Louisa Pickard

PhD

Performing Periods: uncovering the shame surrounding menstruation in early modern performing arts

Supervisors:

Sophie Mann (University of Warwick) & Erin Sullivan (University of Birmingham)

I am a Midlands4Cities funded student, investigating discourses of menstruation in early modern theatre and song. Tracing several iconographies, including sickness, the moon, flowers, and colour symbolism from early modern medical texts to contemporary theatre and song, my work pioneers practise for exploring menstrual euphemism. In doing so, I seek to confront twenty-first discourses of shame through an interrogation of their cultural origins

Teaching

2025-2026: EN121 Medieval & Early Modern Studies (University of Warwick, England)

2021-2024: LANSAD, LLCER, and LEA lectrice (Université de Paul Valery III, France)

Dissemination

Publications:

Prisoners of the Womb: Pregnant Prisoners in William Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale' and 'Measure for Measure' (Cahiers Elisabethiens, 2025)

Conferences:

The Ideal and the Ugly, The University of Warwick, 2025: Through sickness and through health: early modern narratives of the menstruating body as a feminine ideal
Popular Recreations, The University of Birmingham, 2025: Music, Menstruation, and the Moon: Female Virtue and Menstrual Resonances in early modern Balladry
BritGrad, The Shakespeare Institute, 2025: The Object-ification of Women in William Shakespeare's Othello and Cymbeline
IRCL Networking Seminar, Université de Paul Valéry III, 2025: Performing Periods: Uncovering the Shame surrounding Menstruation in early modern Performing Arts
BritGrad, The Shakespeare Institute, 2023: Prisoners of the Womb: Pregnant Prisoners in William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and Measure for Measure

Scholarships & Awards

Research Development Fund: IRCL, Montpellier (2025)

Research Development Fund: Wellcome Trust, London (2025)

Midlands4Cities AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership (2024-present)

Best Abstract: BritGrad (2023)

Music Scholar at The University of Birmingham (2017-2021)

(she/her/hers)

Research Interests:

My research is deeply committed to interdisciplinary study, focusing on the way that the intersections of history, language, literature, theatre, and music shape female identities.

Education:

MA: Shakespeare Studies (The Shakespeare Institute)

BA: English and French (The University of Birmingham)

Office Hours:

Tuesdays: 17-18h (FAB 5.31)

Wednesdays: 09-10h (online)

Get in touch:

Email: louisa.pickard@warwick.ac.uk

Instagram:@performingperiods