Suzannah Lipscomb

Award-winning historian, author, and broadcaster Suzannah Lipscomb earned a double First, MSt, and DPhil in History from Lincoln and Balliol Colleges at the University of Oxford, laying the foundation for her extensive contributions to historical scholarship. Her doctoral thesis, ‘Maids, Wives, and Mistresses: Disciplined Women in Reformation Languedoc,’ was completed in 2009. Lipscomb served as a curator for Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court, playing a key role in organizing exhibitions for the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession in 2009, a project that earned a KTP Award for Humanities for the Creative Economy in 2011. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2011 and received the Nancy Lyman Roelker Prize in 2012 for her journal article ‘Crossing Boundaries: Women’s Gossip, Insults, and Violence in Sixteenth-Century France.’ Lipscomb’s career has blended academic research with public engagement through diverse roles, including positions as a lecturer at the University of East Anglia and head of the Faculty of History at the New College of the Humanities.

Since 2021, she has hosted the popular ‘Not Just the Tudors’ podcast for History Hit, making historical topics accessible to a broad audience. Lipscomb also contributes a regular column to History Today and serves as a royal historian for NBC. Currently, Suzannah Lipscomb holds the title of Professor Emerita at the University of Roehampton and is a Senior Member at St Cross College, Oxford. In 2024, she chaired the judging panel for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, underscoring her ongoing influence across both academic and public spheres.

She continues to be an active Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries.