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History

Andrea Nichols

Andrea Nichols

Ph.D. Candidate, Instructor

Contact Information:


1031 Oldfather Hall

Department of History
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
Phone: (402) 472-2414
E-mail: email address

Curriculum Vitae: May 2013 C.V.


Joined the Department:

August 2010

I am a member of the UNL History Department's PhD program after moving here from Greensboro, North Carolina. Pre-modern European history from roughly 1450-1650 is my primary focus, in particular early modern England (i.e. the Tudor period from 1485-1603), women and gender, print culture, and the monstrous. Dr. Carole Levin as my mentor. As a teaching assistant for World history classes and a comparative world field in modern East Asia, I have a broad grasp of history beyond my expertise areas. Much of my work is also interdisciplinary and comparative, incorporating art history, drama, and digital history. In May 2012, I received the UNL History Department's Albin T. and Pauline Anderson Memorial Award for excellence in research in European history.

I have completed a large amount of research that encompasses rhetoric, power, gender, and the representations of queens (especially Queen Elizabeth I). Along those research lines, I presented a paper "'I was not I?': Tracing Representations of Cleopatra in English Drama, 1592-1626," at the South Central Renaissance Conference in March 2011, which won the Agnes Strickland award for best graduate student paper given in the Queen Elizabeth I Society sessions. I have returned to my foundation in queenship and power for the paper “Good Queens, Natural Women, and Monstrous Mothers: Tudor Queenship in the English Chronicles,” which will become part of my dissertation and was presented in brief at the Newberry Library's Multidisciplinary Graduate Conference (January 24-26, 2013).

As an example of my work in the monstrous, the paper "Where did the Walking Fish Come From? Looking at Textual and Graphic Influence in the Design and Meaning of Les Songes Drolatiques de Pantagruel" (Fall 2011) was incorporated into a Sheldon Art Gallery exhibit in spring 2012 on premodern prints, included as a catalogue entry in Media Revolution: Early Prints from the Sheldon’s Vault, and won the UNL Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program 2012 Knoll Graduate Essay Award. I presented the imagery aspect of this paper at the 19th annual Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference on "Beasts, Humans, and Transhumans in the Middle Ages and Renaissance" (February 14-16, 2013).


My dissertation research focuses on the evolution of English chronicles from medieval manuscripts into the seventeenth-century foundations of modern historical writing. The changes occurring within this source type I illustrate through examples of women and monstrous birth. However, early modern occurrences of "monstrous and marvelous" in England is too large of a topic to include in the dissertation, but is the prime object of future research. The monstrous is one aspect of a larger historical web that includes gender and 'othering', with sources spanning from the ancient world (like the Epic of Gilgamesh and Aristotle's writings), medieval (manuscript illuminations and the travels of Sir John Mandeville), early modern (Hieronymus Bosch, Ambroise Pare, Francois Rabelais, maps, and cheap printed sources announcing curious events) into the current cultural fascination with vampires, Frankenstein, zombies, and other creatures. I am interested in learning possibly why women and these popular culture topics (monsters), related through Aristotle and other premodern views on gender, were woven into early national historical narratives, only to be derided and removed later. Why did the crucial lens for examining problems-- which still occurs today in debates on birth control, abortion, and terrorism--become less applicable? The implication was the removal of women from the English historical narrative just as it was forming into the modern forms that set the tone of "great men, great events" for centuries to come.


Current Projects

  • preparing to teach HIST 120: World History to 1500 and WMNS 101: Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies online for academic year 2013-14

  • Turning the ACMRS conference papers into a journal article.

  • Applying for fellowships and PhD candidate opportunities for research and training



Expertise:

  • Early Modern England
  • Digital Humanities
  • Renaissance
  • Women
  • Medieval Europe

Education:

Doctor of Philosophy, European History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in progress
Specializations: Pre-modern Western Europe, Tudor England, Women and Gender, print culture, and Digital Humanities
Minor: Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Comprehensive Exams passed, May 2013.

Master of Arts, European History, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, May 2010

Bachelor of Arts, History, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, May 2008, summa cum laude
Minor(s): Anthropology and Business

Associate of Arts, Transfer Courses, Surry Community College, December 2005, summa cum laude

Courses Taught:

HIST 120X 900 Fall 2013 World History to 1500 C.E.

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistant, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, August 2010-May 2013

  • Dr. Amy Burnett, HIST 216: History of Christianity, Spring 2013

  • Dr. Carole Levin, HIST 231: History of England from Stonehenge to 1688, Fall 2012
  • Dr. Jessica Coope, HIST 120: World History to 1500, Spring 2012 (2 recitation sections)
  • Dr. Vanessa Gorman, HIST 210: Ancient Rome, Fall 2011
  • Dr. Christine Dempsey, HIST 121: World History from 1500 to Present, Spring 2011
  • Dr. Mark Lee, HIST 100: Western Civilization to 1715, Fall 2010


Graduate Assistant, University of North Carolina at Greensboro


  • Mark Moser, Western Civilization 101, Spring 2010
  • Dr. Jeff Jones, helped complete research for a bibliography and edit his online class materials, Spring 2010
  • Anne Barton, HIS 221 Medieval Legacy, Fall 2009
  • Dr. Greg O'Brien, transcribed New Orleans newspapers from 1849, Spring 2009
  • Dr. Paul Mazgaj, HIS 348 World at War: 1914-1918, Fall 2008
  • Dr. Greg O'Brien, transcribed New Orleans newspapers from 1849, Fall 2008


Tutor, Surry Community College, September 2004-December 2005

  • Tutored writing, reading, history, introductory chemistry, and remedial math


Science Camp Teacher, SciWorks, grades PreK-1st, Summer 2004-2010
Science Camp Teacher Assistant, SciWorks, grades PreK-2nd, Summer 2001-2003


  • Taught week-long camps on various science topics to a wide range of grades. Composed or updated the curriculum for many classes, organized and purchased supplies, filled in when other teachers were sick, and taught Boy Scout and Girl Scout badge classes in the spring.




Related Work Experience


  • Intern for the International Association for Feminist Economics, November 2011 - present


  • University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska. Internship. May 8 to August 9, 2012. Supervisor: History Editor Bridget Barry, Acquisitions Department.


  • UNL 21st and 22nd Annual Campus-wide Graduate Teaching Assistant Workshop – August 16, 2011; August 14, 2012


  • Summer Institute for Online Teaching (SIOT) , May-June 2012. Certificate with completion: developing an online course, writing an online syllabus, creating performance-based assessment, planning online activities and resources, initiating and moderating discussion groups and managing a course (time, record-keeping, students).


  • Blackboard 9.0/9.1 training course, May-June 2012. Certificate with completion.






Documents & Links