Professor Sara Smart

My research engages with the court culture of the Holy Roman Empire in the early modern period, particularly German-speaking, Protestant courts. The rich diversity of material has prompted different approaches and perspectives with my interests ranging from the stylization of those positioned at the apex of the court hierarchy, the ruling prince and his family (The Ideal Image: Studies in Writing for the German Court 1616-1706), to festive culture and its relationship to confessional identity. I have worked on the Singspiel and opera, court ballet and tournaments, occasional poetry and Festbeschreibungen, triumphal processions and emblematics.

I have been awarded a Senior Fellowship by the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany’s major research library for the early modern period, to support my present research into ‘Hohenzollern Consorts: Dynastic Women and the Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia 1613-1713’. This project focuses on the duties and depiction of the electresses of Brandenburg, later queens in Prussia, in a century that began in confessional confusion and the chaos of the Thirty Years’ War and ended with the establishment of the Hohenzollern monarchy in Prussia.

Research into court culture crosses disciplines and nationalities, as reflected in a major collaboration with Professor Mara R. Wade (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Our co-edited volume The Palatine Wedding of 1613: Protestant Alliance and Court Festival explores the web of confessional interest and cultural exchange triggered by the marriage between Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James V/I and Anna of Denmark, and Elector Palatine Friedrich V.

Much of my teaching is embedded in this research context. I am offering a new Level 2 module, ‘Reformation and Rupture, the Sinner and the Saved’, to introduce students to the impact of the Reformation on the Empire and to early modern culture and art. My contribution to a final-year module on German propaganda focuses on the work of the Saxon court painter Cranach the Elder and his support for Luther as well as the variety of textual and visual images projecting the power of the Hohenzollerns.

Research supervision:

Postgraduate Supervision since 2008

• numerous MA Translation dissertations
• PhD thesis on Protestant Propaganda in the Thirty Years' War entitled: "Foreign Heroes and Catholic Villains: Radical Protestant Propaganda of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)," submitted byDarren Foster in 2012, funded by the DAAD, the Herzog August Bibliothek, the University of Exeter, and the Institut für Europäische Geschichte, Mainz.

Other:
Conference Organisation

• 7-10 September 2008 Co-organization of an interdisciplinary, international conference ‘"That all the world may wonder!" The Palatine Wedding of 1613, its celebration and significance' at the University of Exeter and Montacute House (with Prof. Mara Wade, University of Illinois).

Conference Papers (since 2001)

• ‘Images of Dynasty: David Schirmer's Poetische Rauten-Gepüsche'
  April 2001, University of Pittsburgh, USA, Frühe Neuzeit Interdisziplinär, Third International Conference.
• ‘Continuity and Innovation: The German Court Ballet 1609-1706'
  April 2002, University of Bristol, British Baroque Symposium, Title of Conference: Continuity and Innovation in the Early Modern Period.
• ‘Die Darstellung der Affekte im frühen deutschen Hofballett'
  April 2003, Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Kongreß des Wolfenbütteler Arbeitskreises für Barockforschung, Title of Conference: Passion, Affekt und Leidenschaft in der frühen Neuzeit.
• ‘Architektur und Natur in Johann von Bessers Hochzeitsbeschreibung im Jahre 1700'
  September 2004, Universität Potsdam, Title of Conference: Naturraum und Landschaft: Interdisziplinäres Kolloquium.
• ‘Heroes and Commanders: Johann von Besser's Presentation of the Hohenzollern Dynasty'
  April 2005, Duke University, USA, Frühe Neuzeit Interdisziplinär, Fifth International Conference.
• ‘The Representation of Friedrich I, King in Prussia'
  October 2007, German Historical Institute, London, Sixth Workshop on Early Modern German History.
• ‘The Return of the Elector as King: The Berlin Entry of Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg as King in Prussia in 1701'
  December 2007, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, London, Title of Conference: Writing Royal Entries in Early Modern Europe (1500-1800).
• ‘The Cultivation of Monarchy: Berlin 1701' January 2008, Exeter Early Modern Seminar.
• ‘Höfische Trauer und die Darstellung der fürstlichen Gemahlin: Zur Funktion des Trauergedichts am Berliner Hof 1667-1705'
  June 2008, Universität Potsdam, Title of Conference: Theorie und Praxis der Kasualdichtung in der Frühen Neuzeit.
• Plus papers given within the School of Modern Languages Research Seminar, University of Exeter.