Graduate Students

Research Interests

Early modern Spanish world, gender, women’s and sexuality studies, material culture, history of emotion

Education

BA: University of Minnesota
MA: University of Rochester

Biography

Claire Becker is an ABD History PhD candidate at the University of Rochester. Their dissertation explores the varied ways religious women used sacred objects (e.g. relics, sculptures, paintings, rosary beads, food items) to develop and disseminate knowledge about the divine, the body, emotion, and care throughout the early modern Spanish world. Their research has been published in the Journal of Gender & History, and they have contributed book reviews to the Sixteenth Century Journal and Renaissance Quarterly. They have taught classes ranging from freshman writing to western civilization both on the University of Rochester campus and in Attica Correctional facility. In addition to researching, writing, teaching, and organizing conferences (including the upcoming Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies), Claire serves as the Writing and Speaking coordinator for the University of Rochester’s Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program and as a graduate library assistant for the Rossell Hope Robbins Library.

Selected Publications

• Becker, Claire. 2023. “Transmisogyny in Later (1588–1623) Hagiography on Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534).” Gender & History, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12744.
• “Agency Obscured: Mother Juana de la Cruz Through the Eyes of Father Antonio Daza,” presented at Women and Agency: Transnational Perspectives c.1450-1970, Virtual Symposium, University Oxford, June 24, 2021

Teaching

• Rochester Education Justice Initiative, Attica Correctional Facility: “Practicum in Writing,” Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024; “Studying Women’s History: An Introduction to the Field,” Spring 2023
• Writing Speaking, and Argument Program, University of Rochester: “‘Reality’ TV” (themed freshman writing course), Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
• Department of History, University of Rochester: “Carnal Knowledge: Body, Sex, and Gender in Premodern Europe,” Spring 2025; “The West and the World to 1500,” Fall 2024
• Teaching Assistant: “Wives, Witches, and Wenches: Women in American History,” Spring 2023; “Modern Japan,” Fall 2022; “Witchcraft and Witch Trials in Early Modern Europe,” Spring 2021
• Pre-College Programs, University of Rochester: Instructor of Record, “Queer New York,” Summer 2023

Honors

• Foremothers’ Fellowship 2025-2026, Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship
• Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship 2025-2026, University of Rochester School of Arts & Sciences
• Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student, University of Rochester Council on Graduate Education, 2025
• Medieval Academy of America/Graduate Student Committee Grant for Innovation in Community Building and Professionalization, 2025
• Sherry L. Reames Graduate Student Travel Award, Hagiography Society, December 2024
• Robert M. Kingdon Award, Sixteenth Century Society, October 2024
• Research Travel Grant, Susan B. Anthony Institute (SBAI), University of Rochester, Summer 2024
• 2024 AHA Annual Meeting Travel Grant, American Historical Association, December 2023
• Roy E. Vandelinder Fellowship in History, University of Rochester, Department of History, fall 2022