Royal Holloway, University of London

Graduate Student, History

Thesis Title: Romantic Love in Words and Objects in Premarital Relationships 1730-1830

About

I graduated with a First Class degree in History from the University of Sheffield in 2008, before gaining a Modern History Masters with Distinction at King's College, London in 2009.

I am currently in the third year of a PhD at Royal Holloway, supervised by Professor Amanda Vickery. My thesis is entitled 'Romantic Love in Words and Objects in Premarital Relationships 1730-1830', which grew out of my MA dissertation 'Symbols of Love: the Culture of Courtship 1750-1850' supervised by Professor Ludmilla Jordanova.

Individual chapters in my thesis study the origins of the language of love, the emotional experience of love letters during courtship and adultery, breach of promise trials in the common law courts, and the material expression of affection through gifts such as ribbons, rings and handkerchiefs. My current research focuses on troubled courtships, failed relationships and broken hearts.

Extracts from my research on love tokens and broken hearts can be viewed on the Queen Mary History of Emotions blog:

http://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/?s=Sally+Holloway

I have presented my research at a PechaKucha session of the Long Eighteenth-Century Seminar (IHR), the Women's History Seminar (IHR), the Centre for the History of Emotions (QMUL) and the Durham University History Society. I have given conference papers at the 'Material Networks' symposium at the Bard Graduate Center in New York, the Royal Holloway Postgraduate Symposium, the Graduate Conference on Eighteenth-Century Studies at Queen Mary, and conference on early modern selves at Trinity College, Cambridge.

My next presentation will be at the Social History Society Conference in April 2012, on 'Courtship and birth tokens and the materialisation of female identity.' This forms part of a panel entitled 'Love and Learning across the Life-Cycle' with Leonie Hannan, Polly Bull and Martha McGill. In addition I will be presenting a paper on 'Textile Transformations' at the 'Transforming Objects' conference at Northumbria University in May.

I was the historical researcher for Series 1 & 2 of Professor Amanda Vickery's series 'Voices from the Old Bailey’ on BBC Radio 4, and conducted research for her three-part television series ‘At Home with the Georgians’ on BBC 2. I am also the historical researcher for her forthcoming BBC Radio 4 series on the history of masculinity from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries.

From May 2012-13 I will be the new Postgraduate Convenor of the IHR 18th-Century seminar. To discuss ideas on updating the seminar and making it more accessible to postgrads please do not hesitate to contact me at sally.holloway.2009@live.rhul.ac.uk

Contact Information