Matthew Jackson

profile jpg

Updates:

May 2012: I am delighted to have been awarded a presitgious Entente Cordiale scholarship by the French Embassy to work with Université Bordeaux 3 for a six-month period from September this year. While carrying out archive research, the research visit will also aim to develop an Anglo-French collaboration between the Warwick Drinking Studies Network and the Centre de Recherche sur les Vignes et du Vin.
Mar 2012: The Warwick Drinking Studies Network, for which I am a co-organiser alongside Dr. Mark Hailwood and Dr. Debbie Toner, has just secured a generous grant from the Economic History Society to organise a two-day conference on the theme of 'Biographies of Drink', provisionally to be held in February 2013.
Feb 2012: The 'Cultures of Excess' project, which has recently formed out of the Warwick Drinking Studies Network, is planning to approach the Wellcome with an exhibition proposal, which aims to broaden awareness of the role of alcohol in societies past and present.

About Me

I was born in Harold Wood and grew up in the town of Brentwood, Essex. I developed a passion for history from an early age, inspired in large part by my father and grandfather who collected antique motorcar prints and rare musical recordings, which reflected vibrant and interesting histories of their own. I spent my undergraduate years (2005-9) in Colchester at The University of Essex reading History and Modern Languages. It was here that, under the supervision of Professor John Walter and Dr. Amanda Flather, the complex and fascinating world of the English alehouse was first brought to my attention. As part of the undergraduate course, I was also fortunate to spend a year abroad (2007-8) in Lyon where I studied history at L'Université Jean Moulin (Lyon III). I moved to The University of Warwick in 2009 and recently completed my MA dissertation on Women, Drink and Agency in Early Modern England and France, a comparative project inspired by my undergraduate and postgraduate mentors as well as by my time spent in France. I was awarded the Sir John Elliot Prize for most outstanding MA performance for this year. With the academic and intellectual guidance of Professor Beat Kümin and Dr. Penny Roberts, and the financial backing of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, I began my doctorate in October 2010 and am currently in my second year working towards a thesis entitled Drink and Identity: A Comparative Case Study of Early Modern Bristol and Bordeaux. I am also a seminar tutor for two second-year core module groups on The European World, 1500-1750. My extra-academic interests include sport (particularly racket sports, football and basketball), music, cooking and photography.

My Research

My thesis - entitled Drink and Identity: A Comparative Case Study of Early Modern Bristol and Bordeaux - offers an innovative comparative examination of English and French drinking culture in the early modern period (c. 1550-1750). With an emphasis on the positive and constructive agency of drink, my intention is to assess how drinking practices and drinking spaces constructed a wide range of individual and collective identities in two different political and religious contexts: the ‘individual’ identities of men and women – young and old – formed within drinking houses, and the ‘collective’ community, religious and civic identities formed in relation to them. As a comparative study of English and French experience, the thesis naturally seeks to detect and explain the similarities and differences in drinking practices and behaviours to provide a more detailed understanding of the particular identities of English and French drinking culture in this period. From the regional focus of two port cities, Bristol and Bordeaux, this project addresses a significant gap within the comparative history of drink, but also contributes to current wider areas of historiographical debate including cultural exchange, the dynamics and meanings of personal relationships, the experience of the life cycle, gender, popular agency, confessional affliction and the impact of religious change. The project’s arguments will be based on a rigorous study of two types of source material: legal records and popular literature. This selection was made with the intention of capturing the widest possible range of social and cultural ‘representations’ and ‘realities’ on the subject of drink and identity. Examples of my source-base are pictured below:

BRO snap

Folio from the Quarter Sessions listing offenders ‘For selling beere & Ale without License’ (Image: MJ, Bristol Record Office)

Delib BDX

An extract relating to the regulation of cabaretiers in Bordeaux (Image: MJ, Archives Départmentales de Bordeaux)

^{Three early modern English ballads - pieces of 'popular literature' that were typically sold and sung in drinking houses.}

^{(cited from the Early English Ballads Archive). Click pictures to enlarge.}

^{Three ancien régime pamphlets from La Bibliothèque Bleue, discussing the experiences, dangers and joys of drinking house sociability.}

^{(cited from the Médiathèque de l'Agglomération Troyenne}^{). Click pictures to enlarge.}

Academic CV

Education

PhD History

University of Warwick (2010-13)

Drink and Identity: A Comparative Case Study of Early Modern Bristol and Bordeaux (AHRC Funded)

Supervisors: Prof. Beat Kümin and Dr. Penny Roberts

MA Religious and Social History, 1500-1700

University of Warwick (2009-10)

Dissertation: Women, Drink and Agency in Early Modern England and France

Supervisor: Prof. Beat Kümin

Class: Distinction (awarded Sir John Elliot Prize for Most Outstanding Performance)

Diplôme d'Etudes Universitaires Françaises

Université Jean Moulin, Lyon III (2007-8)

Class: Mention Très-Bien

BA History and Modern Languages

University of Essex (2004-9)

Class: First

Scholarships and Awards

The French Embassy, Entente Cordiale Scholarship (2012).

