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Undergraduate Research Opportunities

The Renaissance Centre is keen to promote undergraduate interest in the Renaissance. Please feel free to contact the Director or the Director of Graduate Studies with any queries about our activities. Note that postgraduate modules are not normally open to undergraduates, but we may explore the possibility of taster sessions.

All students are welcome to attend Research seminars or register for conferences, unless stated restrictions apply. If you are brimming with ideas or keen to have some hands-on experience, you may also like to know about opportunities for funding and research:

The Warwick Undergraduate Research Scholarship scheme (URSS). Prospective, current and past undergraduate research projects in the Centre and Renaissance-related projects elsewhere in the University include:

  • Oli Needham (History) on 'social schemes that British food brands had in the 19th and 20th centuries' (with his mentor, Rebecca Earle). His research and experience completing the URSS will be published as a series of blog posts on his website, https://olineedham.wordpress.com/

  • Evan Whyman (History) on 'Imagining Darkness: The Varying Conceptions of Demons Across Middle Ages Europe' (with his mentor, Aysu Dincer)
  • Martha Fox-Adams (History) on 'Teaching boys to cook in Twentieth Century Britain' (with her mentor, Rebecca Earle). Project abstract: 'By the end of the twentieth century, it was a given that boys would be taught basic cookery skills within the school environment. This was not always the case. In the mid-century this was seen as the domain of girls’ education. I intend to study this shift. I will chart how debates and developments in the education of boys and men in cooking evolved in twentieth century Britain, leading to today’s expectation that cookery skills will be taught to both sexes. ‘Cooking’ will be taken broadly to encompass its various iterations in education, from domestic science, to home economics and food technology. My enquiry will include both developments within schools, and the activities of community groups and adult education schemes, which pioneered, influenced, and responded to the changes in the beliefs about the teaching cooking to boys and men. The overarching aim of this project is thus to understand the historical forces that led to equal access to the teaching of basic cookery skills in today’s Britain. This will help me to understand how the teaching of cookery skills interacted with changing conceptions of masculinity. This project will provide a distinct angle on how the relationship between masculinity and domesticity changed over the course of the century.'
  • Fintan Dishman (2nd yr history) on 'Boundaries and Belief: Tracing the North through Religious History', (with his mentor Naomi Pullin)

  • Joseph Bates, working on 'François Caron: A Dutch national in the service of the French East India Company', (with his mentor Guido van Meersbergen)
  • An Edition of Lady Hester Pulter (with Dr Alice Eardley)
  • Editing Lady Hester Pulter (with Dr Alice Eardley)
  • James Shirley's comic Women: A Preliminary Investigation and Bibliography (with Dr T Grant). Link to project posters HERE
  • Creating a Renaissance Festivals On-line Database (with Dr M Shewring [Theatre Studies] and Rob O'Toole) - a project linked to the British Library's Treasures in Full - Renaissance Festival Books
  • The Construction of the Great House; new methods of understanding 16th and 17th century country houses (with Dr J Alexander [History of Art])
  • Constructing Elizabeth Isham: Launching the first autobiography in English - E. Isham's "Remembrances", 1638 (with Dr E Clarke [English])
  • Building a Bibliography for the The Oxford University Press Edition of The Complete Works of James Shirley (with Dr T Grant)
  • Textual Collation of the First Edition of The Wittie Faire One by James Shirley (with Dr T Grant)
  • Contextualising The White Devil: Politics, Religion and Theatre during the Reign of James I (with Dr N Cinpoes)