History, University of Warwick
Thesis title:
My doctoral thesis is supervised by Dr Naomi Pullin and Professor Mark Knights in History at the University of Warwick (see my ePortfolio here), as well as Professor Kate Loveman in English at the University of Leicester. My research investigates the cultural, religious, and sociopolitical realities that influenced contemporary ideas about sincerity and deceit in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain, and how attitudes about these concepts were affected by categories of social identity such as rank, occupation, and gender. It explores how understandings of sincerity and deceit affected the lived, everyday contexts of family, friendship, community, and polity amongst non-elite people of the lower orders and middling sorts, seeking to construct a social history of authenticity from below.
Articles & Chapters (peer-reviewed)
'True Crime in the Archives: The Eighteenth-Century Old Bailey and the Emotions of Sensationalism', in Archives and Emotions: An International Dialogue—Past, Present, Future for Bloomsbury Academic's History of Emotions series (forthcoming December 2024)
'"See sincerity sparkle in thy practice": Antidotes to Hypocrisy in British Print Sermons, 1640–1695', in the Ecclesiastical History Society's 'Church and Hypocrisy' issue of Studies in Church History (forthcoming June 2024)
Blog Posts
'Sincerity', in 'Keywords', King's College London Centre for Early Modern Studies 'Key' blog series (forthcoming 2024)
'Sincerity, Deceit, and Occupational Identity', Northern Early Modern Network blog (forthcoming 2024)
'Room for the Cobler of Gloucester and His Wife', in 'Key Texts', King's College London Centre for Early Modern Studies 'Key' blog series (August 2023)
Book Reviews
'Pravdica on Schwartz, Unmoored: The Search for Sincerity in Colonial America', for the H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences Online network H-Early-America (December 2023)
Reports
'Refashioning the Seventeenth-Century Self: A Case Study of John Taylor the Water Poet', for Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies workshop and Warwick-Newberry Research Fellowship (May 2023)
'Honest Cobblers and Barbarous Shoemakers: Authenticity and Occupational Identity in Seventeenth-Century England', Social History Society, Durham University, July 2024
'The Barber's Daughter: Seventeenth-Century Occupational Identity and Aphra Behn's Social Origins', Aphra Behn and Her Restoration, Eighth International Conference of the Aphra Behn Europe Society, University of Kent, July 2024
'A Social and Emotional History of Sincerity in Early Modern Britain', North American Chapter on the History of Emotion, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 2024
'Sincerity, Deceit, and Occupational Identity in Seventeenth-Century Britain', British History in the Seventeenth Century, Institute of Historical Research, March 2023
'How to Get to Heaven in Early Modern England', Nuneaton Historical Association, co-speaker with Kristi Flake (University of Warwick), December 2023
'Annesley v. Anglesey and Douglas v. Hamilton: Social Uncertainity and Emotional Anxiety in Eighteenth-Century British Filiation Cases', Unsettling Certainties, Fourth Biennial Conference of the Society for the History of Emotions, University of Adelaide, December 2023
'"The honour of a Lord Bishop, and the honour of a cobler': The Dissenting Pamphlet Literature and Marginal Nonconformity of Ralph Wallis, 1662–1668', Margins and Peripheries, Ecclesiastical History Society, University of Warwick, July 2023
'"Oaths of the Many Great and Worthy Persons by Whom They Were Regarded": Politically Potent Sociability in the Douglas Cause', Sociability in Food, Politics, and Travel in the Early Modern Era, EMECC and GIS Sociabilités, University of Warwick, June 2023
'Printed English Sermons on Sincerity and Hypocrisy, 1640–1695', The Church and Hypocrisy Conference, Ecclesiastical History Society, January 2023
'Letters to the Spectator: An Early Eighteenth-Century Periodical's Project of Emotional Refuge and Education', EMECC Work-in-Progress series, University of Warwick, October 2022
'True Crime in the Archives: Researching and Feeling the Eighteenth-Century Old Bailey', Archives and Emotions Conference, Aston University, Birmingham and University of Malta, October 2022
'Letters to the Spectator: An Emotional Community of Early Eighteenth-Century Readers", North American Chapter on the History of Emotion, George Mason University, June 2022
'"Wild and Incoherent in Her Desires": Fantomina and the Passions in Early Eighteenth-Century England', Eliza Haywood: 300 Years of Love in Excess, Purdue University, April 2019
Recently, I have given presentations for the Lord Leycester Hospital's 'Researching Ordinary People in the Early Modern Period' workshop programme, including a session on 'Legal and Judicial Sources' that I led, as well as one on 'Ecclesiastical Sources, Wills, and Family Papers' done in collaboration with Dr Naomi Pullin and fellow Warwick History PhD candidate Kristi Flake. I have also given a talk on the theme of 'How to Get to Heaven in Early Modern England' at the Nuneaton Historical Association, once again in collaboration with Kristi Flake.
I am currently the Communications Officer for the North American Chapter on the History of Emotion, a role which involves publicising work in the field, organising events such as colloquia and conferences, and managing the chapter's online and social media presence, including our Twitter account, @NACHEmotion.
In the past, I have worked as a docent and program assistant at the Gibson House Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, and as an Education Intern at the Shirley-Eustis House Museum in Roxbury, Massachusetts. At each museum I was tasked with interpreting the historical significance of the houses for visitors, as well as designing lesson plans for visiting student groups.
More broadly, my research interests include seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British print culture; categories of early modern identity like social status and gender; religious history and popular piety; family, friendship, and community; early modern crime and legal history; and the history of emotions and history 'from below'.
North American Chapter on the History of Emotion, Communications Officer and Council Member
Society for the History of Emotions
Warwick Early Modern and Eighteenth-Century Centre
The Northern Early Modern Network
History Lab, Institute of Historical Research
Ecclesiastical History Society
2022–2026, PhD History, University of Warwick
Thesis: 'Sincerity, Deceit, and Social Identity in Britain, 1640–1740', supervised by Dr Naomi Pullin, Professor Mark Knights, and Professor Kate Loveman
Funded by the AHRC-M4C Doctoral Training Partnership
2019–2020, MSc History, University of Edinburgh (Distinction)
Dissertation: 'Feelings, Family, and Community in English Witchcraft Pamphlets and Plays, 1566–1634', supervised by Professor Adam Fox
Funded by the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology's Fennell Masters Scholarship
2015–2019, BA History & Literature Honours, Suffolk University, Boston (First Class)
Minors in Classics and Women’s & Gender Studies
Dissertation: '“Aids from Nature, Join’d to the Wiles of Art”: Emotional, Social, and Theatrical Performance in Eliza Haywood’s “Fantomina” and Early Eighteenth-Century England', supervised by Professor Michèle Plott and Professor Hannah Hudson
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