Claire Canavan is a PhD student in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. Her thesis examines the episteme of the needle in early modern England, paying particular attention to material, practical and conceptual exchanges between texts and textiles, and the transformative effects of the needle on practices of reading and writing. Considering fabric and written evidence in the context of theories about cognition and skilled making reveals how stitchery structured the ways in which both men and women interacted with material, social, religious and intellectual environments.
Claire is also co-organiser of the ‘Early Modern Lines Research Network’ which seeks to bring together scholars working on material and conceptual lines in early modern Europe.
