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United Queendom: Legacies of Gendered Power in the Early Modern British World

Event
An illustration of a queen in a white dress on a green and blue background

Fri., Feb. 27, 2026, 8:30 a.m.–2 p.m.Sat., Feb. 28, 2026, 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

General: $50; Society of Fellows, Members & Readers: $30 (students and research fellows free) | Optional lunch: $20 (each day)

Haaga Hall

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This two-day conference calls together scholars working on power, femininity, race, authority, and queerness in the early modern British world to assess the legacies of gendered power.
Conferences

Five queens regnant ruled across England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the spaces they claimed as colonies during the Tudor and Stuart monarchies. For many people living in that time, bowing to a woman on the throne was a more familiar gesture than was bowing to a man. And yet submission to female rule remained controversial, despite its commonplace; many British contemporaries viewed female rule as a cause for anxiety and antagonism rather than accommodation and acceptance, a situation often exacerbated by examples of powerful, successful queenship in the Americas, in the Ottoman Empire, and among European rivals. Early modern British discomfort with female rule was an influential paradigm, and one that, perhaps, continues to resonate today. UN Women, the UN organization dedicated to gender equality, has found that there are only 29 countries in the world in which women serve as Heads of State and/or Government. At the current rate, we will not achieve global gender equity in our highest positions of power for another 130 years. This conference calls together an interdisciplinary community of scholars working on power, femininity, race, authority, and queerness in the early modern British world, to join in assessment of both the early modern experience of gendered power and its longer legacies. 

Funding provided by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute and The William French Smith Endowment. 

Key Details

  • Conference registration is good for both days and includes general admission to The Huntington.
  • Lunch reservations close on Feb. 20 at noon. A limited number of lunch tickets will be available for purchase at the conference.

For questions about this event, email researchconference@huntington.org or call (626) 405-3432.

Top image: Creighton, M. (Mandell), 1843-1901. Queen Elizabeth / with portrait frontispiece in colors, and 56 illustrations 1896 | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Conference Schedule

Friday, Feb. 27 

8:30 a.m. | Registration and coffee 

9: a.m. | Welcome

  • Sue Juster (The Huntington)
  • Introduction: Amanda Herbert (Durham University), Vanessa Wilkie (The Huntington)

9:15 a.m. | Session 1: Queering the Queen 

  • Moderator: Vanessa Wilkie (The Huntington)
  • Natalie Mears (Durham University) 
    “Queering Elizabeth”
  • Matthew Storey (Historic Royal Palaces) 
    “Late Stuart Queerness in Past and Present” 

11 a.m. | Break

11:15 a.m. | Session 2: American Queens 

  • Moderator: Phillip Emanuel (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Heather Miyano Kopelson (University of Alabama)  
    “Indigenous Queenship and Power”
  • Zara Anishanslin (University of Delaware) and Amanda Herbert (Durham University) 
    “Elizabeth I’s Wardrobe as a Cabinet of Curiosities”

12:30 p.m. | Lunch

Saturday, Feb. 28

8:30 a.m. | Registration and coffee

9 a.m. | Session 4: Fashioning the Queen

  • Moderator: Melinda McCurdy (The Huntington)
  • Mira ‘Assaf (Butler University)  
    “Arab Cleopatra: Conviviality and Queerness at Cleopatra’s Court”
  • Edward Town (Yale Center for British Art)  
    “‘That shall be by her allowed’: The Early Portraits of Elizabeth I as Queen” 

10:30 a.m. | Break

10:45 a.m. | Session 5: Adapting the Queen

  • Moderator: Amanda Herbert (Durham University)
  • Freddy Dominguez (University of Arkansas) 
    “Tudor Queens in Spanish Contexts”
  • Jessica S. Hower (Southwestern University)  
    “‘Bring[ing] Up the Bodies’: Queenship in History, Fiction, and the Public” 

12:15 p.m. | Lunch

1:45 p.m. | Session 6: The Popular Queen 

 Moderator: Amy Froide (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) 

  • Jessica Keene (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) 
    ““Queens Consort and Queens Regnant in Popular Media”
  • Kavita Mudan Finn (Independent)  
    “The Evolution of Catherine de’ Medici from La Reine Margot to The Serpent Queen” 

2:15 p.m. | Break 

2:30 p.m. | Roundtable discussion 

Moderators: Amanda Herbert (Durham University), Vanessa Wilkie (The Huntington)

3:30 p.m. | End of conference