I'm Shantelle (she/her), a student of history with a focus on women and gender, religion, and the Early Modern Era. Outside of studying dusty books, I'm an artist and love to find used bookstores in new places. Though I'm still apt to overuse a comma, as a non-traditional student, my experience in the "outside" world has greatly assisted in my return to academia.
My amateur pursuits in historical research have shown quite a bias in many historical narratives (surprise!), which tend to favor the dominant social groups. As we live in a patriarchy, this essentially means men; and as I grew up in the United States, the focus was largely on white American or European men. Because of this, much of the source material for the studies I’m interested in can be slim pickings – if they exist at all. However, it is imperative for people to be able to see themselves in history – whether in race, sexuality, or gender – as they have always been there, even if not represented directly. As the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich says, “Some people leave only their bones, though bones too make a history when someone notices.” We need more people of diverse backgrounds to notice those bones, if you will.
I am currently working on my MA in History, with the eventual goal of completing a Ph.D. in the field. I love research and have always been passionate about historic preservation, so volunteering on the Samuel Johnson Dictionary Project at UCF has been a pleasure. It has reflected back how much I care about archival work, particularly within digitizing and making history accessible to everybody. I firmly believe it’s necessary to continue this work to democratize history and those who can access it, which is something I would be happy to have a part of in my professional career.
Feel free to explore: Current Research | CV