Eleanor Stephenson

Eleanor Stephenson is the recipient of the AHRC-funded collaborative doctoral partnership with the Royal Society and the University of Cambridge, ‘The Royal Society and Slavery in Jamaica, 1660-1714’. This PhD project aims to strengthen understanding of the links between the Royal Society, especially the Royal Fellows, and slavery in Jamaica and how, in turn, art and science might have enhanced the profitability of Britain’s imperial enterprise. 

Before her PhD, Eleanor completed her MA in History of Art at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, studying the architectural history of the British Empire. Her dissertation focused on Welsh country houses connected to the East India Company, 1760-1820. For her BA thesis in History of Art, also at The Courtauld, Eleanor examined the colonial legacies of American occupation in South Korea through monochromatic painting, 1950-1980.

Eleanor is currently undertaking a curatorial placement at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, assisting the Keeper of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts on the exhibition 'Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance' (8 September 2023 - 7 January 2024).