The Cultural Lives of the Middling Sort: writing and material culture 1560 - 1660
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Kent
Department Name: Sch of English
Abstract
This project aims to transform our sense of the way reading and writing fitted into the everyday cultural lives of a very important but under-researched group in early modern England - the middling sort - the literate urban households whose members often wrote for a living. We currently know very little about the cultural lives of these households, partly because they have been of little scholarly interest, and partly because the evidence we need to explore them is cared for by unconnected institutions - libraries, archives, online repositories, and museums - which makes it impossible to see together the textual, visual and material work they authored and created, and that which they bought as entertainment, possessions or decoration.
Unlike their elite counterparts, therefore, we have no coherent view of middling aesthetic practices which would allow us to understand their creativity fully. This is even more remarkable as some of the most popular writers in English, among them William Shakespeare, were members of this group. Understanding how their literary, artistic and material production and consumption related to one another lets us examine fully the creative environment in which the writers grew up and participated. But it also allows us to reach beyond these well-known figures, to explore the impact of those environments on their wives, mothers, sisters, apprentices and servants - individuals for whom a classical grammar school education was not a possibility, but who nevertheless experienced its impact in the domestic and urban environments in which they lived and worked - for example as books in the household, sayings or images painted on the walls.
And through understanding the environments and practices of creativity for these families, this project aims, with its partner the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in particular, to encourage debate about how the arts might help in overcoming barriers to social mobility today. It will provide historical evidence that speaks to and allows us to interrogate our contemporary tendency to dissociate economic entrepreneurship from the rich aesthetic and cultural contexts that encourage it and benefit from it. Seeing clearly how this group influenced their cultural environments to create social and political change will offer new ways of looking at the relationships between social status, creativity and the arts in the present.
The project will analyse five case-study communities - Banbury, Bristol, Chesterfield, Ipswich and Stratford-upon-Avon - and a range of specific households within them (ones engaged in different types of writing that also left evidence of their material choices and investments), drawn from the families of provincial administrators, clerics, professional writers and individuals from the medical, theatrical and print trades, active in the century 1560-1660. We will work with two mutually-dependent strands of evidence: literary production and consumption such as the household, personal and urban administrative archives to which these groups contributed; and material production and consumption - the domestic and urban buildings (their architecture, decoration and furniture), clothing and personal objects (including those for reading and writing) with which they were associated.
Analysed together, this information will allow us to reconstruct the full range of middling aesthetic and scribal culture, and the levels of skill and expertise involved in its production, and to share these materials and their implications with a wide audience. In addition to creating educational resources for schools and museums, our work will allow us to recreate a specific example of a middling lifestyle, by digitally modelling a period room, complete with the sounds, lighting and objects of the time. This digital model will give another way to think 'inside' the material and textual lives of the middling sort, and to engage others in this work.
Unlike their elite counterparts, therefore, we have no coherent view of middling aesthetic practices which would allow us to understand their creativity fully. This is even more remarkable as some of the most popular writers in English, among them William Shakespeare, were members of this group. Understanding how their literary, artistic and material production and consumption related to one another lets us examine fully the creative environment in which the writers grew up and participated. But it also allows us to reach beyond these well-known figures, to explore the impact of those environments on their wives, mothers, sisters, apprentices and servants - individuals for whom a classical grammar school education was not a possibility, but who nevertheless experienced its impact in the domestic and urban environments in which they lived and worked - for example as books in the household, sayings or images painted on the walls.
And through understanding the environments and practices of creativity for these families, this project aims, with its partner the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in particular, to encourage debate about how the arts might help in overcoming barriers to social mobility today. It will provide historical evidence that speaks to and allows us to interrogate our contemporary tendency to dissociate economic entrepreneurship from the rich aesthetic and cultural contexts that encourage it and benefit from it. Seeing clearly how this group influenced their cultural environments to create social and political change will offer new ways of looking at the relationships between social status, creativity and the arts in the present.
The project will analyse five case-study communities - Banbury, Bristol, Chesterfield, Ipswich and Stratford-upon-Avon - and a range of specific households within them (ones engaged in different types of writing that also left evidence of their material choices and investments), drawn from the families of provincial administrators, clerics, professional writers and individuals from the medical, theatrical and print trades, active in the century 1560-1660. We will work with two mutually-dependent strands of evidence: literary production and consumption such as the household, personal and urban administrative archives to which these groups contributed; and material production and consumption - the domestic and urban buildings (their architecture, decoration and furniture), clothing and personal objects (including those for reading and writing) with which they were associated.
