Nadine Akkerman (born 1978) is a Dutch historian and Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Her published work has been concerned with the life and letters of

Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. The couple's selection for the crown by the nobles of Bohemia was part of the p ...

, and early modern espionage, and she has made a major contribution to studies of that Queen, the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine, or disease, whil ...

, and the

Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union un ...

, by revisiting and editing original manuscript sources and letters.

Career

Akkerman studied English Language and Literature at the

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public university, public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in ...

, graduating in 2001. Her 2008 PhD included a survey of the letters of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia. She has been a visiting fellow at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

, the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship ...

and the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. On 11 August 2016, Akkerman and Daniel Smith staged a production of '' The Masque of Queens'' at

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

Selected publications

* '' Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration'' (Yale University Press, 2024), with Pete Langman. * ''Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021). * 'Unlocking History through Automated Virtual Unfolding of Sealed Documents Imaged by X-ray Microtomography', ''Nature Communications'', 12:1184 (2021), with Jana Dambrogio, Amanda Ghassaei et al. * ''Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). * ''Courtly Rivals in the Hague: Elizabeth of Bohemia and Amalia van Solms'' (Venlo: VanSpijk/Rekafa, 2015). * 'The Goddess of the Household: The Masquing Politics of Lucy Harington-Russell, Countess of Bedford', in Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben (eds), ''The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe'' (Leiden: Brill, 2014). * ''The Correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia'', 3 volumes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011-2016)

References

External links

Dr. Nadine Akkerman: literary historian, author, and educator

Lisa Jardine Memorial Lecture 2023 - Nadine Akkerman: Archival pursuits: unediting lives and letters
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akkerman, Nadine Living people 1978 births Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni Dutch biographers Dutch women biographers 21st-century Dutch historians Dutch women historians 21st-century Dutch women writers People associated with Queen Mary University of London Academic staff of Leiden University People associated with All Souls College, Oxford People associated with Jesus College, Oxford People associated with the University of Birmingham Historians of the early modern period History of espionage Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Members of Academia Europaea