Amber Handy
is a Ph.D. candidate in medieval history with a doctoral Minor in Gender Studies. She is currently writing her dissertation, entitled “The Specula Principum in Northwestern Europe, A.D. 650-1000: The Evolution of a New Ethical Rule.” In the project, Amber examines the advice manuals written for rulers in Ireland, England, and Carolingian Europe in the early medieval period, focusing on the influence of the earlier Irish versions on their continental counterparts and on the negotiations within the text between the older ethical codes and the relatively recent ideas of Christian kingship. She will present a chapter at a conference on Irish Medieval Studies in St. Louis this fall, and hopes to teach a course of her own design this spring or summer.