Research output per year
Research output per year
Research activity per year
Early modern drama and performance; material culture; food history; history of intoxicants; history of the body; gender studies. I am the recipient of a techne doctoral studentship, funded by the AHRC.
My research investigates the emergent relationship between sugar, sweetness and the cultural construction of femininity in early modern England c.1590-1642. It is my contention that at the turn of the seventeenth century, sugar’s increasing ubiquity as a commodity began to link diverse performance networks across the social spectrum: the royal court, the humble household, and playhouse. The commodity played a role in court, civic, commercial, academic and household dramatic contexts. As sugar increasingly permeated textual, literary and material culture, its affective life underwent a protean shift in the early modern imaginary.
My research examines how women became implicated in processes of refinement, global exploitation, and sanitisation as feminine discourses of knowledge concerning sugar burgeoned. Sugar’s specious purity and performative capacity to deceive became culturally representative of the women who manipulated the commodity in three distinct ways: as culinary makers, attractive consumables, and voracious consumers. This project is interested in how early modern performance actively experimented with this tangled web of signification.
In 2022, I was a researcher for the BBC History Podcast 'You're Dead to Me', helping to produce shows on a range of topics, including the seventeenth century French opera singer Julie d'Aubigny, and Georgian love and courtship. I also completed a placement at The National Archives within the collection from High Court of Admiralty, working on various education, outreach and engagement projects.
Teaching
Afterlives: Ancient Gods and Heroes in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (BA)
Writing for Young Readers (MA)
Twitter: @bethanmdavies1
Revels Office: a virtual network for early modern PhD students and ECRs, founded by Anouska Lester and Sierra Carter.
English Literature , BA (Hons), University of Bristol
Medieval and Renaissance Literature , MA, University of Cambridge
Postgradute Certificate in Education (PGCE), University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education
Research output: Other contribution
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Davies, Bethan (Recipient), 30 Jun 2020
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Bethan Davies (Contributor)
Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Other
Bethan Davies (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation for an academic audience › Invited talk for an academic audience
Bethan Davies (Contributor)
Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Other
Bethan Davies (Peer reviewer)
Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work › Publication peer-review
Bethan Davies (Organiser)
Activity: Participating in or organising an academic event › Participation in academic conference