NEW FACULTY

Social historian focuses on early modern Europe

by Joy Poliquin

Dr. Sara Beam discovered she loved teaching while she was living next door to a temple in Japan. She taught English in Kyoto for a year after completing her undergraduate degree in history, before returning to North America to pursue a PhD at the University of California at Berkeley. “I’d wanted to see another part of the world, and found that I loved being in a learning environment,” she says.

Beam also discovered she was drawn to travel, and has lived in places as varied as France, India, San Francisco, New York and Washington. In fact, over the last few years she has moved on average every 18 months.

All this travelling has exposed her to the traditions and history of many cultures, perfect fodder for her history interests. “I’m a social historian,” she says. “I’m interested in the main themes that are present in the social, religious and political movements of the early modern period, particularly in France and Europe.”

While Beam’s course, “The History of Modern Europe,” looks at a vast time period, she hopes students will recognize common threads, and identify similarities between the past and present. “There’s a sense of continuity through time,” she says, “especially when it comes to public expression.”

This is especially overt in Beam’s research. She examines how people living in cities in early modern France were able to express themselves in a society that was very hierarchical. “I work with satirical and bawdy theatre of the 16th and 17th century, and see that through plays, people were very critical of the king, the church, and the Pope. My research addresses how, why and when this occurred.”

Over the next five years, Beam hopes to develop a class that will compare these movements in early modern France with those in early modern Japan. She’s thrilled at the prospect. “The opportunity to develop a course was something that really attracted me to UVic,” she says. “I feel this is a place that values my ideas.”