This term, MEMS has welcomed five new candidates to its doctoral programme. We are delighted to introduce our new PhD starters here!
Chloe Butt has joined us as part of the Leverhulme-funded Knowledge Orders before Modernity collaboration between the University of Kent and King’s College London. Her thesis, ‘Saintly Experiences in the Byzantine World and Beyond: The Transmission and Reception of Hagiography in Early Medieval Europe’, is supervised by Dr Anne Alwis and Dr James Corke-Webster. In addition to hagiography and the cult of saints, Chloe’s research interests include ancient and medieval languages, palaeography, early Christianity and lived European religions. Chloe joins MEMS from the University of Exeter, where she received her MA in Medieval Studies.
Anisia Iacob has also joined MEMS via the Knowledge Orders programme. Her thesis, ‘Crafting the Reformation in Early Modern Transylvania’, supervised by Dr Suzanna Ivanič and Dr Hannah Murphy, focuses on how theological ideas of the Reformation were visually translated through flora and fauna church interior decorations. Anisia is also interested in early modern philosophy, the history of ideas, embodiment, and techniques of knowledge-making. She holds two MAs from Leiden Universiteit and worked at the Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis.
Cameron Macdonald is a PhD candidate working on ‘Appreciation over Power: The Art Collections of the Whitehall Group 1600-1650’. His thesis, supervised by Dr Manolo Guerci and Dr Suzanna Ivanič, examines artistic collection and appreciation in the seventeenth century. Cameron completed his BA (Hons) History at the University of Chichester and his MA in History at the University of Southampton.
Chloe Malik has begun her CHASE DTP-funded thesis, ‘Illuminating Inscriptions: Text and image in the Gothic stained glass of Canterbury Cathedral’, and is supervised by Dr Emily Guerry and Dr David Rundle. Chloe’s work aims to place these stained glass inscriptions within the contexts of contemporary ecclesiastical architecture and twelfth-century verse culture. She is interested more generally in inscriptions and their role in ‘textual communities’, Gothic art and architecture, medieval artistic practices and their transmission, and the cult of saints. Chloe is a graduate of the MEMS MA programme.
Kate McCaffrey is a CHASE DTP-funded candidate whose thesis, ‘Reading the Margins, 1470-1530: Cultures of Annotation’, is supervised by Dr David Rundle. Kate’s work examines late medieval and early modern female book users and networks. More broadly, she is interested in recovering women’s lost voices and agency, networks of human exchange, the overlap of manuscript and print cultures, and written interventions and marginalia. Kate previously studied at the University of Warwick and her completed her MA here in MEMS.
A warm welcome to all, and we look forward to hearing more about these exciting topics in the coming years!
If you’re interested in learning more about studying for a PhD in Canterbury with MEMS, please see our funding and supervisor finder here.