Imogen Knox

Thesis title:

Suicide, Self-Harm, and the Supernatural in Britain, 1560-1735

My doctoral research, ‘Suicide, Self-Harm, and the Supernatural in Britain, 1560-1735’, is supervised by Professor Peter Marshall and Dr Naomi Pullin, and funded by the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. My project explores the ways in which early modern people expressed and enacted feelings of suicide and self harm in supernatural narratives. These narratives provide an insight into how individuals conceptualised and negotiated suicidal ideation during a time where the act of suicide was not only criminal, but caused eternal damnation.

Research Area

History

Publications

Articles:

Currently revising an article following peer review for Social and Cultural History

Blog posts:

'Death and Uncertainty in the Early Modern Community', History Workshop Online, for Risk and Uncertainty series (2022)
'Pin', Key Things blog series, CEMS KCL (2022)
'Reading Wellbeing in Andrew Boorde's Dietary of Health, HistoryLab Blog, for monthly theme on mental health histories (2022)
''Tied up from self-murder': Writing about suicide in the wake of the South Sea Bubble', Warwick Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre Blog (2022)
'Killing yourself to laugh: joking about suicide and self-harm in early modern England', Warwick Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre (2021)
'World Mental Health Day: How History Informs Stigma', Warwick History Department Blog (2021)
Media and Public (Dis)order Warwick/Dresden early modernists workshop report (co authored with Felipe Mello), April 2021
‘The devil will tear me in pieces’: Self-destruction and sympathy in a seventeenth-century witchcraft case, The Many Headed Monster (2021)
‘Some choice directions’: John Prince and early modern suicide advice literature, Social History Society Research Exchange (2021)

Reports:

The Supernatural: Sites of Suffering in the Pre-Modern World, 14th May 2022 (co-author)
Media and Public (Dis)Order: A virtual workshop for early modernists at Dresden and Warwick, 29th and 30th March 2021 (co-author)

Conferences

'Laughing at and joking about suicide in early modern Britain', Humour, Laughter and Everyday Life in the Early Modern Period: Gender, Culture, and Politics, c.1500-1800, Newcastle University, 8th July 2022

'Emotional responses to suicidality in early modern Britain', History Postgraduate Conference, University of Warwick, 26th-27th May 2022

'Attempted Suicide in Early Modern Britain', Renaissance Society of America Conference, Dublin, March 2022

'Emotional responses to suicidal intent in British supernatural narratives, 1560-1735', Emotion, Embodiment and the Everyday, 1500-1800, University of Cambridge, 10th December 2021

'Hidden desires: exploring early modern suicidality through supernatural narratives', The Hidden in Performance, Visual, and Literary Culture, M4C funded conference, 11th September 2021

'Experiencing suicidal temptation in early modern British supernatural narratives', Labour, Leisure, and Life in Early Modern England seminar series, University of Bristol, 31st May 2021

'Conversations with demons: possession, bewitchment, and self-destruction in early modern Britain', History Postgraduate Conference, University of Warwick, 26th May 2021

'Pin-swallowing and pin-vomiting: self-harm in early modern Britain', Centre for the History of Medicine Work in Progress seminar series, University of Warwick, 27th April 2021

'Enemies within and without: talking with devils about self-destruction in early modern Britain', Enemies in the Early Modern World 1453-1789: Conflict, Culture and Control, University of Edinburgh, 26th March 2021

'Sharp objects, self-harm and the supernatural in early modern Britain', Newberry Library Multidisciplinary Graduate Conference, 9th February 2021

'Sharp objects, self-harm and the supernatural in early modern Britain', PG Work in Progress series, History Department, University of Warwick, 30th November 2020

'Sex and Satan in the early modern household', Sexual Knowledge Symposium, University of Exeter, 17th June 2019

Public Engagement & Impact

Interviewee for Warwick Documentary Society film on women in media (forthcoming)

'Stars, sieves and women’s stories: An interactive exhibition about early modern fortune telling', Faculty of Arts Building Opening, University of Warwick, 20th May 2022

'Ghosts, fairies and a wombful of rabbits: Weird and wondrous stories from early modern women', Resonate FestivalLink opens in a new window, Amazing Women strand, Coventry City of Culture, 19th March 2022

'Stars, sieves and women’s stories: An interactive exhibition about early modern fortune telling', Resonate FestivalLink opens in a new window, Amazing Women strand, Coventry City of Culture, 5th March 2022

'Self-Injury, History, and Me' workshop series assistant, University of Reading, February and March 2022

Now and Then session, University of Warwick, October 2021

Assistant on Dr Martha McGill's British Academy Summer Showcase exhibit, 16th June 2021 - watch the recording back here

'Early Modern Witchcraft Belief', Wide Atlantic Weird podcast, 24th April 2021

Ecclesiastical History Society Twitter takeover, 9th-11th April 2021

Other Research Interests

Beyond the early modern mental landscape and the supernatural, I am interested in early modern religion more broadly. I am particularly interested in the lived experience of early modern children and their religious upbringing, as well as the history of the emotions.

Memberships

HEA, Associate Fellow

Early Career Member, The Royal Historical Society

Renaissance Society of America Member

History Lab, Institute of Historical Research network for postgraduate students

Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre, University of Warwick

Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick

Biography

I previously completed my MA and BA History degrees at the University of Exeter. My MA dissertation, supervised by Professor Jonathan Barry, constitued a primlinary survey of my PhD topic, focussing on England. My BA dissertation, 'Bewitched Children in Late Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England' was supervised by Dr Laura Sangha.

Responsibilities

Co-Editor, Warwick Journal of Postgraduate Pedagogic Practice (2022)

The Supernatural: Sites of Suffering in the Pre-Modern World co-organiser (with Francesca Farnell), HRC funded conference, University of Warwick (2021-2022)

'Sensitive' Histories Roundtable Discussion, chair and co-organiser, Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick (11th January 2022)

Warwick PG History Conference co-convener, University of Warwick (2021)

History PGR Work in Progress seminar co-convener, University of Warwick (2020-2022)

Co-Publicity and Co-IT officer, The Hidden in Performance, Visual, and Literary Culture Conference (Jan 2021 - Sept 2021)

History Department Research Committee PGR Rep, University of Warwick (2020-2021)

History Department Rep, University of Warwick (2020-2021)

History PGT Rep, University of Exeter (2018-2019)

History Department Athena Swan Student Rep, University of Exeter (2017-2019)

History Third Year and Social Media Rep, University of Exeter (2017-2018)

Additional Activities and Achievements

Shortlisted for Warwick Award for Public and Community Engagement (2022)

HRC Doctoral Fellow (2021-2022)

Co-Winner of Warwick Venture into Business Engagement (2021)

Dean's Commendation for Exceptional Achievement, University of Exeter (2019)

Dean's Commendation for Contribution to Life of the Department, University of Exeter (2018)

Academic Undergraduate Rep of the Year, University of Exeter (2018)

Teaching

2022-2023 Seminar Tutor, Deviance and Nonconformity in Early Modern Europe (HI179-30)

2022 - Teacher Champion, Warwick PTC

2022 - Supervisor, Undergraduate Research Support Scheme

2022 - Supervisor, Interdisciplinary Arts Research Project

2021-2022 - Seminar Tutor, Crossing Boundaries and Breaking Norms in the Medieval World (HI2E9)

2021-2022 - Seminar Tutor, Academic Research and Writing (part of Making of the Modern World (HI153))

2021 - Guest Seminar Tutor, Understanding Wellbeing Theory and Practice, Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, Warwick

2021 - Guest Interviewee, Understanding Wellbeing Online Module, Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, Warwick