MELISSA B. REYNOLDS
Curriculum Vitae
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Perkins-Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow, Society of Fellows, Princeton University, 2019–22
Lecturer, History Department and the Humanities Council, Princeton University, 2019–22
EDUCATION
PhD, History, Rutgers University, 2019
MA, History, The University of Alabama, 2011
BA, English, with Honors, summa cum laude, The University of Alabama, 2005
PUBLICATIONS
Book Manuscript in Preparation
Reading Practice: Natural Knowledge from Manuscript to Print
Refereed Journal Articles
- “The ‘Sururgia’ of Nicholas Neesbett: Writing Medical Authority in Later Medieval England,” Social History of Medicine, published online 30 October 2021.
- “‘Here is a good boke to lerne’: Practical books, the coming of the press, and the search for knowledge, ca. 1400–1560,” Journal of British Studies 58, no. 2 (April 2019): 259–288.
* Honorable Mention, 2020 Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography Essay Prize
Editions and Translations
- Member of transcription and translation team for Pamela Smith et al., eds., Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France: A Digital Critical Edition and English Translation of Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Fr. 640, https://edition640.makingandknowing.org.
* Winner, Eugene S. Ferguson Prize, Society for the History of Technology
Selected Book Reviews
- Sara Ritchey and Sharon Strocchia, eds., Gender, Health, and Healing, 1250–1550 (Amsterdam, 2020), forthcoming in Renaissance Quarterly.
- Peter Lake and Michael Questier, All Hail to the Archpriest: Confessional Conflict, Toleration, and the Politics of Publicity in Post-Reformation England (Oxford, 2019), The English Historical Review 136, no. 577 (January 2021).
- Rachael Scarborough King, Writing to the World: Letters and the Origins of Modern Print Genres (Baltimore, 2018), The New England Quarterly 93, no. 2 (June 2020): 331–334.
Work in Progress
- “How to Cure a Horse, or, the Difference between the Knowledge of Experience and the Experience of Knowledge,” invited essay contribution to the journal History of the Natural Sciences (in preparation)
FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, & GRANTS
External
- Honorable Mention, Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography Annual Essay Prize (2020)
- Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2018)
- Grant-in-aid, Folger Shakespeare Library, Faculty Weekend Seminar (2018)
- Schallek Award, The Medieval Academy of America and the Richard III Society (2017)
- Grant-in-aid, Folger Shakespeare Library, Researching the Archive Seminar (2016)
- Director’s Scholarship, Rare Book School, The University of Virginia (2015)
Princeton
- ‘New Project in the Humanities’ grant for ‘A History of Words: Technologies of Communication from Cuneiform to Coding,’ David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project (2020)
- University Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences grant (2020)
Rutgers
- Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship, School of Arts & Sciences (2018, Declined)
- Special Study Award for Digital Humanities, Graduate School (2017)
- Mellon Summer Dissertation Research Grant, School of Arts & Sciences (2016)
- Rutgers Teaching Assistant Professional Development Fund Research Grants (2016)
The University of Alabama
- Albert Burton Moore Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate Work in History (2012)
- Phi Beta Kappa (2005)
PUBLIC-FACING SCHOLARSHIP
Op-Eds
- “Communication failures in a pandemic can be catastrophic,” The Washington Post, March 18, 2020.
- “The key to lowering America’s high rates of maternal mortality,” The Washington Post, May 8, 2019.
