Jenny Claire Smith

Graduate Student

Early Modern Britain

Advisor: Ethan Shagan                                                                                                                                                                         


Education

 M.A., History, University of Notre Dame

 M.A.R., Religion, Yale Divinity School and Yale Institute of Sacred Music 
-Degree concentration in Liturgical Studies 
-Certificate in Reformed Studies


Research Interests 

  • The Reformation era
  • Early modern Britain, c. 1485-1660
  • Religion and culture   
  • Time, clocks, and calendars  
  • History of holidays, feasts, and seasons 
  • Early modern astrology 
  • Liturgy, ritual, and early music 
  • Church architecture and sacred space
  • (Re)sacralization, (re)enchantment, and secularization 
  • Relationship between early modern England and Germany, Zurich, Basel, Bern, 
    Geneva, Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Huguenot France, Scotland, and the Low Countries

Grants, Fellowships, and Awards (selected)

2024  John L. Simpson Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley
2022  Liturgical Studies Prize, Yale Institute of Sacred Music
2021  Hugh Porter Award, Yale Institute of Sacred Music 
2017  Nanovic Institute for European Studies Graduate Research and Travel Grant
2017  Nederlandse Taalunie Summer Fellowship, Columbia University
2017  Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, Professional Development Grant
2017  Nanovic Institute for European Studies Graduate Professional Development Grant 
2016  Mellon Summer Institute in Vernacular Paleography Fellowship, Huntington Library 
2016  Research Development Grant, Notre Dame Arts and Letters Advisory Council
2016  'Striving for Excellence in Teaching' Certificate, Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning
2014  Blaine T. Browne Student Paper Award, Florida Conference of Historians


Professional Training 

Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies, Germany
Student Fellow,  "The German and English Reformations" summer intensive course
July - August 2024 

Central European University, Vienna, Austria 
Berkeley 
London Berlin Istanbul Freiburg Vienna Early Modern History Workshop
August 2022 

Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
"History of the Book" summer seminar
July 2017

Columbia University, New York City
Early Modern Dutch Language and Paleography summer course
June 2017

Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Tudor-Stuart English Paleography Intensive (secretary and italic hands)
Mellon Summer Institute in Vernacular Paleography
July 2016

University College, London
Virtual course in Early Modern Dutch Language and Paleography
May
December 2016


Conference Activity 

Graduate assistant conference organizer, "Braudel's La Méditerranée: Paradigms and Possibilities after 75 Years," hosted by Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, UC Berkeley and the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Stanford University, November 2024. 

"Participating in Providence: Time and the Clock of Nature in Reformation England" American Society of Church History, January 2024, San Fransisco, CA. Also presented at the Renaissance and Early Modern Studies Colloquium, University of California, Berkeley, October 2023. 

"Ora et Labora: Artisans, Reformers, and the Religious Economy of Time in Early Modern Geneva" Yale Institute of Sacred Music conference, "On Earth as in Heaven? Liturgy, Materiality, Economics" June 2023, New Haven, CT. 

"Signs of the Times: The Soundscape and Iconography of Time in Reformation Europe" Sixteenth Century Society Conference, October 2022, Minneapolis, MN. 

"Cathedral Music in Comparative Context: A Case Study of Two Seventeenth-Century Psalm Settings" Yale Institute of Sacred Music Colloquium, March 2022, New Haven, CT. 

"Anamnesis and Adapted Memory: Time, Space, Art, and Materiality in the Reformed Liturgical Year," Societas Liturgica international conference, July 2021 (virtual).

Session Moderator, "The Sabbath Rest in Judaism: Time, Community, and Identity" at Yale Institute of Sacred Music conference, "Keeping the Sabbath from Antiquity to Modernity: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Time, Rest, and Cosmos," March 2021 (virtual).

“Fish, Cloth, and Gold: The Reformation and Material Culture in Early Modern London and Antwerp,” Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, October 2017, Milwaukee, WI. Also presented at the American Society of Church History, January 2018, Washington DC. 

“Skipping Lent in Tudor England: Popular Resistance to Lent in the English Reformation” American Society of Church History and American Historical Association, January 2017, Denver, CO. Also presented at the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies Multidisciplinary Graduate Conference, January 2017, Chicago, IL and the Notre Dame Early Modern Graduate Research Symposium, Notre Dame, IN, March 2017.

Session Organizer: “Popular Ritual and Festivity in Reformation and Post-Reformation Britain,” American Society of Church History and American Historical Association, January 2017, Denver, CO. 

 “Popular Religion in the English and Italian Reformations,” American Society of Church History, April 2016, Edmonton AB. (accepted but did not attend)

 “Reforming Lent: Evangelical Lenten Sermons in the Edwardian Reformation,” Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies Multidisciplinary Graduate Conference, January 2016, Chicago, IL; presented also at the University of Notre Dame History Graduate Student Conference, April 2016, Notre Dame, IN. 

“ ‘What Small Thing is it that Remains to Keep Us Apart?’: New England Congregational Thought on the Need for Continued Parish Reform in England, 1640-1660,” Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting, February 2015, Statesboro, GA.   

"The Book of Common Prayer and the American Revolution" Florida Conference of Historians, February 2015, Lakeland, FL.           

 “Creating a Holy Community: The Genevan Consistory and Matrimonial Law, 1546-1557,” Florida Conference of Historians, January 2014, St. Augustine, FL. 


Research/Editorial Assistantships 

  • Research assistant to Dr. Bryan Spinks, Bishop F. Percy Goddard Professor of Liturgical Studies, Yale Institute of Sacred Music (20212022) 
  • Research assistant, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University (2021) 
  • Research assistant to Dr. Susannah Monta, John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of English, University of Notre Dame (2019-2022)
  • Editorial Assistant, Archiv für Reformationgeschichte (20172018)

Teaching Experience 

  • Graduate Student Instructor, U.S. History from Settlement to Civil War, University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2024 (Dr. Brian DeLay) 
  • Graduate Student Instructor, U.S. History from Civil War to Present, University of California, Berkeley, Spring 2024 (Dr. Mark Brilliant) 
  • Graduate Student Instructor, European History from the Renaissance to the Present, University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2023 (Dr. Jonathan Sheehan) 
  • Instructor, Moreau First Year Experience course, Department of First Year Studies, University of Notre Dame (2019-2020)
  • Teaching assistant, Western Civilization since 1500, University of Notre Dame, Spring 2018 (Dr. Alexander Martin) 
  • Teaching assistant, Christianity, Commerce, and Consumerism: The Last 1,000 Years, University of Notre Dame, Spring 2017 (Dr. Brad Gregory) 
  • Teaching assistant, Western Civilization: Antiquity to 1500, University of Notre Dame, Fall 2016 (Dr. Daniel Hobbins) 

Working Groups

Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Stanford University 

Bay Area Early Music Consortium, Berkeley - Stanford 


Academic Employment

National Fellowships and Undergraduate Research Advisor (2018-2022) 
Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement
University of Notre Dame 

Professional Development Assistant (Summer 2018) 
The Graduate School 
University of Notre Dame 


Other Interests 

I serve as the Graduate Student Spaces Coordinator for the History department and assist with remodeling, organizing, and maintaining spaces for History graduate students in Dwinelle Hall, including the graduate student library, lounge, and other common areas. 

I serve in various roles as a liturgical assistant for several churches/cathedrals in the Bay Area. I am also involved in several ecumenical groups that practice Taizé chant. I also sing traditional shape note music with Bay Area Sacred Harp. 


I have been a classical ballet dancer since the age of four and have taught ballet classes for children and youth in various local studios in Georgia, Indiana, Connecticut, and California.