Ryan Hilliard

Assistant Professor

Contact
Department of History
Office: Hardin 018
Email: rhillia@clemson.edu

Education
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (2020)

Courses
Early Modern Europe; France; History of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Research Interests
European History; Early Modern Europe; France, 1500-1800; Social history; Urban history; Women, Gender, and Sexuality; Cultural; Legal history

Ryan Hilliard is a historian of early modern Europe who specializes in the study of women, gender, and sexuality in France. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020. Professor Hilliard’s current research concentrates on single women in pre-Revolutionary Paris, with particular emphasis on their social networks, strategies of survival, and cultural, economic, and political significance from approximately 1660-1789. Her forthcoming manuscript on this topic is tentatively entitled, “By Choice or By Circumstance: Singlewomen in Early Modern France.” Dr. Hilliard’s research has been supported by the Fulbright Commission, the Social Science Research Council, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, and the FACE Foundation. Professor Hilliard enjoys teaching courses related to medieval and early modern European history as well as the history of women, gender, and sexuality. In 2019, she received the UCLA Laura Kinsey award for excellence in teaching. Her current course offerings include: HIST 1720: The West and the World I; HIST 4700: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe; HIST 4390: History of Sex Work; and HIST 2990: The Historian’s Craft on the topic of “Folklore, Magic, Mystery, and Panic: Historians and the Study of Belief in Early Modern Europe.”