Nicole Waters PhD Student - Literature

Nicole Waters is a PhD student studying English with a concentration in Literature at Texas Tech University. She is also a Graduate Part-Time Instructor in the English department teaching first-year writing. She serves as Assistant Director for First-Year Writing.

Nicole's research interests include British literature prior to 1700, late medieval romances, manuscript studies, book history, and textile studies. Her dissertation research will focus on the overlap between medieval romances and embroidery as cultural producers in England from 1350-1450. This research has Nicole diving down rabbit holes in search of tax records, labor contracts, embroidery pattern books, trade records, etc. to map out the material production of these texts.

Education

M.A., Education - Chatham University

M.A., English – University of Alabama

B.A., English & History – Chatham University  

Selected Conference Presentations  

"'Thought Her a Wonder'": Silk as Political Rhetoric in Marie de France's Lanval." Presented at the International Congress of Medieval Studies Conference, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2026.

"Women's Communal Labor and its Material and Immaterial Output in The Distaff Gospels." Presented at the Medieval Academy of America Conference, Amherst, MA, March 2026. Winner of 2026 Graduate Student Travel Award.

"Where's Your Cap?: Women Crafting the English Identity in Elizabethan England." Presented at the Medieval - Renaissance Conference at the University of Virginia at Wise, Wise, VA, Sept. 2024.