Courtney Thomas, PhD, MA, BA (Honours)

About

I received my BA (Honours) and MA from the University of Alberta and received my doctorate in History and Renaissance Studies from Yale and have held a variety of administrative positions on campus since graduating with my PhD. I currently serve as the Academic Department Manager for the Humanities Administrative Services division, where I help to support the work of the Departments/Units of East Asian Studies, English and Film Studies, History, Classics, and Religion, Media and Technology Studies, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, and Philosophy.

Research

My doctoral research and subsequent monograph ('If I Lose Mine Honour, I Lose Myself:' Honour among the Early Modern English Elite, University of Toronto Press, 2017) focused on a close reading of multi-generational family paper collections in order to develop a fuller picture of how the concept of honour was employed in the daily life and social interactions of members of the gentry and aristocracy. I have previously published articles on Queen Anna of Denmark, the concept of family unity in the early modern period, and bestiality in early modern England, and have authored entries in the Encyclopedia of the Daily Life of Women, the Encyclopaedia of Tudor England, and for the Map of Early Modern London (a digital humanities project). Additional information about my research can be found here.

Teaching

I have previously taught undergraduate courses in history at the University of Alberta, Yale University (including a self-designed seminar on women in early modern England), and MacEwan University. I currently serve as an Tutor at Athabasca University for a survey course on British history from the Roman period to the Augustan Age and for a course on the history of the Italian Renaissance.