Alex Woolf (born 12 July 1963) is a British medieval historian and academic. He specialises in the history of Britain and Ireland and to a lesser extent Scandinavia in the Early Middle Ages, with a particular emphasis on interaction and comparison across traditional ethnic boundaries. He is a senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews. He is author of volume two in the New Edinburgh History of Scotland, covering the period between 789 and 1070. For this he won the 2008 Saltire Society award for "history book of the year". He is the younger brother of the ancient historian Greg Woolf.

Education

Woolf first went to University to study Scandinavian Studies at University College London, including spending time in Norway, but dropped out before completing the degree and spent four years working in service-sector jobs. He then proceeded to the University of Sheffield, where he completed a degree in Medieval History and Medieval English. In 1992, he completed an M.Phil. in Sheffield's Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, supervised by John Moreland, entitled "The Transition from Late Prehistoric to Early Historic Social and Political Structures amongst the Irish".

Academic career

In 1995, Woolf was appointed a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Wales, Lampeter. From 1997 to 2001, he was a lecturer in Celtic and early Scottish history and culture at the University of Edinburgh. In 2001, he moved to the University of St Andrews as a lecturer in history, where he was promoted to senior lecturer and, in 2010, awarded a Ph.D. by publication portfolio. In 2023 he was characterised by the St Andrews student newspaper as "one of the most beloved members of the Medieval History faculty".

Selected works