Rosalyn Cousins

Profile

I have studied at the University of Leeds since 2016, completing both my BA and MA degrees here. During my undergraduate degree I was a member of the Leeds Excellence in the Arts programme. My BA dissertation (supervised by Dr John Gallagher) explored the dispatch of the death warrant for Mary, Queen of Scots. This project introduced me to William Davison, an Elizabethan diplomat and principal secretary, who I continued to research for my MA dissertation (supervised by Professor Stephen Alford).

My PhD thesis is provisionally entitled ‘Diplomacy and Political Relationships in the Mid-Elizabethan Polity: The Life and Career of William Davison’, and explores diplomacy, patronage and counsel during the 1570s and 1580s. 

My PhD is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities.

For the past four years I have been a dissertation mentor for final-year undergraduate and MA students, and I welcome email enquiries from students studying early modern British history. 

Scholarships and Awards:

• School of History Outstanding Achievement Award (MA) (2020)

• White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities Doctoral Studentship (2020)

• School of History Taught MA Scholarship (2019)

• University of Leeds Fee Scholarship (for MA, 2019)

Publications:

• Rosalyn Cousins, ‘Letter from William Davison to Sir Christopher Hatton’, Notes and Queries, 70 (2023), 246–249 <https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjad070>
• Rosalyn Cousins, 'Revew: Neil Younger, Religion and Politics in Elizabethan England: The Life of Sir Christopher Hatton', Renaissance Studies (advance, 2023)<https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12867>

Conferences:

• ‘The Diplomatic Authority of William Davison’, Tudor-Stuart Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, November 2023

• “In her Majesties name’: William Davison and Duke Casimir, 1578’, Politics and People in the British Isles symposium, Durham University, April 2022

• “In my rude opinion’: Counsel and diplomacy in the mid-Elizabethan polity’, Renaissance Society of America annual conference, Dublin, March 2022

• “Under your honours correction’: The Diplomatic Counsel of William Davison’, School of History PGR Seminar Series, University of Leeds, February 2022

• “The most sufficient man to serve hir majesty’: William Davison and the Crisis in the Low Countries, 1586’, Northern Early Modern Network conference, Newcastle University, January 2022

• “The most sufficient man to serve hir majesty’: William Davison and the Crisis in the Low Countries, 1586’ (work in progress), Northeast Conference on British Studies (online), October 2021

• ‘Lord Burghley and the Disgrace of Secretary Davison’, Lord Burghley 500 conference, St John’s College, Cambridge, September 2021

• ‘William Davison and the Governor-Generalship of the Netherlands, 1586’, Cabinet of Curiosities: Interrupted Ideas Colloquium, University of York (online), July 2020

• ‘The Show-Trial of William Davison’, Undergraduate Research Experience, University of Leeds, February 2019

Teaching and Mentoring:

• Postgraduate tutor

  • HIST1300 Primary Sources: Anthony Jenkinson’s Travels strand (Level 1), School of History, University of Leeds, January–June 2022

• Final Year Project Mentor, School of History, University of Leeds, 2019–2022

• Leeds Excellence in the Arts workshop leader (Levels 2 and 3), Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, University of Leeds, February 2021 and November 2021

Academic service:

• Panelist – ‘Conferences and Public Speaking’, University of Leeds, School of History PGR Training Workshop, December 2023

• Panelist – ‘Collections, Collaboration and Partnership Working as a PhD Student and Beyond’, British Library Doctoral Open Day, March 2023

• Conference organiser – ‘Examining the Early Modern’, University of Leeds, September 2022

• Co-editor – The Northern Early Modern Network blog, August 2022 – June 2023

• Founder and editor – ‘The Court Observer’, the Society for Court Studies blog, June 2022 – December 2023

Outreach and engagement:

• Learning programme development – British Library, Leeds, November – January 2023
• Secondary heritage education – Temple Newsam, Leeds, January 2023
• Primary heritage education – Burghley House, Stamford, August 2022

Qualifications

• MA Modern History (Distinction)
• BA (Hons) History (First)