Academics based at the University of Sheffield lead a diverse range of projects engaging with aspects of the early modern world.
The following projects are currently in progress:
| Funding | Project | Period | Field(s) | SCEMS contacts |
| Leverhulme [-2018] |
Conversation and Community: Explores English dialogue as a form of writing from the late medieval period to the seventeenth century, tracing its development and impact on a culture of political participation and emergent sense of citizenship |
1475-1675 | Literature; History | Cathy Shrank |
| AHRC [-2017] |
Digital Panopticon: Joining up geneaological, biometric and criminal justice data to explore the global impact of Old Bailey sentencing | 1780-1925 | History; Digital Humanities | Robert Shoemaker; Sharon Howard; Richard Ward |
| AHRC [-2018] |
From Servants to Staff: the Whole Community in the Chatsworth Household: using extensive archival materials from the Devonshire Collection and employing an innovative historical-linguistic approach to gain an understanding of the wider community who have lived and worked at Chatsworth [blog] | 1700-2000 | History; English; Linguistics | Jane Hodson, Hannah Wallace, Lauren Butler, Fiona Clapperton |
| HERA | Intoxicating Spaces: Focusing on four European cities between c.1600 and c.1850 – Amsterdam, Hamburg, London, and Stockholm – this two-year project (2019–21) explores the impact of new intoxicants on urban public spaces, the role of urban public spaces in assimilating them into European behaviours, and the often exploitative international systems through which they were produced, trafficked, and consumed | c.1600-c.1850 | History | Phil Withington; James Brown (project manager) |
| AHRC [-2018] |
Linguistic DNA: modelling conceptual change with digital methods and data from EEBO and ECCO | 1500-1800 | English; Linguistics; Digital Humanities | Susan Fitzmaurice; Iona Hine; Seth Mehl |
| Leverhulme [-2017] |
Music in the Art of Renaissance Italy: making sense of the social and cultural history of music in Italy expressed in art, with a database of painted, manuscript and woodcut images | 1420-1540 | Music; Art History | Tim Shephard, Sanna Raninen, Serenella Sessini, Laura Stefanescu; Patrick McMahon |
| Engaged Curriculum (TUOS) [2016] | Shakespeare in Schools: Literature students support the teaching of Shakespeare at a local school. |
1590-1616 | Shakespeare; Education | Tom Rutter |
Early modernists at Sheffield also led or participated in the following recently completed projects:
| Funding body | Project | Period | Field(s) | SCEMS contacts |
| ESRC [-2016] |
Intoxicants and Early Modernity: creating a public database of sources on the role of alcohol, tobacco, and other intoxicants in England’s economic, social, political, material, and cultural life | 1560-1740 | History; Digital Humanities | Phil Withington; Angela McShane; James Brown; Tim Wales |
| British Academy [-2011] | The Acts and Monuments Online: An unabridged digitised version of John Foxe’s martyrology, facilitating comparison of the different editions published in Foxe’s lifetime, with prefatory essays. | 1563-1583 | Book history; martyrology; Digital Humanities | Mark Greengrass (em.) |
| Leverhulme [-2013] | The Comparative History of Political Engagement in Western and African Societies: Fostering an international network to problematise western models of democracy and explore its origins and history with insight from different disciplines. | diachronic | Politics; History | Mike Braddick |
| JISC [-2011] | Connected Histories: British History Sources 1500-1900: connecting digital resources related to early modern and 19th century Britain with a single federated search that allows sophisticated searching of names, places and dates. | 1500-1900 | British social, economic and political history; Digital humanities | Robert Shoemaker, Sharon Howard |
| AHRC [-2014] |
Early Modern manuscript poetry: Recovering our Scribal Heritage. Produced scholarly editions of: Elizabethan verse libels; a household book compiled in Yorkshire; V&A MS Dyce 44 (incl. Constable’s Diana sonnets & an encrypted copy of Nashe’s Choise of Valentines); and BL MS Harl. 7392, probably compiled by Humphrey Coningsby, an associate of Philip Sidney. |
1500-1700 | Literature; History; Paleography | Cathy Shrank; Alan Bryson |
| JISC [-2011] | Locating London’s Past: Search a wide body of digital resources relating to early modern and eighteenth-century London, and map the results on to a GIS compliant version of John Rocque’s 1746 map. | Social history; historical geography; GIS | Robert Shoemaker, Sharon Howard | |
| ESRC [-2010] | London Lives: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis: in fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners | 1690-1800 | Social history; Digital Humanities | Robert Shoemaker, Sharon Howard |
| AHRC [-2008] | Old Bailey Proceedings Online: a fully searchable, digitised collection of all surviving editions of the Old Bailey Proceedings from 1674 to 1913, and of the Ordinary of Newgate’s Accounts between 1676 and 1772 | 1674-1913 | Social history; legal history; Digital Humanities | Robert Shoemaker, Sharon Howard |
| AHRC [-2008] | The origins of Early Modern literature: furthered understanding of an overlooked period, producing a searchable catalogue of Tudor writing, and the Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature. | 1519-1579 | Literature; Digital Humanities | Cathy Shrank |
| AHRC [-2014] | Participating in Search Design: A Study of George Thomason’s English Newsbooks: digitising mid-17th century news books became an opportunity for research into digital search design, inviting end-users to participate in search tool development. | 1649-1660 | History; Literature; Digital Humanities | Mike Braddick; Marcus Nevitt |
| AHRC [-2011] | Sheffield King James Bible Project: produced Telling Tales of King James’ Bible (Exhibition and educational resource package, with digital companion, The UnAuthorized Bible) used in cathedrals and churches around the UK for 400th anniversary. Also conference “Biblical Literacy and the Curriculum”. | 1520-2011 | Biblical Studies; Book history; religious education | Iona Hine |
SCEMS members are also involved with the following projects hosted at other institutions:
| Funding | Project (Lead institution) | Period | Field(s) | SCEMS contacts |
| AHRC [-2016] | The Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne (Oxford): Dr Rhatigan is editing the first of two volumes of sermons Donne preached at Lincoln’s Inn between 1616 and 1623; the complete OUP series will contain 16 volumes. | 1615-1630 | Literature | Emma Rhatigan |
| AHRC [-2020] |
The Thomas Nashe Project (Newcastle): producing scholarly edition of the works of Thomas Nashe (6 vols.), animating the study of Nashe through additional resources, and events such as performances of his entertainment | 1567-1601 | Literature | Cathy Shrank |
| AHRC [-2013] | Who were the nuns? (QMUL): A Prosopographical study of the English Convents in exile. | 1600-1800 | Nicky Hallett | |