• 2014. PhD, Medieval Studies, Central European University
• 2010. MA, Medieval Studies, Central European University
• 2009. MA, Medieval Studies, University of Bristol
• 2007. BA, English Language and Literature, University of Oxford (Oriel College)

Dr. James Plumtree is Associate Professor in the department of General Education. In addition to First Year Seminar, he teaches classes concerned with the intersections of history, literature, and poetry.

His research interests predominantly focus on the medieval and Manas.

At AUCA, he was a founding member of the Analysing Kyrgyz Narratives (AKYN) research group, which recorded, transcribed, and studied performances by contemporary manaschis, and examined earlier versions of the epic.

• OSUN Faculty Mobility Fellowship (2022)
• Durham Residential Research Library Fellowship (2022; awarded 2019)
• Elsevier Fellowship for Digital Scholarship (2019)
• Tempus Public Foundation Research Scholarship (2019, 2017, 2016)
• Co-founder of the Analyzing Kyrgyz Narratives(AKYN) research group
• Central European University Global Teaching Fellow (2015)

• AUCA Faculty Research Grants
• AUCA Presidential Research and Education Fund
• Matthew Nimetz Award for Publication

• The Epic of Manas
• Manuscript cultures and methods of reading
• Medieval historiography and narrative
• Oral storytelling
• Textual Communities

• ‘Placing the Green Children of Woolpit’, in Strangers at the Gate! Multidisciplinary Explorations of Communities, Borders, and Othering in Medieval Western Europe, ed. Simon C. Thomson, Explorations in Medieval Culture 21 (Leiden: Brill), pp. 202-224.

• ‘A Telling Tradition: Preliminary Comments on the Epic of Manas, 1856-2018’, in Medieval Stories and Storytelling: Multimedia and Multi-Temporal Perspectives, ed. S. C. Thomson, Medieval Narratives in Transmission 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2021), pp. 239-301.
• ‘A Contemporary Manaschi in Oral Performance and in Print’, Alatoo Academic Studies 1: 238-244.
• ‘Computer-Assisted Analysis of Manas Narratives: Demonstrations and Directions’, Manas Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi [Manas Journal of Social Studies] 10: 1506-1515.

2020.

• ‘Replicating the Birth of Manas: Composition Methods of Doolot Sydykov and Talantaaly Bakchiev’, with Alymkan Jeenbekova, Известия Национальной академия наук Киргизской Республики [Izvestia Nacional’noj akademii nauk Kyrgyzskoj Respubliki] 3: 175-187.

• ‘A Kyrgyz Singer of Tales: Formulas in Three Performances of the Birth of Manas by Talantaaly Bakchiev’, Доклады Национальной академии наук Кыргызской Республики [Doklady Nacional’noj akademii nauk Kyrgyzskoj Respubliki] 1: 125-133.

• ‘Buddha, Lenin, and the Prophet Muhammad; Approaching the Landscape and Cultural Heritage of Issyk-Ata’, in Genius Loci: Laszlovszky 60, ed. Dóra Mérai, Ágnes Drosztmér, Kyra Lyublyanovics, Judith Rasson, Zsuzsanna Papp Reed, András Vadas, and Csilla Zatykó (Budapest: Archaeolingua), pp. 343-348.
• ‘Charlemagne’s Road, God’s Threshing Floor: Comprehending the Role of Hungary in the First Crusade’, Hungarian Studies 32 (2018): 1-26.

• ‘Sex, Lies, and Visitations: Secrets and Discovery in the Registers of John Waltham and John Chandler’, in Secrets and Discovery in the Middle Ages, ed. José Meirinhos, Celia López Alcalde and João Rebalde, Textes et Études du Moyen Âge 90 (Barcelona-Rome: Brepols), pp. 247-257.
• ‘The Curious Incident of the Hermit in Fisherton’ in Medieval Anchorites in their Communities, ed. Cate Gunn and Liz Herbert McAvoy, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion 45 (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer), pp. 131-146.

• ‘“A castle once stood, now a heap of stones…” The site and remains of Óbuda in medieval chronicles, national epics, and modern fringe theories’, with József Laszlovszky, in Medieval Buda in Context, ed. Bálazs Nagy, Martyn Rady, Katalin Szende, and András Vadas, Brill’s Companions to Medieval History 10  (Leiden: Brill), pp. 92-114.

• ‘A Medieval Manuscript in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Regarding Cambridge MS. Ee. 3. 59’, in From Text(s) to Book(s): Studies in the Production and Editorial Process, ed. N. Collé-Bak, Monica Latham, and David Ten Eyck, Book Practices and Textual Itineraries 4 (Nancy: PUN – Editions Universitaires de Lorraine), pp. 169-179.
• ‘The Earlier Paint Schemes and Possible Contexts of the Dauntsey Doom’, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 107 (2014): 156-162.

• ‘Stories of the Death of Kings: Retelling the Demise and Burial of William I, William II and Henry I’, Southern African Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 21: 1-30.

• AKYN
• CESS
• IAS
• MCS
• SILC