The University of Warwick, AHRC Research Training Support Grant (2012).

The Society for the Study of French History, Research Award (2011).

The University of Warwick, Dr Joan Lane Memorial Annual Bursary in Social History (2010-11).

The University of Warwick, Research Student Skills Programme Conference Award (2010).

The University of Warwick, The Sir John Elliot Prize for Most Outstanding MA performance (2009-10).

The University of Warwick, AHRC Doctoral Scholarship (2010-13).

Publications

Co-authored (with Dr. James Tucker) the English section of B. Faguer (ed.), Bibliographie Internationale de l'Humanisme et de la Renaissance. Tome XLIII, Travaux parus en 2007 (Geneva: Droz, 2011).

'Review of Angela J. McShane, Political Broadside Ballads of Seventeenth-Century England: A Critical Bibliography (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011)', in Cultural and Social History (forthcoming).

'Fabric of Community: Parish Material Cultures in Perspective', a conference report co-written by myself and Agata Gomolka (H-SOZ-U-KULT, July 2011).

Conferences

Co-organiser for the Postgraduate Study Day at the University of Sheffield in conjunction with the Association des Études Françaises et Francophones d'Irlande, the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France and the Society for the Study of French History (March 2012).

Warwick Drinking Studies Network research seminar on the 'Meanings and Materials of Intoxication' (University of Warwick, 25 Jan 2012). For more information click here

‘Drink and the Life Cycle: The Second Annual Symposium of the Warwick Drinking Studies Network’ (Sep 2011, co-organised with Dr. Mark Hailwood and Dr. Deborah Toner).

Conference Papers

'"Come all ye tribes of hostises: Representations and Realities of the Female Publican in Early Modern England', presented at a conference on Whores and Virgins, Heroes and Villains at the University of Birmingham (16 Mar 2012).

‘Popular Culture in Early Modern Bordeaux: Evidence from the Archives Départmentales de la Gironde’, presented at the ASMCF, ADEFFI & SSFH Postgraduate Study Day at the University of Sheffield (3 Mar 2012).

'The Life Cycle in Print: Old Age Drinkers in Early Modern Ballads', to be presented at Drink and the Life Cycle: The Second Annual Symposium of the Warwick Drinking Studies Networkat the University of Warwick (23 Sep 2011).

‘Pleading drunkenness in seventeenth-century England’, presented at a conference on the Historical Concepts of Drunkenness at the Institute of Historical Research (Dec 2010).

‘Female Honour in Early Modern Drinking Houses: A Reconsideration’, presented at a conference on Drinking Studies at Warwick: Research Perspectives at The University of Warwick (Sep 2010).

‘Women, Drink and Agency in Early Modern England and France, c.1650-1750’, presented at the Warwick History Postgraduate Conference at the University of Warwick (May 2010).

Academic Responsibilities and Posts

Head organiser of the Cultures of Excess: Research, Policy and Practice in Comparative Perspective network, led by Professor Beat Kümin (History), Professor Hilary Pilkington (Sociology), Professor Rebecca Earle (School of Comparative American Studies, History), Professor Dieter Wolke (Psychology Department/Health Sciences Research Institute, Warwick Medical School) (2011-).

Assistant for 'Fabric of Community: Parish Material Cultures in Perspective', a symposium held by the Warwick Network for Parish Research at the University of Warwick (21 May 2011). I have written a Conference Report for this event, available here

Member and co-organiser of the Warwick Drinking Studies Network (2010-).

‘Nicolas Delamare: A Brief Biography’, an essay and podcast for the Brief Lives: Biographies from Early Modernity project at The University of Warwick (Jan 2011).

Co-ordinator of the Early Modern Forum at the University of Warwick (2010-11).

Member of the Student and Staff Liaison Committee at the University of Warwick (2009-).

Member of the Warwick Postgraduate Conference organisation committee (2009).

Teaching

Seminar tutor for two groups on the second-year core module The European World, 1500-1750 at the University of Warwick (2011-12).

Lecturer for a 'Quantitative Research Skills Essay' session for MA Warwick History students, as part of the Theory, Skills and Methods course (28 Nov 2011).

Co-lectured a session on Essay writing skills for second-year undergraduate Warwick History students (27 Oct 2011).

Professional Development

I took part in a live virtual discussion on student alcoholism with Chris Hackley (Professor of Alcohol Marketing and Advertising, Royal Holloway) and Laura Doherty (PhD on Youth and Alcohol, Canterbury Christ Church). The event was entitled 'Is there such a thing as 'moderate drinking' and is it possible to address the alcohol 'problem'?' (24 Oct 2011).

Intensive One-Week Language Course in Advanced French – an AHRC funded doctoral training session at Oxford University (28 Mar-1 Apr, 2011).

‘Palaeography: from Manuscript to Print’ - bespoke Elizabethan palaeographic training with the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick (2009-10).