Analysed together, this information will allow us to reconstruct the full range of middling aesthetic and scribal culture, and the levels of skill and expertise involved in its production, and to share these materials and their implications with a wide audience. In addition to creating educational resources for schools and museums, our work will allow us to recreate a specific example of a middling lifestyle, by digitally modelling a period room, complete with the sounds, lighting and objects of the time. This digital model will give another way to think 'inside' the material and textual lives of the middling sort, and to engage others in this work.
Planned Impact
Our research will benefit:
1) Students/ those interested in the literary history of the early modern period at all levels.
2) The Heritage sector: visitors to, those with responsibility for, and volunteers at historic sites.
3) Institutions of all types (libraries, archives, museums) with relevant holdings of materials relating to the middling sort.
4) Special interest groups involved with one aspect of 2) above (e.g. furniture; buildings; paintings; textiles)
5) Creative Industries: theatre, multimedia and film companies that engage in historical reconstruction.
Our beneficiaries will be served via four key impact mechanisms: an online exhibition, digital reconstructions, educational resource aligned to UK national curriculum key stage three (11-14 yrs), and two public study days.
Online Exhibition: Featuring examples of all middling cultural objects (e.g. letters, commonplace books, administrative writing, poetry, wall paintings, domestic and personal objects - see supporting visual material), it will provide users with accessible means to interact with project sources. It will offer useful content for heritage professionals, and will be licensed to encourage such reuse. We will provide links to the comprehensive project archive so that more specialist audiences can benefit, including those from archives/ museums and special interest groups. The latter will also benefit from content produced in collaboration with them e.g. specific sections focused on furniture of interest to relevant societies and auctioneers. Finally, the exhibition will provide insights of value to creative industries working in historical time periods, with specific pointers towards information of value in reconstructing environments (physically or digitally), including blueprints, details of textures and fixings, accessible commentaries on textual sources. Whilst public contributions will be invited (subject to auditing; spam filtering) any areas linked from the KS3 materials (see below) will only relate to team-created content.
Digital Reconstructions: Creating a 'virtual room' will provide users with an opportunity to experience the cultural lives of the middling sort, and the relationships amongst reading, writing and material culture. We will produce a small number of high quality acoustic and visual simulations, rather than a broad range of digital representations. Our project team has produced materials of broadcast quality (some seen by more than 40 million TV viewers) and we will ensure that the museum and online experience is engaging and thought provoking. The content will be of value to heritage professionals as an example of heritage interaction design and representation, and as a source of materials for their own work. We will encourage other museums' use of our content, including the reconstruction assets produced to make the final reconstructions. Similarly, we will enable other reconstructions' use of the materials and expertise developed by the project. Commercial applications of our content will be encouraged and managed by the host institution.
KS3 Educational Resource: This will support students to build a critical understanding of the impact that the lives of the middling sort had on their creative outputs, challenging them to explore the connections between early modern environments and creativity and those that pertain now. The resource will link through to the online exhibition as a means to access examples of the project archive appropriate to this topic and to the age group. The resource will be shared freely via the online exhibition in order to reach a broader audience.
Public Study Days: The project team and partners will provide accessible summaries of the research and its implications, targeted at our beneficiaries via edited highlights of talks and additional materials in the online exhibition. We will invite our beneficiaries to contribute to these, bringing their expertise into the project.
1) Students/ those interested in the literary history of the early modern period at all levels.
2) The Heritage sector: visitors to, those with responsibility for, and volunteers at historic sites.
3) Institutions of all types (libraries, archives, museums) with relevant holdings of materials relating to the middling sort.
4) Special interest groups involved with one aspect of 2) above (e.g. furniture; buildings; paintings; textiles)
5) Creative Industries: theatre, multimedia and film companies that engage in historical reconstruction.
Our beneficiaries will be served via four key impact mechanisms: an online exhibition, digital reconstructions, educational resource aligned to UK national curriculum key stage three (11-14 yrs), and two public study days.
