Dr Sihong Lin

  • Lecturer in Early Medieval History (History)

email: Sihong.Lin@glasgow.ac.uk

Room 405, 10 University Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QH

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775

Research interests

I am a historian of cross-cultural exchanges in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Although this period is frequently seen as when the unity of Christendom fractured, my research argues that cross-cultural exchanges remained vibrant and that we should still study the Greek East and the Latin West together. As a result, I have been interested in how religious and intellectual networks allowed for the spread of ideas from the sixth- and seventh-century Middle East to western Europe, even to as far as Britain, and how these networks were influenced by the papacy in Rome. I remain a keen Byzantinist, however, and I have also published on the political and religious history of the eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, with a particular focus on the sixth-century emperors Justinian and Justin II.

My work has also addressed the influence of eastern ideas on post-Roman authors, particularly Gregory of Tours in Gaul and the Venerable Bede in Northumbria, and together they argue for a more interconnected Christendom at the end of late antiquity. I am therefore keen to also emphasise the importance of taking a transnational, even global, perspective on early medieval history.

Research groups

  • History of Christianity

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2016
Number of items: 13.

2023

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2023) The fall of Merovingian Italy, 561‒565. Early Medieval Europe, 31(4), pp. 543-562. (doi: 10.1111/emed.12670)

2022

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2022) Rereading absence: silent narratives in the ‘Life of Eligius of Noyon. In: Fafinski, Mateusz and Riemenschneider, Jakob (eds.) The Past Through Narratology: New Approaches to Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Series: Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte (vol.18). Heidelberg University Publishing: Heidelberg, pp. 27-39. ISBN 9783968221076 (doi: 10.17885/heiup.921.c13612)

2021

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2021) Justinian’s Frankish War, 552‒ca. 560. Studies in Late Antiquity, 5(3), pp. 403-431. (doi: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.403)

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2021) Bede, the Papacy, and the Emperors of Constantinople. English Historical Review, 136(580), pp. 465-497. (doi: 10.1093/ehr/ceab113)

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2021) S. Esders, Y. Fox, Y. Hen, and L. Sarti (eds.), East and West in the Middle Ages: The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), and S. Esders, Y. Hen, P. Lucas, and T. Rotman (eds.), The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Mediterranean World: Revisiting the Sources (London: Bloomsbury, 2019). Early Medieval Europe, 29(2), pp. 260-265. (doi: 10.1111/emed.12464)[Book Review]

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2021) Justin under Justinian: the rise of Emperor Justin II revisited. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 75, pp. 121-142.

2020

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2020) A. O’Hara, Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sanctity and Community in the Seventh Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). Journal of Religious History, 44(2), pp. 254-255. (doi: 10.1111/1467-9809.12654)[Book Review]

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2020) N. Di Cosmo and M. Maas (eds.), Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca. 250–750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018). Early Medieval Europe, 28(2), pp. 316-318. (doi: 10.1111/emed.12398)[Book Review]

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2020) The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Monothelete controversy. Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 71(2), pp. 235-252. (doi: 10.1017/S002204691900229X)

2019

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2019) M. Vitiello, Amalasuintha: The Transformation of Queenship in the Post-Roman World (University Park: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), (hardback), ISBN 9780812249477. European Review of History, 26(5), pp. 900-902. (doi: 10.1080/13507486.2019.1607484)[Book Review]

2018

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2018) J. Moorhead, The Popes and the Church of Rome in Late Antiquity (London: Routledge, 2015) (Routledge studies in ancient history 8.) Pp. 321. London and New York: Routledge, 2015. Classical Review, 68(2), pp. 528-530. (doi: 10.1017/S0009840X18000926)[Book Review]

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2018) A tale of two exiles: Maximus the Confessor and Wilfrid of York at the end of late antiquity. In: Rohmann, Dirk, Ulrich, Jörg and Vallejo Girvés, Margarita (eds.) Mobility and Exile at the End of Antiquity. Series: Early Christianity in the context of antiquity (19). Peter Lang, pp. 285-299. ISBN 9783631734315 (doi: 10.3726/b11765)

2016

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2016) 'Never had there been such happy times’: Byzantine Rome and the making of the Anglo-Saxon Church, c. 640–680. In: Stewart, Kirsty and Wakeley, James Moreton (eds.) Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Byzantine World, c. 300–1500 A.D.: Selected Papers from the XVII Oxford University Byzantine Society’s International Graduate Conference. Series: Byzantine and neohellenic studies (14). Peter Lang, pp. 85-99. ISBN 9783034322584

This list was generated on Thu Jun 19 15:45:27 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Book Sections | Book Reviews
Number of items: 13.

