This month we discuss the latest Royal Studies Journal Special Issue 9.1 June 2022 with special editor Dustin M. Neighbors, University of Helsinki:
"Beyond the Public/Private Divide: New Perspectives on Sexuality, Rituals, Hospitality, and Diplomacy within Royal Space".
Dr Neighbors is a recently appointed as postdoctoral researcher for The History Lab project at Aalto University, and a visiting researcher at the University of Helsinki. He also serves as the administrative officer, digital content manager and coordinator of the digital seminar series for the Royal Studies Network.
He began his undergraduate studies in the southern USA and earned his BA in History and Sociology from Georgia State University. He received his MA in Early Modern History from the University of East Anglia in 2012 and immediately began his doctoral research at the University of York.
Dr Neighbors doctoral thesis, titled “‘With my rulinge’: Agency, Queenship, and Political Culture through Royal Progresses during the Reign of Elizabeth I”, focused on royal progresses as fundamental instruments used to negotiate power between the ruler and the ruled, and craft spectacles of authority, particularly through ceremony, ritual, recreational activities, and visual displays both in public and private spaces.
His current research builds on the negotiation of power and the intersection of politics and culture that were central themes of his doctoral research. At the Centre for Privacy Studies, he examined the private and public nature of early modern German courts through the cultural activities, spectacles, and royal progresses (itinerant monarchies). Dustin's current research aims to highlight how the cultural activities and practices, primarily hunting, straddled the boundaries of the public/private divide, and shaped female agency, facilitated royal/electoral authority, influenced European political culture, and affected foreign relations.
He previously served as a postdoctoral research assistant with Historic Royal Palaces researching the royal progresses of Henry VIII. His research was the basis for the successful AHRC Network Grant for “Henry VIII on Tour: Tudor Palaces and Royal Progresses.” Additionally, he served as Chief Layout Editor for the Royal Studies Journal for four years.
You can contact Dr Neighbors via the Royal Studies Network and via Twitter @Historyboy30
Access the latest Royal Studies Journal Special Issue here: https://www.rsj.winchester.ac.uk/24/volume/9/issue/1/
Website: https://www.rsj.winchester.ac.uk/about/
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