Benjamin Allport

Ben Allport is a medieval historian who primarily works on history-writing and the construction of worldview and identity in literature pertaining to the Norse inhabitants of Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. His PhD research explored the written and archaeological evidence for regional communities in Norway in the tenth and eleventh centuries. He is particularly interested in pre-cartographical perceptions of geography, political legitimization strategies, and the creation of group affiliation in literary sources. He is a postdoctoral researcher on the CONTACT project, where his role is to reexamine the written evidence for Norse activity in Greenland and Newfoundland - including its scope and duration, and the knowledge and perception of the settlements among Europeans.