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Ashley Brown
Ashley is a PhD researcher based at the University of Glasgow and funded by SGSAH. She is analysing masculinities present at Scottish universities in the post-Reformation period, which includes looking at James VI and I's impact on the institutions. Ashley has also written on masculinities present in the central middle ages. When not researching, Ashley runs a theatre company with her husband (Bottoms Up Theatre) and spoils her two cats too much.
Olivia Dunderdale
Olivia is a SGSAH-funded PhD researcher at the University of St Andrews and the University of Dundee. Her research explores gender and popular politics in Scottish northern burghs between 1540 and 1603, investigating the exercise and experience of power, political languages and disorder. This includes reconstructing the ways in which these smaller, geographically distant communities engaged with crown and central administrative structures in this period. In addition to her research, Olivia is an undergraduate tutor at St Andrews for ‘The Kingdom of the Scots (c.900-1707).
Joseph James Ellis
Joe has recently completed his PhD thesis at the University of York. Prior to this he completed a Master's degree, also at York, for which he was awarded the Early Modern History Dissertation Prize. His research focuses on the politicisation of royal travel, specifically the progresses of James VI & I in Scotland and England. He works as Senior House and Collections Officer for the National Trust at Smallhythe Place, a sixteenth-century property in the countryside of Kent. Having a keen interest in public history, Joe has undertaken a curatorship internship at Hampton Court Palace, and regularly contributes to blogs, history magazines and podcasts, most recently the History Extra Podcast.
Nicole Maceira Cumming
Nicole Maceira Cumming recently completed her AHRC-funded PhD thesis, which examined the role of hunting in the Scottish court of James VI, c.1579-1603. From 2024-2025 she was a Teaching Fellow in History at the University of Edinburgh and the lead Research Assistant on the A Very Quiet Street project (University of Glasgow/Woodlands Community Development Trust). Her previous roles have included 2022 research placement with the National Trust and University of Oxford, exploring the history of ‘Horse Power’ within National Trust properties. Recent publications include ‘Animals, dominion and the natural order in Post-Reformation Scotland’ (Scottish Church History, 2025) and ‘Reconstructing the menagerie of James VI, c.1579-1603’ (Scottish Archives, forthcoming).
Cameron Maclean
Cameron is a SGSAH-funded PhD student at the University of Glasgow. His research focusses on the Anglo-Scottish monetary union, which was established by James VI in 1604 in an attempt to bring his kingdoms of Scotland and England into closer union. He has published, blogged and presented on the coinage of James VI and has worked with the numismatic collections held by The Hunterian, National Museums Scotland and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Alexandra Plane
Alexandra is a librarian and doctoral student funded by an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, co-supervised at Newcastle University and the National Library of Scotland. She is currently in the final stages of her doctoral project, a reconstruction of the Scottish and English libraries of King James VI and I. She has co-curated the National Library of Scotland exhibition 'Renaissance: Scotland and Europe 1480-1630'.
Charlie Spragg
Charlie is a History of Art PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, holding a scholarship from the Edinburgh College of Art. Her research explores King James VI & I's use of visual and material culture to cultivate an image as a distinctly 'imperial' 'British' European monarch. Alongside this, she has been working independently as a historical researcher, most recently for Historic Environment Scotland, and as a research assistant on the National Galleries Scotland exhibition, ‘The World of King James VI and I’. Charlie has recently taken on the role as a postgraduate steering committee member for the Centre of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
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