PhD student profiles
Historic Royal Palaces co-supervises a number of PhD students working across a range of subjects and disciplines. Find out more about them and their research in their profiles below.
Holly Marsden
Project Title: “The multiple identities of Queen Mary II: queenship, culture and politics in the seventeenth century”
Institutions: University of Winchester and Historic Royal Palaces
Supervisors: Dr Elena Woodacre (University of Winchester), Dr Joanna Marschner (HRP); Dr James Ross (University of Winchester); Dr Laura Tompkins (HRP),
Funder: AHRC REACH Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP)
About the project
Holly’s thesis examines the construction of Mary II’s many identities in the context of queenship, culture and politics in the seventeenth century. As part of her doctoral studies, she has completed placements in HRP's 'Crown to Couture’ exhibition and the National Portrait Gallery’s ‘Inspiring People’ re-opening project, working specifically on the Tudor to Regency Galleries.
Holly previously completed her MA in Queer History at Goldsmiths, during which she completed a placement at HRP working with curator Matthew Storey on the immersive theatre tour ‘Queer Lives at the Tower.’ Her undergraduate degree was in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, where she developed her research interests in early modern women, visual and material culture, global queenship, and histories of sexuality and gender.
Select Publications
Beerens, R. J., Delbe, M and Marsden, H., ‘Dutch Art of the Golden Age Abroad,’ Kunstchronik, 76 (2023), 106-108.
Marsden, H., ‘Vice and Virtue in London’s Gin Craze: Social Justice and Alcoholic Consumption in the Eighteenth Century,’ Alfred, 10 (2021), 159- 169.
Lauren Shaw
Project Title: “The Legacy of the Tudors’ Ancestry and its Influence Upon the Court Cultures of Henry VII and Henry VIII”
Institutions: University of Roehampton, Historic Royal Palaces, and The National Archives
Supervisors: Professor Jane Kingsley-Smith (University of Roehampton), Dr Sean Cunningham (The National Archives), Dr Alden Gregory (HRP); Professor Suzannah Lipscombe (Consultant)
Funder: AHRC Techne Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)
About the project
Lauren studied history as an undergraduate at Canterbury Christ Church University and her master’s in early modern history at King’s College London. She has always had a fascination with the Tudor period since she was young when she spent her summer holidays on family visits to the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace. This interest was further developed after her studies when she became a warden at the Tower.
Lauren’s thesis explores ideas on how the Henry VII and Henry VIII remembered and memorialised their fifteenth century ancestry to help strengthen their kingship. As part of her studies, Lauren has completed a placement with curator Matthew Storey working on a new exhibition on court dress.
Ellis Huddart
Project Title: “Floating Palaces: Royal Yachts, Monarchy, and Britishness, 1897-1939”
Institutions: Birkbeck, University of London, Royal Museums Greenwich, and Historic Royal Palaces
Supervisors: Professor Jan Rueger (Birkbeck, University of London); Hilary Sapire (Royal Museums Greenwich); Professor John Davis (HRP)
Funder: AHRC REACH Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP)
About the project
Ellis’s thesis focuses on the material culture of British imperialism, and the modernisation of the monarchy. Prior to starting his doctoral studies, Ellis worked in a variety of roles in museums across his native Cumbria before taking up the position of Exhibitions Curator at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has also undertaken a placement at the National Maritime Museum with the Curator of World History and Cultures as part of his PhD.
Select Publications
‘Exploding the Archive’, podcast series co-founder, host, and editor.
Gabrielle Fields
Project Title: “Queen Victoria’s Library: The Place of Reading and Writing in Victoria’s Political Education, Self-Improvement, and Self-Curation”
Institutions: University of Exeter, Historic Royal Palaces, and the University of Reading.
Supervisors: Professor John Plunkett (University of Exeter), Dr Joanna Marschner (HRP); Professor Kate Williams (University of Reading).
Funder: AHRC South, West and Wales (SWW) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)
About the project
Gabrielle joined HRP to begin her PhD in 2021, after completing her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Archaeology at the University of Southampton. As an archaeologist, she worked on sites spanning Bronze Age fish traps and Iron Age barrows to a Roman villa and First World War trenches.
Her interest in Queen Victoria was incidental to accepting her PhD studentship, but her curiosity about historical self-curation (of monuments, structures, buildings and people) has been well-suited to a study of Victoria and her reading. Gabrielle’s research on Victoria’s childhood reading is included in the Victoria: A Royal Childhood exhibition at Kensington Palace, where she has worked intermittently as curatorial assistant for her PhD placement.
Select Publications
Fields, G., ‘Queen Victoria’s Library’, HRP Inside Story, October 2023.
Fields, G., ‘The Revealing Tale of Queen Victoria’s Early Biography’, HRP Curators’ Blog, May 2024.
Camilla de Koning
Project Title: “Crown Engagement in Britain’s Emerging Empire 1660-1775”,
Institutions: University of Manchester and Historic Royal Palaces.
Supervisors: Dr Edmond Smith (University of Manchester); Dr Charles Farris (HRP); Dr Mishka Sinha (HRP).
Funder: AHRC REACH Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP)
About the project
Camilla’s project analyses the colonial connections of British monarchs from Charles II to George III. Central to this project is a personal approach: what did the monarchs themselves think about 'their empire,' and how did they interact with the colonies, and vice versa? Camilla previously worked on the Dutch Atlantic and continues her research on kinship, slavery, colonial networks, and life ways of the enslaved and freed in the British and Dutch Atlantic.
Select Publications
de Koning, C., ‘The gift of life after slavery: close-kin ownership, slavery, and manumission in Suriname 1765-1795’, The History of the Family, 29 (2023), 1–24.
Fatah-Black, K., de Koning, C., et Negrón, R., ‘What is Manumission? A Manumittee-Centric Model of the Manumission Process in Eighteenth-Century Surinam’, Esclavages & Post-esclavages, 9 (2024), 1-21.
de Koning, C., ‘Traders in Men: Merchants and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, by Nicholas Radburn’, Journal of Global Slavery, 9 (2024), 266–69.
Jamie Paterno Ostmann
Project Title: “Making Chocolate in the British Atlantic World: Foodways, Consumption, and Heritage”
Institutions: Durham University, Historic Royal Palaces, and the National Trust
Supervisors: Dr Amanda Herbert (University of Durham); Polly Putnam (HRP); Rupert Goulding (National Trust).
About the project
Jamie’s thesis focuses on the early modern history of chocolate. Her research on the women of the English Restoration Court was featured in the exhibition 'Permissible Beauty' at Hampton Court Palace. Jamie has undertaken placements working on the exhibition ‘Crown to Couture’ at Kensington Palace and assisting the curator of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection with research, collections management, acquisitions, and tours.
Jamie has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in Archaeology and History & Literature, with a focus on the early modern world. She has a master’s degree in Heritage Management from Queen Mary University of London and Historic Royal Palaces. When not researching, Jamie can be found experimenting with 17th and 18th century chocolate recipes or doing hand embroidery.
Select Publications
Paterno Ostmann, J., ‘Frances Stuart and Barbara Villiers’, HRP Curators’ Blog, February 2023.
Paterno Ostmann, J., ‘Exploring the linguistic history of chocolate’, Durham University, July 2023.
