Hannah Johnston

Hannah (she/they) is a PhD candidate in the Early Modern Europe field. Her research focuses on gender, sexuality, and labor in early modern Italy, primarily through the history of sex work. They have examined the early modern Italian sex industries through the lenses of testamentary and material culture, urban space, and demography. Her dissertation, provisionally titled “Go-Betweens: Sex, Labor, and Community in Early Modern Italy,” investigates the world of procurers and their connections to the broader fabric of gender, family, profession, neighborhood, and community in Venice and Rome in the 16th and 17th centuries. Their research has been supported by the Fulbright Program and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. 

In addition to her work at Stanford, Hannah is a researcher, editor, and writer on the iHeartMedia podcast “Noble Blood,” hosted by Dana Schwartz. In the Fall 2024 semester, Hannah will also be teaching “Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789” in the Department of History at City College, City University of New York, through the Stanford-CUNY Graduate Teaching Exchange.