2011 – 2013     
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, M.A. in British Studies

2007 – 2011     
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, M.A. in History

2009 – 2010     
University of Leeds, Erasmus exchange, Institute of Medieval Studies and Department of Classics

2009     
University of the Faroe Islands, Faroese Summer Institute

2007 – 2011     
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, B.A. in Classical Philology and Mediterranean Culture Studies, First Class

Via Britannica: The Roman Infrastructural Past in Late Antique and Early Medieval Britain

My research examined the transformations of different forms of Roman infrastructures in Britain by focusing on three major focal points: the legal status, the practical usage, and the role of those infrastructures as symbolic governance resources. Employing a wide selection of sources (diplomatic, narrative, archaeological, and literary) my dissertation weaved them together into a concise biography of Roman infrastructure left in Britain. The result of this enquiry was a new picture of the way polities in Britain and their inhabitants interacted with what was left by the Romans. Their relationship with those infrastructures was a complex mixture of symbolic and governance uses. They also played a key role in the way the inhabitants of Britain managed their landscapes, their memory, and their identity. The new narrative presented the rich symbolic value that infrastructural remains (both active and inactive) played in the process in which the rulers of early Anglo-Saxon polities positioned themselves as heirs of the Roman Empire.

This dissertation project was successfully completed within the Research Group B-1 Routes – Water – Knowledge of the Excellence Cluster 264 Topoi.

2014     
M. Fafinski, "The Moving Centre: Trade and Travel in York from Roman to Anglo-Saxon Times", in: G. R. Owen-Crocker/B. W. Schneider (Eds.): The Anglo-Saxons: The World through their Eyes (BAR British Series 595) 71-77.

2013     
M. Fafinski, "The Overseas Contacts of the Anglo-Saxon England: A Reassessment", in: Echa Przeszłości XIV (2013) 7-29.

2012     
M. Fafinski, "Przez ciemności ku światłu – katabaza antyczna w legendarium Tolkiena", in: Aiglos 17 (2012) 37-52. [Through Darkness into Light – the katabasis Motive in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien]

2010     
M. Fafinski, "Od kościoła do targu: Wschodniopruska mała ojczyzna w 'Dzieciach Jerominów' Ernsta WiechertaI, in: Podteksty 4 (18). [From the Market to the Church: Eastprussian Heimat in "Jeromin Children" of Ernst Wiechert, Article in Polish]