Postgraduate research students

My PhD forms part of the ex-ERC Advanced Grant, now-UKRI, 'Art and Inequality in the Shadow of the Black Death,' headed by my lead supervisor, Prof. Samuel Cohn. For my doctoral research, I am tracing trajectories in various forms of inequality in late-medieval and early modern Naples, from the late-thirteenth century to the early-sixteenth century. These forms of inequality are social, political, economic, gender, and, predominantly, cultural. The latter is measured through the quantitative and qualitative analysis of artistic commissions contained within testaments, donations, and concessions, of which my dataset contains c.500. My research is thereby heavily based on archival research of unpublished archival documentation.

My Master of Research (MRes) thesis, which passed with no changes required, was on notions of foreignness in late-medieval and early modern Florence. This research was not just on foreign immigrants to Florence, but also on the various ways in which notions of foreignness contributed to Florentines' construction of their collective self-identity, between the late-thirteenth century and the early-sixteenth century. I hope to unite my MRes and doctoral research with a comparitive analysis of notions of foreginness in late-medieval and early modern Florence and Naples. The MRes thesis can be accessed at: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/82552 

• Professor Samuel Cohn
• Dr Julia McClure

• Fully funded PhD on the ex-ERC Advanced Grant, now-UKRI, project, 'Art and Inequality in the Shadow of the Black Death,' headed by Prof. Samuel Cohn, October 2022.
• History research support award of £400, awarded by the School of Humanities of the University of Glasgow, for travelling to Naples, Italy, to commence a year of archival doctoral research, April 2023.
• Sir Fitzroy McLean Travel Scholarship of £1,150, to study Italian language and culture for a month at the Università per gli stranieri di Siena, July 2016.
• Geraldine Fazio (née Muirhead) Travel Scholarship of £264, to study Italian language and culture for a month at the Università per gli stranieri di Siena, for achievement in Italian Beginners Language 1, June 2016.

• 'A European Perspective: Late-medieval Tuscan Perceptions of Scotland', What is Scotland: Reinventions and Connections, Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies, University of Glasgow (2024 May 24)
• 'Socio-political exclusion in Renaissance Florence', Exclusion in the Early Modern Period, Glasgow Early Modern Society, University of Glasgow (2023 June 2)
• 'Natives' and Foreigners' Mutual Adaptation in Late-Medieval Florence’, Adaptation, University of Newcastle (2021 May 19)
• 'Perceptions of Foreignness and Collective Self-Identity in Late-Medieval Florence', Self and Selves, universities of York and Leeds (2021 June 18)

• Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Glasgow, January 2025 – September 2026
  • Associate Fellow of University of Glasgow's Recognising Excellence in Teaching (fully aligned with Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education).
  • Pre-honours seminar tutor on Medieval History and on Scottish History.
  • Pre-honours Medieval History lecturer.
  • Postgraduate Medieval Palaeography seminar tutor.
• Support for Learning Worker, Whitehill Secondary School, Glasgow, June – September 2022
  • Provision of care and support to pupils, including supervision and administration of intimate personal care with a student of limited mobility.
• Italian Language Tutor, Dunoon, Argyll, September 2020 – Oct 2022
  • Weekly private Italian language tuition to one couple and to one individual, all mature students.
• English Language Tutor, Castellammare di Stabia (NA), Italy, January – August 2018
  • Weekly private English language tuition to a high-school age pupil in Castellammare di Stabia.
• Assistant of English Language, Scuola Media Statale ‘Stabiae’ (NA), Italy, October 2017 – May 2018
  • Aiding teachers in lesson delivery, and planning and delivering lessons in English language classes in Italy.

• Prizes
  • J.A.F. Thomson Prize, 2020, for best undergraduate dissertation in Medieval History (grade A1, the highest possible grade).
  • Irene Munro Fraser Prize, 2019, for best History Junior Honours student.
  • Jas Janikiewicz Prize, 2019, for outstanding proficiency in Junior Honours oral and written Italian.
  • Professor Tom O'Neill Prize, 2019, for achievement in Junior Honours Italian.
  • Osvaldo Franchi Memorial Prize, 2017, for best Italian second year student.
• Other relevant employment
  • Project Administrative Assistant to the ex-ERC Advanced Grant, now-UKRI project, 'Art and Inequality in the Shadow of the Black Death', University of Glasgow, October 2022 – present