ABOUT US
About the Edinburgh Early Modern Network
The Network was established by Thom Pritchard in 2018, as a forum for postgraduate students studying the early modern period. It has since grown, and now includes academic staff as well as students.Â
The Network runs a research seminar series during the academic year, where both staff and students from across the University present their research, and meet to discuss all things early modern.
WHO WE ARE
The Edinburgh Early Modern Network Committee
JULIA SMITH
Julia joined the committee in January 2019. She is currently a PhD candidate in ECA, researching hand-coloured prints and illustrated books from Renaissance Nuremberg. She also has an MA in the Dutch Golden Age from UCL. She manages the Network's Twitter account.
THOM PRITCHARD
Thom established the Edinburgh Early Modern Network in Autumn 2018. He has a Master's in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies from the University of York, and is currently based in the LLC for his PhD, on the terrible preoccupations of the Caroline British Isles towards the Thirty Years War.
MATTHEW CLEARY
Matthew joined the EEMN in December 2019. He is currently a PhD candidate in Law at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on fifteenth and sixteenth century English inheritance law, more specifically on the administration of wills under canon and civil law. Previously, Matthew studied in Canada where he received a BA Spec. Hons. and MA degrees in History.
CIARAN JONES
Ciaran joined the Network in January 2019 and sat on the committee, managing the Network's Facebook page, until August 2020. He recently submitted his PhD in Scottish History on the topic of Protestant spirituality in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Scotland, with a particular focus on the witch trials.
JILLIAN LUKE
Jillian started her PhD at Edinburgh in 2017.  Her project is called 'The Early Modern Blush 1590-1700'. She specialises in early modern English Literature, with a particular interest in representations of the body, specifically in the representation of gender, race, and emotion.
CARLO SCAPECCHI
Carlo is currently a PhD candidate and academic tutor in ECA. His research regards the tapestry making in Ducal Florence (1539-1569) and the foundation of the Arazzeria Medicea (1545). Carlo has a Master’s in History of Art at the Alma Mater Studiorum-Università  of Bologna.
STEFANO NICASTRO
Stefano studied History at the University of Milan (Italy) and spent his Erasmus in Istanbul (Turkey) at the Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi. Subsequently, he completed a MSc in Middle Eastern Studies with Arabic at the University of Edinburgh and further studied Arabic in Egypt at International House Cairo – ILI. Stefano is currently a PhD Student in History at the University of Edinburgh.
EMILY KENT
Emily joined the EEMN committee in January 2021. She is currently a PhD candidate in History, specializing in music and early modern intellectual history. Her project concerns the French polymath Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) and his relationship with the scholarly and religious communities of seventeenth-century Paris. Emily also has an MSt in History from the University of Oxford.
CAMERON CROSS
Cameron's PhD focuses on the connection between the supernatural and the body in Old French and Middle High German literature (12th-13th Centuries). He is particularly interested in how female and disabled bodies are affected by supernaturally caused diseases. He joined the EEMN in 2022 and particularly enjoys promoting connections between medieval and early modern phenomena.
BO VAN BROEKHOVEN
Bo studied at University College Utrecht and Queen’s University Belfast, and obtained her MSc in Intellectual History at the University of Edinburgh. She joined the network in January 2022. In her PhD research, Bo investigates how early moderns integrated ways to care for the soul in their plans for universal reform. She focuses on the overlap between the history of science, religion, and emotion.
DAVID CONEY
David is a PhD student in ECA, investigating the music and worship of the Chapel Royal of Scotland and its relationship to wider Stuart religious policy, from the Union of the Crowns through to the outbreak of the British Civil Wars. He previously studied at Cambridge University (MMus) and Durham University (BA). He is also active as a professional musician, as a choral singer and conductor with a focus on renaissance and baroque music.