Online Exhibition: Featuring examples of all middling cultural objects (e.g. letters, commonplace books, administrative writing, poetry, wall paintings, domestic and personal objects - see supporting visual material), it will provide users with accessible means to interact with project sources. It will offer useful content for heritage professionals, and will be licensed to encourage such reuse. We will provide links to the comprehensive project archive so that more specialist audiences can benefit, including those from archives/ museums and special interest groups. The latter will also benefit from content produced in collaboration with them e.g. specific sections focused on furniture of interest to relevant societies and auctioneers. Finally, the exhibition will provide insights of value to creative industries working in historical time periods, with specific pointers towards information of value in reconstructing environments (physically or digitally), including blueprints, details of textures and fixings, accessible commentaries on textual sources. Whilst public contributions will be invited (subject to auditing; spam filtering) any areas linked from the KS3 materials (see below) will only relate to team-created content.
Digital Reconstructions: Creating a 'virtual room' will provide users with an opportunity to experience the cultural lives of the middling sort, and the relationships amongst reading, writing and material culture. We will produce a small number of high quality acoustic and visual simulations, rather than a broad range of digital representations. Our project team has produced materials of broadcast quality (some seen by more than 40 million TV viewers) and we will ensure that the museum and online experience is engaging and thought provoking. The content will be of value to heritage professionals as an example of heritage interaction design and representation, and as a source of materials for their own work. We will encourage other museums' use of our content, including the reconstruction assets produced to make the final reconstructions. Similarly, we will enable other reconstructions' use of the materials and expertise developed by the project. Commercial applications of our content will be encouraged and managed by the host institution.
KS3 Educational Resource: This will support students to build a critical understanding of the impact that the lives of the middling sort had on their creative outputs, challenging them to explore the connections between early modern environments and creativity and those that pertain now. The resource will link through to the online exhibition as a means to access examples of the project archive appropriate to this topic and to the age group. The resource will be shared freely via the online exhibition in order to reach a broader audience.
Public Study Days: The project team and partners will provide accessible summaries of the research and its implications, targeted at our beneficiaries via edited highlights of talks and additional materials in the online exhibition. We will invite our beneficiaries to contribute to these, bringing their expertise into the project.
Organisations
- University of Kent (Lead Research Organisation)
- Portable Antiquities Scheme (Collaboration)
- Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (Collaboration)
- Weald and Downland Living Museum (Collaboration)
- Folger Shakespeare Library (Collaboration)
- Weald and Downland Open Air Museum (Project Partner)
- Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (Project Partner)
Publications
Davies C
(2022)
The Woolfes of Wine Street: Middling Culture and Community in Bristol, 1600-1620
in The English Historical Review
Davies C
(2022)
The Place of Bearwards in Early Modern England
in The Historical Journal
Winter M
(2023)
Public services and the urban middling sort: the provision of water in Bristol, Chester and Ipswich, 1540-1640
in Urban History
Richardson, C
(2022)
Early Modern Streets A European Perspective
Davies C
(2022)
What is a Playhouse? - England at Play, 1520-1620
Davies Callan
(2022)
What is a Playhouse?: England at Play, 1520-1620
Richardson C
(2023)
Archives - Power, Truth, and Fiction
Description | Key findings have been around the richness of the cultural lives of the middling sort, which we have shown to be extensive and interrelated in their domestic and civic experiences and their religious practices. We have explored the different areas in which middling culture particularly expressed itself, central pillars of middling experience demonstrating individuals' and families' identity and cultural knowledge and investment: Leisure; Literacy; Charity; Occupation; Memory; Belief; Mobility; Reputation; and Assets. |
Exploitation Route | These findings will be of use for the light they shed on the way literacy fitted into everyday life for these groups, and how the role of professional writers related to other kinds of middling careers - the schools resources we are developing aim to open up understanding of how Shakespeare's life as a writer related to his father's career as a glover and urban administrator, and to reconstruct their imaginative life and material environment. To do this work, we have employed new techniques for relating archival and museums research to gaming technology, so there are findings here which will be of interest to the entertainment industry, heritage and creative economies, as well as the GLAM and tourism sectors more broadly. |
Sectors | Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | https://middlingculture.com/ |
Description | The findings to date about the cultural lives of the middling sort have fed into television programmes and public lectures, plus work with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Weald and Downland Museum, local museums and research students. |
First Year Of Impact | 2000 |
Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | Mary Robertson Visiting Fellows |
Amount | $5,000 (USD) |
Organisation | Huntington Library |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United States |
Start | 02/2023 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | Portable Antiquities Scheme (British Museum) |
Organisation | Portable Antiquities Scheme |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Research findings shared with PAS staff. Providing a platform to showcase the work of PAS and their finds. |
Collaborator Contribution | Providing knowledge and expertise relating to their collections. Contributing to our public engagement activities. |
Impact | Blog posts and public engagement content. Virtual room and online exhibition (currently incomplete). Multi-disciplinary Literature, History, Art History, Digital Humanities. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Shakespeare Birthplace Trust |
Organisation | Shakespeare Birthplace Trust |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Research findings shared with SBT education and museum staff. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise around public engagement and working with schoolchildren |
