | Fax: 306.359.1200 | Office: CM 503

Short Bio

I was born and grew up in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. My desire to learn more about the Middle Ages took me to the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, through which I completed my M.A. and Ph.D. In 1998 I decided to keep moving west and accepted a position teaching medieval history at Campion College at the University of Regina.

Research Interests

Medieval religious and social history, particularly of England and Wales c. 1100-1540; monastic history; the history of food; medieval revival art and architecture in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Current Scholarly Projects

I have a continuing interest in retirement arrangements (corrodies) at religious houses in England and Wales in the early sixteenth century. My article on food entitlements in corrody texts has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Medieval History.

I am also currently researching petitions to the popes from individuals in England and Wales in the later Middle Ages who sought exemptions from dietary restrictions relating to fasting and abstinence.

Another area in which I conduct research relates to the career of Valentine Eliot (Mrs. C. J. Eliot), a professional English woodcarver and instructor of woodcarving in the late Victorian period. Her elaborately-carved altar in a small Anglican country church in Saskatchewan is discussed in my article “’The Most Beautiful Altar in the Diocese’: Art, Anglicanism, and British Settler Identities at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church, Vernon District, Saskatchewan” in Prairie History 7 (Winter, 2022).

Representative Publications

  • “’A Competent Mess’: Food, Consumption, and Retirement at Religious Houses in England and Wales, c. 1502-38.” The Journal of Medieval History (forthcoming)
  • “’The Most Beautiful Altar in the Diocese’: Art, Anglicanism, and British Settler Identities at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church, Vernon District, Saskatchewan.” Prairie History 7 (Winter, 2022): 18-34.
  • “Corrodies at Houses of Regular Canons in England, c. 1485-1539.” In The Regular Canons in the Medieval British Isles, eds. Janet Burton and Karen Stöber. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2012.
  • “Nuns, Convents, and Monasteries: The Monastic Orders and Their Costumes.” In The Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles, c. 450-1450, eds. Gale Owen-Crocker, Elizabeth Coatsworth and Maria Hayward. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
  • Plympton Priory: A House of Augustinian Canons in South-Western England in the Late Middle Ages. Book. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2008. Accessible for free through Open Access at Brill.com.
  • “Shoes, Boots, Leggings, and Cloaks: The Augustinian Canons and Dress in Later Medieval England.” Journal of British Studies 46 (April, 2007): 245-62.

Awards and Distinctions

  • The Devon History Society’s Devon Book of the Year Award (2008)
    for Plympton Priory: A House of Augustinian Canons in South-Western England in the Late Middle Ages.