Dr. Kate Staples

Teaching Fields:

Medieval Europe, Women’s, Gender, Sexuality, and Family History, British History, Western Civilization, World History

Contact:

Kate Staples
221E Woodburn Hall
P.O. Box 6303
Morgantown, WV 26506-6303
Phone: (304) 293-2421 ext. 5234
Fax: (304) 293-3616
Kate.Staples@mail.wvu.edu

• Degrees

  Ph.D. University of Minnesota, 2006
  M.A. University of Minnesota, 2003
  B.A. University of Minnesota, Morris, 2000

• Research Interests

  My book project considers daughters and inheritance in late medieval London. In this work, provisionally titled Daughters of London: Inheriting Opportunity in the Late Middle Ages, I argue that daughters in late medieval London inherited opportunities to be active economic agents in a world which often consigned them to passive roles. Contrary to our usual perception that a daughter’s opportunities were limited to her dowry, through an analysis of daughters’ inheritance in concert with that of their brothers, it becomes clear that inheritances of London daughters challenge our notions of women’s property ownership in the Middle Ages. Daughters who inherited real property were not rare in late medieval London, nor was it rare for these daughters to invest their property in a variety of ways. Daughters of London merchants and artisans may have run up against the enduring patriarchal structures that women before and after them encountered, but they negotiated these limitations, as did many women before and after.

  Beyond this project, I have an eclectic range of research interests but ones that revolve around the social, economic, cultural, and gender history of the Middle Ages. I am currently completing an article on fripperers (secondhand clothes dealers) in late medieval London, which explores the nature of this trade. Instead of a trade relegated to the margins of the medieval London economy, I argue that frippery was a fluid trade and one that provided goods in demand in the late Middle Ages. In a future project I hope to explore recreation and sport in the Middle Ages. Through the lens of recreation, I would like explore questions about community and identity formation, understandings of gender, and comparisons of urban and rural lifestyles in the Middle Ages.

• Grad Students Advised

  MA
  Ben Calkins

  Ph.D.
  Laura Nelson

• Courses Offered

  101: Western Civilization t0 1600
  179: World History to 1500
  203: Medieval Europe
  293a: British Survey to 17th century
  424: 15th- and 16th-century England
  484: Introduction to Historical Methods (capstone)
  493: Medieval Europe and the World
  700: Historiography
  701: Readings in Medieval History
  702: Seminar in Medieval History

• Publications

  Kathryn Kelsey Staples, “Fripperers and Their Trade in Late Medieval London,” _Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Vol. 6 (May 2010).

  “Identifying Women Proprietors in Wills from Fifteenth-Century London,” in “The Rise of the Mercantile Economy and Early Modern Women,” a forum within Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. III, September 2008.

  and Ruth Mazo Karras, “Christina’s Tempting: Sexual Desire and Women’s Sanctity,” in Christina of Markyate: A Twelfth-Century Holy Woman, ed. Samuel Fanous and Henrietta Leyser (New York: Routledge, 2004), 184-196.

  Selected Presentations:
  “Inheritance in Late Medieval London: Challenging a Dualistic Gender Construct,” Participant in seminar, “Managing Property, Constructing Genter,” Berkshire Conference on Women’s History, June 12-15, 2008.

  “The Wishes of Will-Makers: The Nature of Testators and their Influence in Late Medieval London,” International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds. July 10th-13th, 2006.

  “Daughters and Domesticity: Inheritance in Late Medieval London” Annual Conference, Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University, New York. March 12-13th, 2005.

  “Daughters and Inheritance in Late Medieval London,” Medieval and Tudor London Seminar, Institute of Historical Research in London. May 26th, 2005.