Bethany Pryor
Atlantic World History | Colonial America | Early Modern Europe | Indigenous Studies| Social and Cultural History | Commodity Studies
Email: bnpryor@buffalo.edu
Education
- BA, Buffalo State College, 2013
- MA, Buffalo State College, 2017
Biography
Beth is a PhD Candidate and WNY native. She entered the PhD program in 2019 as a part-time student and decided to pursue her degree full-time in the Fall of 2020. Beth’s research examines muskets and their socioeconomic and political impact on the British Atlantic World. Using a comparative approach, Beth examines locations of middle ground, and she argues that the socio-economic and political structure of the British empire in the Southeastern American colonies and the Gold Coast of Africa (present day Ghana) rested on the mediating skills of individual tradesmen and women. Muskets provide a lens to understand the systems of marginalization while also shedding light on the pushback against systems of colonial oppression. She has had the opportunity to travel to the National Archives in Great Britain as a part of her research pursuits.