Scholarly Blog Posts
- “Perpetual Prognostications: Medieval Recipes for Living,” The Recipes Project: Food, Magic, Art, Magic, and Medicine, October 1, 2020
- “A Recipe for Reproductive Healthcare,” The Recipes Project: Food, Magic, Art, Magic, and Medicine, June 27, 2019
- “But does it work? Playful magic and the question of a recipe’s purpose,” The Recipes Project: Food, Magic, Art, Magic, and Medicine, January 24, 2019
Podcasts
CONFERENCES, SEMINARS, & TALKS
Invited Talks and Presentations
- “The Past and Future in Print,” presentation for the Working Group on Early Modern History of Science at the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, December 8, 2021
- “Prognostications Past and Present: Leonard Digges, Print for Profit, and the Passage of Time in Early Modern England,” an invited presentation for New Work in Early Modern Intellectual History: A Virtual Workshop, hosted by the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge, July 21 and 24, 2020
Campus or Departmental Talks
- “Mimicry in Manuscript: Learning to Write as a Model of Authority in Later Medieval and Early Modern England,” an invited talk for the Committee on the Study of Books and Media, Princeton University, March 4, 2020
- “From Devotion to Instruction: Reading the book of ‘paynture’ in late medieval England,” an invited presentation to the Textuality, Materiality, and Reading Practices Working Group, Princeton University, February 6, 2020
Conference Presentations
- “How To Reconstruct a Network of How-To Knowledge,” Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting; Dublin, Ireland, March 30–April 2, 2022
- “The Secrets of Women? Reproductive Medicine in Manuscript and Print,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 6–9, 2022
- “Defining the Present: Constructing the ‘Medieval’ in Popular Print,” Renaissance Society of America; April 2–4, 2020 [Cancelled due to Covid-19]
- “Probatum est: Reader marks and the development of scribal practice,” International Congress on Medieval Studies; May 9–12, 2019
- “Making, Writing, Healing: Craft techniques and cures in Renaissance recipe books,” Renaissance Society of America; March 17–19, 2019
- “Consuming the Word: Late Medieval Medical Charms and the Curative Power of Writing,” Bibliography Among the Disciplines Conference, Rare Book School; October 12–15, 2017
- “From Script to Print: Receipt Books and Proprietary Expertise in Early Modern England,” Revisions, the Annual Harvard-Yale Book History Conference; April 28, 2017
- “Threads of Time and Strands of Silk: Popular Magic, Astrological Expertise, and Women’s Textile Work in Early Modern England,” History of Science Society; November 3–6, 2016
- “Icons and Almanacs: Visual Practice and Non-Elite Book Culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern England,” Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies; March 27–28, 2015
- “Icons and Almanacs: Visual Practice and Book Culture in Fifteenth-Century England,” Capturing the Un-Representable, Graduate Conference for the Center for Ancient Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, December 5–7, 2014
Conference Sessions Organized
- Organizer, Beyond the ‘Stigma of Print’: Cultivating Early Modern Women’s Scientific and Medical Expertise in Manuscript and Print, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 6–9, 2022
- Co-organizer, The State of the Margins: Thirty Years After “Gabriel Harvey and His Livy,” Renaissance Society of America, April 2–4, 2020 [Rolled over to virtual RSA 2021 due to Covid-19]
- Co-organizer and Chair, Vernacular Knowledge and Learned Tradition in Early Modern England: Movement, Practice, Reception, History of Science Society; November 3–6, 2016
Seminars
- Translation and Encoding Workshop, Making and Knowing Project, Université de Toulouse II—Jean Jaurès, July 2–13, 2018
- Image and Knowledge in Early Modern Books, Faculty Weekend Seminar taught by Daniela Bleichmar (USC); Folger Shakespeare Library, March 9–10, 2018
- Translation and Markup Workshop, Making and Knowing Project, Université de Toulouse II—Jean Jaurès, June 16–30, 2017
- Researching the Archive, Year-long dissertation research and writing seminar, taught by Keith Wrightson (Yale) and James Siemon (Boston University); Folger Shakespeare Library, September 2016–April 2017
- Book Production and Social Practice in Early Modern Europe and America, Rare Book School, taught by Ann Blair and David Hall (Harvard); Harvard University, December 6–11, 2015
- Middle French Paleography Workshop, Making and Knowing Project, taught by Marc Smith (École Nationale des Chartes), Columbia University; June 1–19, 2015
- Minnesota Manuscript Research Laboratory, University of Minnesota Center for Medieval Studies and the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library; St. John’s University, June 3–8, 2012
COURSES TAUGHT
Princeton University (as Instructor of Record)
- A History of Words: Technologies of Communication from Cuneiform to Coding, SPR 21
- Fertile Bodies: Reproduction from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, SPR 20
- Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture I, FALL 19 & 20
Rutgers University (as Teaching Fellow)
- The Crusades, SPR 15
- European Development I, FALL 14
The University of Alabama (as Teaching Assistant)
- Western Civilization since 1648, FALL 11
- American Civilization to 1865, SPR 11
- Western Civilization to 1648, FALL 10
- American Civilization since 1865, FALL 09
SERVICE
To the profession
- Liaison to the American Historical Association for the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender, 2021–present
- Editorial Team, The Recipes Project: Food, Magic, Art, Science, and Medicine, 2018–present
- Editorial Assistant, Speculum, Journal of the Medieval Academy of America, 2015–16
Campus or departmental
- Invited Faculty contributor to the student paper, The Daily Princetonian, Spring 2021
- Faculty Fellow, First College, Princeton University, 2019–22
- Planning Committee, Annual Warren Susman Graduate Conference, Rutgers University, 2015–17
- Co-chair, Graduate Student Recruitment Committee, History Department, Rutgers University, 2014
LANGUAGES
- Native: English
- Reading and conversational speaking: French
- Reading: Latin, Middle French, Middle English, German (with dictionary)
- Medieval and Early Modern Latin, French, and English paleography
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- Renaissance Society of America
- The Medieval Academy of America
- Society for the Study of Early Modern Women
- History of Science Society
- American Historical Association