Estella Chen

Research Topic

'Witnessing Law in the English Courthouses, 1700-1850'

Supervisor: Bob Harris

My main academic interest lies in the social and cultural histories of justice and law in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, with a particular emphasis on courtroom procedures, architecture, and the people who inhabited these spaces.

My DPhil research investigates the experiences of ‘the public(s)’ as spectators in the trial courts of metropolitan London and provincial assizes in England, paying attention to the spaces and sensory experiences of court observers, the patterns of trial-attendance, the social composition of courtroom spectators, as well as the behaviours and regulation of this heterogeneous group. In doing so, I hope to restore light onto the once-popular collective pastime of trial-spectating and its crucial role in the cultural life of the late-Georgian and Victorian men and women, in the process elucidating several significant aspects of the public's engagement with, and attitudes towards, justice and the law in a period of profound political, social, and cultural transformations. 

Before starting my DPhil in 2023, I received my BA Honours Specialisation in History from Western University, Canada, where I was the departmental gold medallist. I then pursued an MSt in 'British and European History, 1700-1850' at Oxford (Wolfson College), where I won the 'Best Performance in Cohort' prize 2022/23 for achieving the highest overall marks among all strands of MSt in History candidates. 

My DPhil is generously funded by the Clarendon Fund and The Queen's College, Oxford.