D.Phil. Dissertation Title:
Wearable Containers of Meaningful Things: English Late Medieval and Early Modern Jewellery to Enclose, Conceal, and Enshrine
My D.Phil. thesis focuses on English late medieval early modern jewellery objects c.1400-1700 that functioned as containers, primarily engraved and enamelled pendants and rings. I examine ways in which this ‘locket’ object-type held a wide range of meaningful, effective, or sentimental materials that could include textile, hair, plant matter, coins, or textual amulets. My study explores how the use, meaning, and belief in these objects changed throughout the Reformation, broadly tracing the shift from portable reliquaries to interpersonal, sentimental memento materia.
Research Themes & Interests:
Jewellery; Material Culture; the Intersection of Art History and Archaeology; Memory; the Body; Gender; Agency in Objects; Emotions; Religious Devotion; Magic and Ritual.
Education and Experience:
I completed my BA at the University of Richmond (U.S.) and an M.Litt. in History of Art at the University of St. Andrews. Before beginning my D.Phil. with the Archaeology Department at the University of Oxford, I have worked hands-on with historic books, art, and artefacts at a number of institutions. This includes serving as an Associate Researcher at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, where I researched and updated their collection catalogue of early prints as well as working on the early modern Fagel Collection within the Old Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
Research Presentation & Publications:
Croasdaile C. and Broderson A., 2025, ‘The Black Death, Medieval Mythbusting, and the London Charterhouse’, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities Heritage Blog, https://torch.ox.ac.uk/article/the-black-death-medieval-mythbusting-and-the-london-charterhouse
Croasdaile, C., 2024, ‘Reliquary Pendants, Past and Present: In Conversation with Mickey Alice Kwapis, Contemporary Artist and Jeweller of Meaningful Material’, Oxford Medieval Studies Blog, https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/2024/11/25/reliquary-pendants-past-and-present/
Croasdaile, C., 2016, Book Review of The Materiality of Devotion in Late Medieval Northern Europe, edited by Henning Laugerud, Salvador Ryan, and Laura Katrine Skinnebach. Hortulus Journal.
Conference Paper Presentations:
British Archaeological Association, November 2024
Prayer Beads as Customisable Sites for the Curation of Memory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=865K4vl06bo, (timestamp: 2:26:45)
The Society for Medieval Archaeology, November 2024
The English Iconographic: Rings, Beads, Pendants, and Other Engraved Metalwork
International Medieval Congress, July 2023
Session: The Adaptation of the Sacred in Differing Spatial Contexts
Paper: Beyond Personal Reliquaries?: English Jewellery to Enclose, Conceal, and Enshrine
