PhD candidate awarded best article prize by leading European journal
Research article by Amelia Hutchinson recognised by the German History Society
PhD candidate Amelia Hutchinson has won the 2024 German History prize for an article developed from her MPhil thesis research. It was selected by the journal as the best article published this year.
German History’s annual prize is intended to showcase outstanding work from scholars of German history. Amelia described her win as: “a total surprise given the early stage of my academic career”.
Amelia’s article explores the relationship between medical knowledge and the depiction of skin and skin tones in early modern Northern European art.
It focuses on the understudied art of Johann Rottenhammer. The Munich-born artist was among the most famous German painters active in Italy at the turn of the 17th century. Amelia’s article demonstrates that Rottenhammer’s painted bodies related to medical understandings of skin.
Amelia is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Professor Ulinka Rublack and funded by the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholar Programme. Her thesis looks at the relationship between health, medicine and materiality in early modern Germany. She holds a MPhil degree in Early Modern History (2022) and a BA (Hons) in History (2020), both from the University of Cambridge.
Image credit: Hans Rottenhammer, The Contest of Apollo and Pan, 1599. Source: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, PD.23-1981. Creative Commons License. © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
As a current PhD student, winning the prize has also given me a new confidence in my research which I will take with me as I look to progress into an academic career".