LoginFeatured Researcher
Dr. Sharon Wright
Department of History
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Dr. Sharon Wright, (M.A., Ph.D. Medieval Studies, Toronto, 2007) Assistant Professor of History, received a one-year SSHRC Standard Research Grant, for her application, "Women, Conflict and the Great Mortality in England: Fighting and Gender in the Wake of the Plague." The grant will be used to fund the first year of a three-year project.
Dr. Wright's research on fourteenth-century manor courts of Wakefield indicate that, despite women's fewer numbers, the overall trend of women's fighting bore a strong resemblance to men's in every period save one: the post-plague period of 1350 to 1365. Wright asks, if, on a good day on a medieval manor, fighting women could disorder and undermine neighbourly relations, upsetting the tenuous balance between mutual aid and competition characteristic of medieval manorial society, what happened at the worst of times? Historians know that the plague caused much anguish and social disruption, Wright wants to know what the early months of distress and ensuing reorganization meant for the sort of women inclined to work out their conflicts with their fists and sharp tongues? If men were still fighting and being reported by their communities, where were the usual suspects among the women? Were fewer women fighting because men were less likely to attack them? Do the records suggest that a greater level of attention was given to surviving women's protection through increased suppression of women abuse? Or, conversely, do they indicate a general disregard for women and women's conflicts?
Dr. Wright's study of conflict, gender and the great mortality must improve our understanding of violence, vengeance and feud involving medieval English women. Her research offers a point of comparison to other historians and social scientists interested in the issue of interpersonal violence and gender after catastrophes. It will also offer historical context to social scientists studying the way in which legal agencies, the public, and more recently, the media, view and respond to violent women.
 Seek for truth in the Groves of Academe.”— Horace |
