A student-led initiative from the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Kent
ABOUT US
MEMSlib is an initiative of the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) at the University of Kent. This student-led project developed out of our shared desire to support academic peers and colleagues during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Awarded winning project, 2020 Physical Lockdown/Digital Freedom Student Competition
© Ruth Nichols-Pike Design, 2020
THE CURRENT TEAM
Emily Allison
Cristina Alvarez Ortiz
Rebecca Gaylord
Amilia Gillies
Emily graduated from the University of Exeter in 2019 with a First Class BA in English Literature. Her undergraduate research culminated in a dissertation on portrayals of petty treason and its consequences in Early Modern drama and popular literature. Now, after a short break from academia, she is thrilled to be completing an MA in MEMS in her native city of Canterbury. Among her interests are premodern understandings of neurodivergence; Shakespeare’s connections with Early Modern Denmark; and Medieval English towns and Cathedral cities.
Cristina Alvarez graduated in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing and a minor in Spanish at Colorado State University-Pueblo (2019-22), having taken a class on Chaucer and another on History of British Literature. During that time, she also worked as a Spanish tutor and developed a webcomic using her background in freelance illustration. Currently, she is a Masters students at the University of Kent.
After a career in broadcast journalism that spanned more than three decades, Rebecca returned to the classroom and earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Southern Utah University (U.S.) in 2022. She is beyond thrilled to be pursuing her MA with MEMS in England’s cradle of medieval history! Having written her undergraduate dissertation on The Great Bovine Pestilence, she is interested in anything and everything to do with the fourteenth century, particularly how that tumultuous time period affected England’s peasants.
Amilia is a second-year PhD student at the University of Kent, supervised by Professor Kenneth Fincham. Amilia's PhD analyses contemporary perceptions of scandal and corruption at the Jacobean Court from c.1614-c.1621. She graduated with Distinction from the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies MA at Kent (2022), for which she was awarded a "Tomorrow's World" Excellence Scholarship. In 2021, Amilia completed her BA in History at the University of Kent, for which she was awarded a First. Amilia assisted on the Middling Culture project, and is Branch Secretary for the Canterbury Historical Association.
THE 2022-2023 TEAM
Cristina Alvarez Ortiz
Fay West
Fay West is a fourth-year PhD student at the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent, formally funded by the Vice-Chancellor's scholarship. She completed her BA in History at Swansea University, for which she received a prize for her dissertation on the cult of St Æthelthryth and received a scholarship to undertake a MA in Medieval Studies. Her research focuses on the memory of St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury and the English Benedictine Reform ca. 988-1100. Her interests are in hagiography, saints cults, monasticism, networks and history writing.
Amilia Gillies
THE 2021-2022 TEAM
Ségolène Gence
(Jan 2021- Dec 2022)
Ségolène is a third-year PhD student at the University of Kent funded by CHASE AHRC and supervised by Dr Ryan Perry. Ségolène completed her MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies in 2015 at the University of Kent upon being awarded the MEMS Friends’ MA Studentship and specialised in Middle English literature. After a year studying for a second MA and teaching English at the Sorbonne in Paris, she moved back to the UK and worked at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, teaching French to undergraduate students for four years. Her research focuses on English devotional literature from the fourteenth and fifteenth century, textual transmission and manuscript studies. Ségolène also dabbles in Anglo-Norman and medieval French literature on the side and takes a particular interest in digital humanities.
George Knight
(Jan 2021- Oct 2022)
George Knight achieved a First-Class Honours degree in History (2017-20) and a Distinction Medieval and Early Modern Studies (2020-21) at the University of Kent. His MA research, which he is continuing to research independently, focused upon CCA-DDc/Register/E, or the ‘Great Cartulary’ of Christ Church Priory, Canterbury. He is interested in the digitisation of historical and archaeological resources and the implementation of heritage assets within modern development. He is currently working as an Assistant Consultant in the Cultural Heritage and Archaeology department at WSP.
Anna-Nadine Pike
(Oct 2021- Oct 2022)
Anna is a second-year PhD student at the University of Kent, funded by CHASE. Supervised by Dr David Rundle, Anna’s PhD looks at the development of late-medieval textual traditions in Britain after the reformation, focussing on the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century manuscripts of the Huguenot scribe and calligrapher, Esther Inglis. Anna completed her MA with MEMS in 2019/20, and has since worked in the Library and Special Collections of New College, Oxford. Anna was one of the co-founders of MEMSLib during the 2020 lockdown, and has re-joined the MEMSLib team since returning to Kent.
Lucy Splarn
(Jan 2021- Sep 2021)
Lucy is a PhD student at the University of Kent, funded by CHASE AHRC and supervised by Dr Emily Guerry. Her research focuses on the art, archaeology and iconography of medieval pilgrims’ souvenirs. Lucy studied at the University of Ottawa for a year as part of her undergraduate degree in History and completed her MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Kent. She previously worked as an Archive and Library Assistant at Canterbury Cathedral and takes a particular interest in the architectural history of the city.
THE FOUNDERS
Róisín Astell
Dr Daniella Gonzalez
Anna Hegland
Emma-Louise Hill
.jpg)
Anna-Nadine Pike
Contributors
Professor Pascale Aebsicher - Lubaaba Al-Azami - Dr Charlie Berry - Dr Amy Blakeway - Professor Barbara Bombi - Nat Cutter - Dr Paul Dryburgh - Dr Beate Fricke - Dr Robert Gallagher - Dr Peter Good - Dr Dan Gosling - Dr John Wyatt Greenlee - Dr Jon-Mark Grussenmeyer - Dr Ada Hajdu - Dr Rebekah Higgitt - Dr Diane Heath - Dr Suzanna Ivanič - George Knight - Jordan Knowles - Professor Henrike Lähnemann - Graeme Millen - Celia Mill - Dr Edward Mills - Pietro Mocchi - Dr Marta Musso - Dr Heather Pagan - Dr Ryan Perry - Dr Alison Ray - Emeric Rigault - Dr Edward Roberts - Dr David Rundle - Dr Daniel Starza Smith - Danny Smith - Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh - Anna Turnham - Professor Martine van Elk - Dr Andrew Dunning - Dr Emerson Richards - students and staff of the MA in Early Modern English Literature: Text and Transmission (King's College London)