Impact | Public lecture/ research conversation; education resource (currently unfinished). |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | The Folger Shakespeare Library |
Organisation | Folger Shakespeare Library |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Research findings shared with Folger staff. Platform to showcase Folger collections. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise around public engagement/their collections. Use of items from their collections in our public engagement activities. |
Impact | Public engagement resource (digital, ongoing), education resource (ongoing). |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Weald and Downland Living Museum |
Organisation | Weald and Downland Living Museum |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Sharing of research findings. |
Collaborator Contribution | Sharing of buildings expertise and findings on collections. |
Impact | Virtual room (currently incomplete). Multi-disciplinary Literature, History, Art History, Digital Humanities. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | A Bit Lit podcast |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A Bit Lit-a new forum for research, creativity, and conversation - video interview with Catherine Richardson addressing Middling Culture research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | http://abitlit.co |
Description | Aberdeen Centre for Early Modern Studies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Callan Davies, 'Municipal Play and the Home Fans (A Leisure Complex in Congleton)', Aberdeen Centre for Early Modern Studies, October 2021, spoke about project and its findings, eliciting discussion and requests for further information. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Annual Lecture of the Centre for Studies of Home |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Annual lecture including museum professionals, with much discussion and questions afterwards about ways of relating research to museum context. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Annual Nightingale Lecture, CCCU |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Catherine Richardson, 'Bringing Historic Buildings to Life', Annual Nightingale Lecture, CCCU, Sept 2021. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | California British History Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Mixed audience of archival professionals, students and academics for a talk about the project which sparked many questions and suggestions about further collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Cambridge Early Modern British and Irish History Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Catherine Richardson and Tara Hamling, Cambridge Early Modern British and Irish History Seminar, Feb 2021, spoke about project and its findings, eliciting discussion and requests for further information. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Central School of Speech & Drama session |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Course session with MA students at Central School of Speech & Drama to introduce performing arts students to the project's research and indicate the applicability of new findings to creative industries. Students explored a new area of theatre history related to and stemming from the project, including awareness of the diverse roles of women and immigrants in early modern performance, which generated much discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Dress and the Middling Sort |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | An international group of c.50 historians and digital practitioners met online for the IRHiS doctoral seminar in English, organised by University of Lille, and the project raised many questions about digital reconstruction within heritage settings which has identified the need for further, pan-European work in this area. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Gifts of Clothing for London Renaissance Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Catherine and Hannah, 'Gifts of Clothing', podcast & seminar for LRS, January 2021. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Great Plague Documentary |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Filmed February 2020, shown 2021, Domestic life in the Great Plague, Voltage TV for Channel 5, shared some of the project findings around domestic life as part of the filming for the series, including featured section on sleeping conditions at different social levels. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.channel5.com/show/the-great-plague/ |
Description | Hannah Lilley ECR Seminar Series Paper at Birmingham |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Project discussion that led to many questions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Historical Practices Workshop, University of Sheffield |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Participation in the 'Historical Practices Workshop' at the University of Sheffield, Sept 2021. Catherine Richardson and Tara Hamling discussed the methodology and findings of the project so far. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | International Conference on Global Cultural and Creative Industries |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Keynote at 2023 International Conference on Global Cultural and Creative Industries held by USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry, Shanghai, including engagement with creative businesses. Keynote including the role of heritage research in creative industries and the visitor economy. Much international discussion generated. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Invited keynote in Seoul, South Korea |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited public lecture in Seoul on digital humanities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Keynote at ANU, Canberra |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited keynote and inaugural CDH lecture at the Centre for Digital Humanities at ANU. Attended by c. 100 staff, students and members of the general public. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Keynote for British Graduate Shakespeare Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Tara Hamling, Catherine Richardson, Callan Davies and Hannah Lilley, Keynote at BritGrad 2020 that engaged a wide international audience of young scholars with the electronic resources and research findings of the project, stimulating discussion and requests for further information. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | LSC Globe Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Catherine Richardson, 'The Interdisciplinary Early Modern Home', Plenary, LSC Globe Conference on Home and Early Modernity, Feb 2022. Presented the findings and ongoing outputs of the project. Discussed approaches to digital reconstructions of early modern homes in relation to the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Live soft launch of the Virtual Shakespearean Memory Parlour |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Launch at National Gallery X of the virtual room, with feedback and engagement from heritage professionals. