Catherine the Great – A Celebrity across Time

Responding to the current wave of mediated narratives of female members of the monarchy, this event brings together a panel of experts to explore the representations of Catherine the Great in her own time and now. Drawing on their research in the areas of History, Slavonic Studies, German Studies, Media Studies and Sociology, the four panel members focus on the strategies used to construct and control Catherine’s public image – by herself and by others. 

On the panel are biographer Virginia Rounding (Catherine the Great – Love, Sex and Power, 2006), Kelsey Rubin-Detlev (The Epistolary Art of Catherine the Great, 2019), Ruth P. Dawson (Catherine the Great and Celebrity Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe, 2022), and Rhoslyn Beckwith, who has just completed a PhD on 21st-century media representations of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) and the Prussian Queen Luise. The discussion is moderated by Godela Weiss-Sussex (ILCS). 

Event date: Wednesday, 3 May 2023

This event was sponsored by the John Coffin trust of the University of London.