Katharine Beene earned her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut studying early modern Europe.  Her dissertation was titled "Women's Acquisition and Transmission of Knowledge in Early Modern Ireland, 1600-1750," which focused on women’s production and dissemination of "scientific" and political knowledge.  She is interested in examining how this knowledge was spread across social, ethnic, gendered, religious, and geographic boundaries through epistolary and kinship networks. Additionally, she explores knowledge fields such as natural philosophy, medicine, and numeracy to prove that women participated in the early developments in these fields despite the opportunities for a more formal education.  Early modern Ireland, gender history, and the history of medicine and science are her primary fields of interests.  She is a member of the Broadsides editorial committee of the North American Conference on British Studies as well as being an active member of multiple working groups.