Committee

The committee comprises of four post-graduate researchers, at different stages in their PhDs. The following biographies provide an overview of their disciplines and research:

Jessica Lutkin

I graduated from King Alfred’s College, Winchester in 2000 with a BA in History. After taking two years off studying to work in the City, I returned to study for an MA in Medieval Studies at Royal Holloway (part time). I am now in the third year of full time study towards a PhD at Royal Holloway, funded by the AHRC, and supervised by Prof Nigel Saul. The working title of my thesis is ‘Goldsmiths and the English Royal Court, 1360-1413’. The aim of the research is to shed light on the goldsmiths who supplied the court with both presentation and working pieces of goldsmiths work, and to understand the supply and demand of the court under three very different monarchs.

Catherine Fletcher

I graduated from the University of Liverpool in Politics and Communication Studies in 1996. Having been extensively involved in political campaigning, in 1999 I joined the BBC's Political Unit, where I became a producer for the BBC Parliament channel. During that time I studied for an MA in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe at Royal Holloway, before returning to academic life full-time in 2004 to study for a PhD. My current research, funded by the AHRC and supervised by Dr Sandra Cavallo, concerns English diplomatic practice at the papal court during the negotiations over Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon from 1527 to 1533, and deals in particular with the role of the Casali family in the English diplomatic service. Drawing on my experience of modern political environments, I am interested in the ways diplomacy was practised from day to day.

Jill Harrison

I graduated from the O.U. with a BA Hons in 1996 and since then have been an O.U. Associate Lecturer in the Art History Department. In 2003 I completed an MPhil at Newcastle University looking at Giotto's influence on the articulation of art theory and the status of the artist. I am now in the first year of a Phd with the Open University, supervised by Dr Carol Richardson and Dr Diana Norman. My thesis is entitled ‘Giotto's Enterprise: Art, Avarice and Ambition in Trecento Italy’ and examines the nature of Giotto's contemporary reputation as an entrepreneur, courtier and painter of secular schemes.

Camilla Stewart

After studying Modern History at Oxford University, I spent several years working in England and Germany cataloguing antique arms and armour. I received AHRC funding in 2000 to undertake an MSc by research in art history at Edinburgh University, where the focus of my research was St George's Chapel, Windsor, in the Late Middle Ages. In 2003 I again received AHRC funding to return to Edinburgh to research for a PhD on St George's Chapel, which I have recently completed. I have combined study with work as a freelance art historian since 2001, undertaking curatorial, writing and research projects for many institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas) and the Royal Horticultural Society (London) while also teaching part-time at Oxford University. I am currently producing the Birmingham Catalogue of oil paintings in public ownership for the Public Catalogue Foundation.

Advisors to the committee include:

Prof. N. Saul – Royal Holloway, University of London.

Dr. C. Richardson – The Open University.

Dr. T. Tolley – Edinburgh University.