Articles

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2023) The fall of Merovingian Italy, 561‒565. Early Medieval Europe, 31(4), pp. 543-562. (doi: 10.1111/emed.12670)

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2021) Justinian’s Frankish War, 552‒ca. 560. Studies in Late Antiquity, 5(3), pp. 403-431. (doi: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.403)

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2021) Bede, the Papacy, and the Emperors of Constantinople. English Historical Review, 136(580), pp. 465-497. (doi: 10.1093/ehr/ceab113)

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2021) Justin under Justinian: the rise of Emperor Justin II revisited. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 75, pp. 121-142.

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2020) The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Monothelete controversy. Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 71(2), pp. 235-252. (doi: 10.1017/S002204691900229X)

Book Sections

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2022) Rereading absence: silent narratives in the ‘Life of Eligius of Noyon. In: Fafinski, Mateusz and Riemenschneider, Jakob (eds.) The Past Through Narratology: New Approaches to Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Series: Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte (vol.18). Heidelberg University Publishing: Heidelberg, pp. 27-39. ISBN 9783968221076 (doi: 10.17885/heiup.921.c13612)

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2018) A tale of two exiles: Maximus the Confessor and Wilfrid of York at the end of late antiquity. In: Rohmann, Dirk, Ulrich, Jörg and Vallejo Girvés, Margarita (eds.) Mobility and Exile at the End of Antiquity. Series: Early Christianity in the context of antiquity (19). Peter Lang, pp. 285-299. ISBN 9783631734315 (doi: 10.3726/b11765)

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2016) 'Never had there been such happy times’: Byzantine Rome and the making of the Anglo-Saxon Church, c. 640–680. In: Stewart, Kirsty and Wakeley, James Moreton (eds.) Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Byzantine World, c. 300–1500 A.D.: Selected Papers from the XVII Oxford University Byzantine Society’s International Graduate Conference. Series: Byzantine and neohellenic studies (14). Peter Lang, pp. 85-99. ISBN 9783034322584

Book Reviews

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2021) S. Esders, Y. Fox, Y. Hen, and L. Sarti (eds.), East and West in the Middle Ages: The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), and S. Esders, Y. Hen, P. Lucas, and T. Rotman (eds.), The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Mediterranean World: Revisiting the Sources (London: Bloomsbury, 2019). Early Medieval Europe, 29(2), pp. 260-265. (doi: 10.1111/emed.12464)[Book Review]

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2020) A. O’Hara, Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sanctity and Community in the Seventh Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). Journal of Religious History, 44(2), pp. 254-255. (doi: 10.1111/1467-9809.12654)[Book Review]

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2020) N. Di Cosmo and M. Maas (eds.), Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca. 250–750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018). Early Medieval Europe, 28(2), pp. 316-318. (doi: 10.1111/emed.12398)[Book Review]

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2019) M. Vitiello, Amalasuintha: The Transformation of Queenship in the Post-Roman World (University Park: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), (hardback), ISBN 9780812249477. European Review of History, 26(5), pp. 900-902. (doi: 10.1080/13507486.2019.1607484)[Book Review]

Lin, Sihong ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2775 (2018) J. Moorhead, The Popes and the Church of Rome in Late Antiquity (London: Routledge, 2015) (Routledge studies in ancient history 8.) Pp. 321. London and New York: Routledge, 2015. Classical Review, 68(2), pp. 528-530. (doi: 10.1017/S0009840X18000926)[Book Review]

This list was generated on Thu Jun 19 15:45:27 2025 BST.

Supervision

I would be keen to hear from potential PhD candidates who are interested in the eastern Roman Empire, the post-Roman kingdoms (particularly in Merovingian Gaul and Britain), as well as cross-cultural connections in the world of late antiquity. My work so far has focused on the sixth and seventh centuries, but I will in the future broaden the chronological and geographical scope of my work on networks/church history, so I am likewise interested in supporting broader research projects on late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.