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | London Shakespeare Seminar paper |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Paper and Q&A, designed to draw attention to the MidCult project which generated lots of discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Medieval Dress and Textiles Society Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Hannah Lilley and Catherine Richardson, 'Domestic Cloth in Bristol and Chester 1620-1624', Textiles at Home: Cloth Making and Usage in the Domestic Sphere, Medieval Dress and Textiles Society Conference 17th October 2020, paper provoked discussion and requests for further information from professional textile historians from museums and heritage sector. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Microscopic Records conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Hannah, 'Letterforms and Occupational Identity: Using Image Processing to Explore Scribal Practice' at Microscopic Records at the University of Manchester. September 2020. Engaged archives professionals and others in discussion and requests for further information. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Neighbourhood, Community and Place at Folger |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Hannah Lilley and Callan Davies participated in the Folger Seminar Series in October 2020 on 'Neighbourhood, Community, and Place in Early Modern London' on Middling Culture research, with a strong international grouping of participants as well as a public open session, stimulating discussion and further questions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Oxford Early Modern Britain Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A large audience in person and online who asked many questions about method and approach which has since sparked further enquiries. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Paper at Aberdeen Centre for Early Modern Studies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Up to 50 attendees for a talk on Congleton and status, touching on Middling Culture research with Q&A afterwards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Podcast on Medical Collections for SBT |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Tara Hamling and Hannah Lilley participated in a podcast recording for Shakespeare Birthplace Trust on medicinal objects and the middling. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Practices of Privacy Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Callan Davies and Hannah Lilley, 'Crafting Private Practices: Middling Metalwork, Marking and Monopolies in Early Modern England' for Practices of Privacy virtual symposium at the University of Copenhagen 22nd April-29th May 2020. Catherine Richardson, Keynote lecture. Much discussion in this part virtual part face-to-face conference and further enquiries about the project's findings. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Project website |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The website for the project which includes blogs by the project members and guests, and the Class Calculator. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020,2021 |
URL | http://middlingculture.com |
Description | Public Talk at Shakespeare's Globe |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk on the ten year anniversary of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, considering historical models for theatre practice. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Public talk at Shake It Up! Festival, Shoreditch |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Shake it Up: a panel talk at a public day celebrating The Theatre in Shoreditch designed to draw awareness to new research and plays which generated lots of discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Rethinking Objects |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Conference keynote aimed at defining the way forward in a field which engages meaningfully with heritage bodies, which instigated discussion about PG involvement in such work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Shakespeare's Globe talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Michael Powell-Davies, the project's doctoral student, 'Negotiating Boundaries: Early Modern Texts and Cultures' at the London Shakespeare Centre and Shakespeare's Globe, 14-15 February 2020, on the importance of narrative practices and administrative culture to the middling sorts within the maritime milieu of early modern Stepney, as well as introducing the Middling Culture project more broadly. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Shakespeare's Lost Interiors |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Alexandra Hewitt, Research Conversation on 'Shakespeare's Lost Interiors', for Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Public talk. 249 attendees. Alexandra Hewitt is an associate member of the Middling Culture project team as a M4C (AHRC) funded PhD student supervised by Dr Tara Hamling at the University of Birmingham. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Shakespeare's Many Playhouses and their People |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Research Conversation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Shakespeare's Pants |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Tara and Hannah, 'Shakespeare's Pants', podcast for Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, episode 1. March, 2021 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Tara Hamling, Catherine Richardson and Mabel Winter, 'Closed archives, virtual rooms: negotiating the Middling Culture project through the pandemic', Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies, Dec 2021. Presented the methodology and findings of the project, as well as the impact of the pandemic. Discussed the flexible approach and adaptions taken by the project in the wake of covid-19, and the increased focused on digital outputs. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Talk at Black and White House Museum, Hereford |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 6th November 2021, Dr Tara Hamling was the plenary speaker to staff, volunteers and friends and donors of the museum on the occasion of the museum's 400th anniversary. The talk informed the audience and sparked discussion about the nature of domestic life and its relevance to the museum's holdings. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | The political work of the household |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Paper at the international workshop and conference 'The Politics of the Domestic', Lille, looking at the politics of domestic life. Project shared with a wider international audience, which sparked discussion and questions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |