Sara Morrison

- Associate Professor
image of Sara Morrison
PhD, University of Western Ontario
Telephone: 519-661-2111 ext. 81297
Email: smorri5@uwo.ca
Office: Stevenson Hall 2124
Office Hours: Mondays 11:00 am - 12:00 pm and Tuesdays 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Research Interests

Associate Professor Sara Morrison specializes in the early modern history of Europe, England, women, Queenship and Power. Her research focuses on the legal and environmental history of English royal forests and stewardship of pre-modern resources.

Representative Publications 

 Peer Reviewed Book Chapters

  • “Conserving the 'vert' in early modern Sherwood Forest,” in Abigail Downing and Richard Keyser (eds.) Conservation’s Roots: Managing for Sustainability in Preindustrial Europe, 1100-1800.  Oxford/New York: Berghahn Books. (June 2020) 
  • “Bambi in Sherwood Forest and the Great Deer Escape c. 1703-1711,” in Estelita Vaz et al. (eds), Environmental History in the Making, Environmental History 6, Chapter 19, 341-357, (Springer International Publishing Switzerland, 2017) & DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-4105-2. 
  • "Forests of Masts and Seas of Trees: The Restoration Navy and the English Royal Forests,” in Nancy L. Rhoden (ed.) English Atlantics Revisited. Essays Honouring Professor Ian K. Steele, 136-173. Montreal and Kingston (McGill-Queens University Press, 2007) 

Papers in Refereed Journals 

  • “Good Stewardship and the challenges of managing the Stuart royal forests in England, 1603-1714.” Journal of Markets and Morality, Vol. 17 (2), Fall 2014, 405-427. 
  • “Fee Trees and Rogue Verderers in early eighteenth century Sherwood Forest,” Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 117, 2013, 97-107. 
  • "The creation of Clumber Park, 1709-14: The Last Royal Park of Sherwood Forest," Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 106, 2002, 103-118. 
  • 'The Royal Forest of Sherwood in the Seventeenth Century', in Mastoris, S. N. and Groves, S. M., eds., History in the Making, 1985 (Nottingham Museums, 1986), 9-14. 
  • "Bestwood: A Sherwood Forest Park in the Seventeenth Century", Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 89, 1985, 57-74. 

Areas of Teaching 

  • Early Modern European History 
  • Tudor and Stuart England 
  • Modern Britain & Modern Europe 
  • Victorian Britain & Empire 
  • Women’s History 
  • Queenship: Elizabeth I & Queen Victoria 

Representative Conferences 

  • “Building England’s ‘Wooden Walls’: royal forests and the Restoration navy.” Abstract accepted for 8th IMHA International Congress of Maritime History’s theme of “Old and New Uses of Oceans,” at the Transdisciplinary Research Centre Culture, Space and Memory – University of Porto, Portugal. Postponed until June 29- July 03, 2021. 
  • “Hunting manuals and deer conservation in Tudor and Stuart England.” 50th Anniversary Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St Louis, Missouri, 17-20 October 2019.  
    “Conserving the ‘vert’ in early modern Sherwood Forest.” Ninth Biennial Conference of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH), held at the Estonian Centre for Environmental History (KAJAK), Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia, 21 to 25 August 2019. 
    “Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood and the early modern greenwood myth,” presented at the 12th Biennial Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies interdisciplinary conference ‘Categories, Boundaries, Horizons” at the University of Sydney, Australia. 6 February 2019.  
  • “Forest Landscapes: Royal Forests in early modern England.” 17th International Conference of Historical Geographers, Warsaw University, Institute of History and Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, 16 July 2018.  
  • “The Stuart royal forests and the “Greenwood” myth, c. 1610.” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Milwaukee, 29 October 2017.  
  • “Traditional woodland management in seventeenth century Sherwood Forest.”  Part of the panel entitled Intentional Preindustrial Sustainability: Practices, Norms, and Ideas in Europe at the Premodern Ecologies Conference hosted by the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Boulder, Colorado, 20-22 October 2016. 
  • “Early Stuart deer farming in Sherwood Forest.” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Vancouver, 22-25 October 2015. 
  • “Sherwood Forest, navy building and climate change 1660-1670.” 16th International Conference of Historical Geographers (Royal Geographical Society, London) 5-10 July 2015. 
  • “War and Environment: Sherwood Forest and navy building 1660-1670, “at Eighth Biennial Conference of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) themed "Greening History: Studying the Environment across Disciplines, Past, Present and Future" at University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) 30 June- 3 July 2015 Versailles, France. 
  • “’The Hunter King’: royal forests, hunting, and James I’s kingship.” Sixteenth Century Studies Society, New Orleans, LA, 16-19 October 2014.  
  • “Bambi in Sherwood: the history of red deer in Sherwood Forest 1616-1723.” Second World Congress of Environmental History, University of Minho and the International Council of Environmental History Organizations, Guimarães, Portugal, 9 July 2014. 
  • “War and Ecology: Sherwood Forest and the Restoration Navy, 1660-1670,” Britain and the World Conference, British Scholar Society, Newcastle, UK, 21 June 2014. 
  • “The Great Deer Escape from Sherwood Forest in the early eighteenth century.” American Society of Environmental History, San Francisco, 13 March 2014.  

Research Specialization(s)

  • English Royal Forests
  • Sherwood Forest & Robin Hood 
  • Early Modern Resource Management 
  • Trees, Woodlands & Landscapes 
  • Forests and the English Navy 
  • Environmental History & Historical Geography 
  • Animal History 

Books in Progress 

  • “The Stuart Royal Forests; an environmental history.”  

Awards and Recognition

  • 2009-2019 – Dean’s Honor Roll of TeachingBrescia University College 
  • 2008-2009 – SSHRC Postdoctoral FellowHistory, McMaster University [declined] 
  • 2007-2008 – SSHRC Postdoctoral FellowHistory, McMaster University 
  • 2006-2007 – Scouloudi Historical AwardInstitute of Historical Research, London, GB 
  • 2005-2006 – Metcalf Post-Doctoral FellowHistory, University of Western Ontario 
  • 2004 August – Fletcher Jones Research FellowshipHenry Huntington Library, San Marino, CA 
  • 2003 June/Aug  – WM Keck Foundation Research Fellowship Huntington Library, San Marino, CA