Art History student gains prestigious opportunities

Art History student gains two prestigious opportunities in Europe

University of Auckland PhD student and tutor Jemma Field has been successful in receiving two prestigious European opportunities to support completion of her post-graduate research.

The Art History student is one of just sixteen people worldwide and the only student in Australasia chosen to attend this year’s European Science Foundation Palatium Summer School in Madrid next month.

Palatium is a research networking programme financed by the European Science Foundation (ESF). Over ten-days it will bring together scholars from different fields to promote research on Court Residences as Places of Exchange in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1400-1700).

The Palatium has been running since June 2010 and will end in May 2015.

During the five-year period, historians, architectural historians, art historians, and researchers will discuss and debate their knowledge across a series of meetings, workshops, conferences, and summer schools.

Jemma was thrilled to be selected from the 60 applicants; she says: “This is an amazing opportunity which means I can combine my passion for teaching along with my passion for researching the early modern period.”

The selection followed news that Jemma had been awarded the Faculty of Arts Doctoral Research Fund of $5000 to pursue further research into her PhD subject of Queen Anna of Denmark, wife of James I and Queen consort of England and Scotland.

The money will fund a month’s study at The National Archives in London. There she will handle delicate documents of the era to research her topic that Queen Anna was a shrewd and strategic investor in material objects and art, not just a frivolous spender of the state’s cash.

Jemma adds: “I love seeing the parchment paper with calligraphic hand and thinking some little scribe has sat in front of this and written out the accounts sometime in the 17th century. It tells us so much about their society.”

Jemma plans to continue using her knowledge as a lecturer in Art History after she completes her PhD.

She leaves for Madrid and London next week.

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