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  • Erica Robert Pallo

My Journey Begins, Again, Alongside Women of the Early Modern Period in the UK

Updated: Sep 4, 2021


As the world turns...my research advances. Over the past few weeks, I have had a heart-to-heart talk with myself concerning how all of this work can be most effective. I realized that I would need to refine the time period and location parameters that I research. Otherwise, I run the risk of overwhelming myself as a sole person constructing such a comprehensive project on her own.


Initially, my aim for this blog was to gather my “in process” thoughts and potential data that could be added to my final archive, the culmination of my PhD work. I had planned to spend 3-4 years combing the global historical record from Prehistory until the end of World War I (1918), all in service of an academic dissertation. I choose that endpoint since social conditions after the war incentivized women to move outside of the private sphere and to create more objects for use in the public sphere, resulting in a proliferation of material culture made by women. My intention is that the archive will highlight objects from periods that often lack or have minimal visual records about women. History tells us that women who lived between the 16th and 18th centuries, for example, could not possibly have created things that demonstrated their intelligence and creativity. But is that true? I do not believe that it is and I want to show the world a more accurate story of women's cultural contributions throughout history.


When I presented my initial ideas at the Coalition for Master's Scholars of Material Culture symposium called Material Culture in an Increasingly Digital World a few weeks ago, I addressed my concern then that I was still brainstorming how best to refine my academic ambitions. I recognized that I would have to eventually filter my parameters in order to tackle the sheer size of content that could be amassed by culling from the entire historical record.


And so, I reflected on what I really wanted from all of this work, how I could best pay my respects to those women who have come before me, those that asserted their free will in whatever small way they could within the constraints of their day. I realized that I want to begin my academic journey with women who share more with me than a passion to be given equal opportunities to me in their lives. I also want to examine the lives of women who came from the same places many of my own foremothers did: the United Kingdom, a group of countries that are endowed with many examples of women who crossed those lines and where their creations still exist today. I want to not only tell the neglected stories of women who once lived, but who lived experiences with whom I have an ancestral connection.


Therefore, I consider my research and archive to be composed of two parts: (1) the PhD dissertation work as a concentrated case study of a specific time period and location, and (2) the longer-term work that will hopefully come after the dissertation and will encompass many more dates and locales. This blog will address both parts, but will concentrate on the regions and time periods that I will use in my dissertation.

In the first iteration of the archive, I will focus on women writers from the United Kingdom who lived during the Early Modern Period (1500-1750 CE). One such woman is Aphra Behn, as seen in the portrait above, who was an accomplished and respected playwright, poet, translator, fiction writer, and even spy in her day. I choose the Early Modern Period as it marked a significant moment of women dipping their toes outside of the private sphere and daring to go public with creative work that was not necessarily for domestic, utilitarian purposes. They risked having their voices heard outside of the home. For better or worse, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have a long tradition of collecting and recording information. So too then they have libraries, archives, museums, and heritage societies that have well-preserved artifacts that I can study. By extension, many historians and scholars interested in dedicating their careers to the past work of women are also based in he UK.


The second iteration, after I complete my dissertation and begin my professional work, will be a larger archive that will include a world map of women from the entire global historical record. Ultimately, I want to accurately and honorably represent women from across the globe and from times that span many millennia.


For now and the foreseeable future, I am thrilled to commit solely to the British, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish women who wrote books and plays, penned letters, painted on canvas, practiced medicine, collected folklore, and acted as government spies 500-300 years ago. Cheers!

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