Queen's University Belfast

Leanne Calvert

Biographical details

I attended Belfast High School from 1999 to 2006, and after completing my A-Levels, enrolled in a BA Modern History (2006-2009), and an MA Irish History (2009-2010) at Queen’s University, Belfast. From 2010-2011, I took a year out from my own study, and was employed by Professor Mary O’Dowd (QUB) as a research assistant. I am now in the first year of my PhD.

Research topic & interests

My main interests are gender and women’s history, particularly that relating to the family, sexuality, and religion in the eighteenth century, with a main focus on Ulster Presbyterianism.

The title of my thesis is: ‘Gender and the Ulster Presbyterian community, 1780-1844’, and it aims to use the concept of gender to analyse the relative experiences of women and men in areas of their lives such as the family, marriage & widowhood, social and moral discipline, sexual relationships, and the making of feminine and masculine identities.