Janet Dickinson

I am Senior Associate Tutor in Early Modern History at Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education and Lecturer at New York University in London. My main research interests focus on the nobility and the court in early modern England and Europe, on which I have contributed a number of chapters to edited volumes. My first book, Court Politics and the Earl of Essex was published in 2011. My research interests recently led to a year working on an Anglo-Dutch project funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, entitled ‘Maritime Archaeology meets Cultural History’. This focused on the extraordinary objects retrieved from a 17th century shipwreck off the Dutch island of Texel, and in particular a collection of ‘drowned books’ and ‘ghost books’. I hope to publish my article on the books soon and am now focusing on the mental and material worlds of the Elizabethan nobility. I am a committee member of the Society for Court Studies and a member of the steering committee of the Lord Burghley 500 Foundation, celebrating the 500th anniversary of William Cecil, Lord Burghley’s birth in 2020: www.lordburghley500.org I tweet as William Cecil @LordBurghley500 and as myself @Tudornobility