Dr Sara Barker
Lecturer in History, University of Exeter

I undertook my doctoral research at the University of St Andrews, looking at the development of French Protestant identity through the writings of the reformer Antoine de Chandieu, which forms the basis of my monograph, Protestantism, Poetry and Protest: The Vernacular Writings of Antoine de Chandieu, c.1534-1591 (Ashgate, 2009). I am especially interested in the culture and practicalities of the Francophone reformation, and have recently edited a collection of essays inspired by the work of the late Robert M. Kingdon, published in the series St Andrews Studies in French History and Culture. 

I am interested in all aspects of early modern print culture, especially translation, editing and anthologising.  I was a postdoctoral research fellow on the St Andrews French Vernacular Book Project and now serve as a consultant to the Universal Short Title Catalogue. With Dr Pollie Bromilow (French Section, SOCLAS, University of Liverpool), I have been involved in an ongoing conference project investigating anthologies and anthologising tendencies in early modern Europe, and a related volume is currently in preparation.

From 2009-2010, I was the postdoctoral research fellow on the Leverhulme funded project Renaissance Cultural Crossroads, based in the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick, and have spoken at several conferences and seminars on the practices of news translation in early modern Europe. I am currently editing a collection of essays on Renaissance Translation, with Professor Brenda M. Hosington to be published by Brill, and have contributed essays to several volumes on the popularity and subject matter of news translation in early modern Europe. My ongoing research looks at how news travelled through Europe in translation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

I have also held teaching posts at Leeds Metropolitan University and Lancaster University. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Bibliographical Society and the Society for Renaissance Studies.

Research interests:

• The Reformation in Europe, especially France

• Early modern print culture

• Books as intellectual objects and commercial ventures

• Transmission of ideas across cultures, especially through translation

• News in the Early Modern Period

• Violence and Martyrdom, especially representations in print

Publications:

Books

• Revisiting Geneva: Robert Kingdon and the Coming of the French Wars of Religion.  (St Andrews: Centre for French History and Culture of the University of St Andrews, 2012)
• Protestantism, Poetry and Protest: The Vernacular Writings of Antoine de Chandieu (c. 1534–1591).  (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009)

Journal articles

• "Les Armes d'encre et papier: Antoine de Chandieu et la poésie', Bulletin de la Société d'histoire du protestantism français, vol. 156, 2010, 15-36