Dr Morn Capper

Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for Museums Studies and Sustainable Heritage Practice

School of Humanities and Social Sciences
m.capper@chester.ac.uk
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As Senior Lecturer in Heritage and lead for Museums and Heritage Practice, Morn offers courses and supervises in both Archaeology and History.

Morn worked across the heritage sector in Museums Education at Sheffield Museums and Galleries Trust, contributing to major gallery and exhibitions teams at the British Museum and Birmingham Museums Trust, acting as specialist curatorial advisor to the ‘Staffordshire Hoard’ gallery at Birmingham Museums, 2011-2014. She undertakes curatorial consultancy, heritage research and public engagement work and is keen to develop sustainable heritage partnerships linking universities, museums, professionals, students and communities.

Morn is an active researcher exploring relations of power and identity, past and present. Her research explores the development of Anglo-Saxon Mercia, its lordship and leadership, frontiers, and relations (political, cultural, social and economic). Her interdisciplinary Heritage research analyses how archaeological discoveries and relics are preserved and impact on modern people, places and communities via heritage preservation.

Morn is passionate about research projects and outreach promoting sustainable heritage management, community engagement, learning and volunteering, namely:

• Female Medieval leadership: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians: travelling exhibition, public conference, book and gallery contribution at Tamworth Castle Museum, with the Universities of Tamworth and Keele.

• Shrewsbury Castle Project excavation and preservation with Dr Nigel Baker, funded by Castle Studies Trust

• Churches Conservation Trust: St Mary’s Church Shrewsbury: Stained Glass Conservation Project.

• She also contributed to Leverhulme funded ‘Impact of Diasporas on the Making of Britain’, led by Prof. Jo Story: a cross-disciplinary analysis exploring migration and identity through the movement of objects and DNA in the first Millennium and modern impacts.

Read more

Capper, Morn, The Shaping of Power in Anglo-Saxon England (forthcoming).

Capper Morn, 'Aethelflaed, Aethelred and Mercia: weaving widowhood and warleadership in a frontier polity', in M. Capper, C. Insley, and A. Sargent (eds) Aethelflaed Lady of the Mercians (forthcoming).

Capper, Morn, 'Treaties, frontiers and borderlands: The making and unmaking of Mercian border traditions', Offa's Dyke Journal, 5 (2023), 208-238.

Capper, Morn, 'St Guthlac and the ‘Britons’: a Mercian context', in Guthlac of Crowland: Celebrating 1300 Years (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 2020), pp. 181–213.

M. Capper and M. Scully, 'Ancient objects with modern meanings: museums, volunteers and the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold as markers of 21st century regional identity', Ethnic and Racial Studies 39.02 (2016), 181-203.

Morn D. T. Capper, ‘Contested Loyalties: Regional and National Identities in the Midland Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, c.700 – c.900’. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sheffield, 2008 (In preparation).

‘Titles and Troubles: Conceptions of Mercian Royal Authority in Eighth- and Ninth-Century Charters’, in Problems and Possibilities of Early Medieval Diplomatic, J. Jarrett and Alan Scott McKinley, eds (Turnhout, 2013).

'Prelates and Politics: Wilfrid's Influence in the Kingdoms of the East Midlands and East Anglia', in St Wilfrid: Bishop of York, Abbot of Ripon and Hexham, N.J. Higham and R.A. Hall, eds (Donnington, 2012).

‘The Practical Implications of Interdisciplinary Research in Anglo-Saxon East Anglia’ in Approaching Interdisciplinarity, Caroline Smith & Zoë Devlin, eds, British Archaeological Reports, Brit. Ser. 486 (Oxford, 2009).

Select Papers and Conferences

Morn Capper (University of Chester) and Rachel Abbiss (Churches Conservation Trust), 'St Mary’s, Shrewsbury: Preserving an Historic Assemblage in the 21st Century', Church Archaeology Conference,  16 September, 2023.

Morn Capper, 'The 'Authentic' Castle Experience - Challenging Ideas of Authenticity Regarding Castles as Heritage Spaces in Ireland and Britain: Round Table', International Medieval Congress, 6 July 2023.

Morn Capper, 'People, Kin, or King?: Mercian Loyalties in the Early 10th Century', International Medieval Congress, 5 July 2022.

Morn Capper, ‘Aethelflaed, the Mercians and the River Severn', Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society, January 2022.

Morn Capper: 'The Hidden History of Women in Power: Conversations with Aethelflaed, Leader of the Mercians, queen, carer, coniunx', IHR Centenary, University of Chester. 7 June, 2022.

Morn Capper, 'Aethelflaed, Tamworth and the heritage of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia', International Conference of Historical Geographers, 19 July 2018.

Morn Capper, 'Aethelflaed, 1100'. Academic Conference, Convenor and Organising Committee, 16 July 2018.

Morn Capper, 'Lost and found in Anglo-Saxon England: when do the travels of objects reflect the travels of people?'. The Impact of Diasporas, Royal Geographic Society, 17 September 2015.

  • BA (Sheffield)
  • MA (Sheffield)
  • PhD (Sheffield)
  • Curatorial Diploma (The British Museum, London)
  • FHEA