Christopher Gausden

Research Topic:

Writing the English Court in Transition: Elizabeth to James, c. 1590-1612

My DPhil thesis is an interdisciplinary study of how the culture of the English royal Court, and especially its literary culture, changed during the transition from Elizabeth I to James I.  I aim to use close and intertextual reading of different genres of literary texts, considering them alongside non-literary texts and manuscript correspondence, to show how English courtiers negotiated the long-prepared-for succession and to question assumptions about the emergence of Jacobean Court culture.

Supervisors: Dr Alexandra Gajda and Dr Paulina Kewes

Funding: Oxford-David Jones Graduate Scholarship

Academic Background: 

I completed a BA in History and English at St Hugh’s College, Oxford (2011-5). I then studied for the MSt in British and European History, from 1500 to the Present at Lincoln College, Oxford (2015-6). 

Other Activities: 

As a Postgraduate Assistant, I help the History tutors at Jesus College give essay-writing classes and Disciplines of History classes to undergraduates. I also assist Isabel Holowaty deliver the 'Researching Bibliography' Plenary as part of the MSt's Sources and Resources course.

With Lucy Clarke and Fraser Buchanan, I co-convene the Literature and History in Early Modern England Seminar during Trinity Term.