Martin Thompson

Twitter: MJAThomp

Email: martin.thompson-4@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Previous Education

MA Medieval and Early Modern Studies, [Distinction] – The University of Manchester – 2017-2019

PGCE Secondary English (TeachFirst) [Distinction] – Canterbury Christchurch University – 2013

BA (Hons) English [First Class] – University College London  –  2009-2012

Thesis Title

‘Prepare the Canons!’: Mary Ward and her followers at the vanguard of ‘Life editing’

Supervisors

Dr Naomi Baker

Dr Fred Schurink

Research Summary

My research focuses on the life writing of the seventeenth-century Catholic exile Mary Ward (1585-1645). I approach Ward’s own autobiographical writing, early biographies by her female followers and a series of fifty paintings known as the ‘Painted Life’ as textual constructs in order to assess the role of early modern women as ‘authors’ and ‘editors’ of lives/Lives.

Research Interests

The Medieval and Early Modern era(s) – Early Modern Life Writing – Recusant Catholicism – Nuns in Exile – Manuscript Studies – Book History and Ownership – Renaissance Literature – Women’s Writing – Art and Literature – Literature and Religion – The Victorian Catholic Revival