While early modern plague epidemics have been thoroughly addressed within the disciplines of literature, literary history, history and material culture over the past decade, much of this scholarship has focused on male-authored texts that emerged from England’s “great” plague outbreaks. As a result, women’s participation in the textual landscape of early modern England’s plague outbreaks has remained relatively unstudied. This project examines the myriad ways in which women wrote about plague, as well as the ways in which early modern constructions of pestilence were gendered. The project has encompassed a range of outreach activities, participation in scholarly events, and writing projects, which, taken together, have resulted in a full-period view of how women were essential actors during early modern plague outbreaks. Through a range of activities, including skills training and teaching, focused on gaining expertise in early modern paleography, I have significantly enhanced my ability to work with manuscripts. Early modern women frequently recorded their interactions with plague in manuscript, documenting recipes against infection in manuscript receipt books or writing about the disease in relation to day-to-day events in life writing, such as diaries or spiritual journals.
My project also features a significant trans-Atlantic dimension, and I have spearheaded an edited volume entitled Medicine and Religion in the Trans-Atlantic World, 1600-1815, which has been submitted to Penn State University Press. The volume features eminent scholars in the fields of trans-Atlantic studies, early modern history and literature, and plague writing. The volume includes valuable contributions that situate early modern plague outbreaks within the Atlantic world.
