Francesca Farnell

Thesis title:

Women and the Supernatural: Agency, and Oppression at the Intersection of Gender and Religion in Reformation England

Research Area

History

Publications

'“Is This Sara, or the Devil That Speaketh These Words?”: Sounding Out Women as Demoniacs in Sixteenth-Century England', Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2022)

Conferences

Upcoming:

‘Narratives of ‘the Superennial Fast’: Women’s Dietary Abstinence in Seventeenth-Century England’, Food and Religion in Early-Modern Europe International Conference, Lille, June 2023

Past:

Co-organiser of 'The Supernatural: Sites of Suffering in the Pre-Modern World', a HRC-funded conference, alongside Imogen Knox, 14th May 2022. (Keynote speaker Professor Diane Purkiss, Keble College, Oxford).
'The Body, The State and the Post-Mortem Punishments of the 1752 Murder Act', The Remains of Body: Legacy and Cultural Memory of Bodies in World Culture, 22nd May 2021.
'Elizabeth Barton and the Media Machinations of the Tudor State', Media and Public (Dis)Order: A virtual workshop for early modernists at Dresden and Warwick, 29-30th March, 2021.

Public Engagement & Impact

'Stars, Sieves and Women’s Stories: An Interactive Exhibition', FAB Festival, University of Warwick, 20th May 2022
'Ghosts, Fairies and a Wombful of Rabbits: Weird and Wondrous Stories from Early Modern Women', as part of the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender's 'Amazing Women' roadshow for the Resonate Festival (Coventry City of Culture), 19th March 2022
'Stars, Sieves and Women’s Stories: An Interactive Exhibition About Early Modern Fortune Telling', as part of the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender's 'Amazing Women' roadshow for the Resonate Festival (Coventry City of Culture), 5th March 2022
'Supernatural Tales and Women in the Popular Early Modern Consciousness’, Hidden Women in Popular Culture Conference w/ Women's History Network and Midlands Network of Popular Culture, January 2022
Assistant to Dr Martha McGill's online British Academy Summer Showcase exhibit entitled 'Can the Past Foretell Your Future', June 2020
Contributor to the Many-Headed Monster's ECR takeover with my blog post 'Murderess, Accomplice, or Innocent? The Ghost Story of Midwife Mrs Adkins'

Other Research Interests

As a student of early modern History, I am naturally drawn to popular religious belief as well as social and cultural histories of this period. I also remain interested in the study of gender beyond early modernity. Informed by this, a significant interest of mine is the body as an historical subject, from both a material and cultural standpoint. I am also drawn to the notion of power relations and structures, particularly that of class in both the modern and pre-modern world.

Awards and Funding

June 2022: Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence Commendation

2021-2: Joint winner of Warwick's HRC Doctoral Fellowship Competition

2020-24: Midlands4Cities AHRC Doctoral Studentship Award

2019-20: Warwick Taught Masters Scholarship Scheme

June 2019: Dr Greg Wells Undergraduate Final Year Essay Prize

Academic Profile

2020-2024: PhD, History, University of Warwick

2019-2020: MA, Early Modern History, University of Warwick

2016-2019: BA, History, University of Warwick