Bridgette Danielle Hulse

BRIDGETTE HULSE, then a graduate student at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, received funding in September 2023 to aid research on “Agency and Place-Making in Elite Spaces: An Analysis of Graffiti in Cathedrals,” supervised by Dr. Matthew Johnson. This project examines how people interact with elite religious spaces and writing through via the medieval and early modern graffiti in two English Cathedrals: Lincoln Cathedral and Southwell Minster. These two buildings were built in the 11th and 12th centuries respectively and feature a multitude of buildings phases and graffiti — non-commissioned inscriptions left by a variety of groups, including initials, drawings, and some names. During the 2024 field season, 20 samples were taken in the two cathedrals — 10 in each chapter house, 5 in the north transepts, and 5 in the south transepts. These were added to the 10 samples in the naves and the 10 in the choirs from a previous field season, for 40 total samples in each building. These samples were examined by combining a qualitative analysis of graffiti with a spatial analysis of the various areas of the church and their uses, alongside knowledge of the ways the Protestant Reformation changed laypeople’s relationship to writing. Through this analysis, it is possible to see graffiti as the material remains of Reformation-era changes to writing in England, including evidence that laypeople incorporated the Reformation-era practice of writing religious text on walls into their own worship practices.