An Introduction to Darcy R. Keim!

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My name is Darcy Keim. I am a Masters graduate in History (undergraduate: BA Hons - History and the Medieval World) from the University of Winchester. My academic focus is Medieval and Early Modern Queenship (with an interest in the Aristocracy). Furthermore, my additional area of study is Gender History and Historiographical Analyses. Past study has also included Late Medieval Social History. My third-year undergraduate independent research was an assessment of the emergence of a Proto-Feminist "Anne Boleyn" from the nineteenth-to-twenty-first-century (under first, second, and third-wave feminism). In addition to this, my Masters research focused on the historiographical makeup of Medieval/Early Modern Queenship throughout the long nineteenth-century within collective biographies, artwork, and opera/plays.

Growing up and studying in Hong Kong, I was first drawn to English History not through my secondary education - which barely covered Western History (not that I am complaining) - but historical fiction. Predominantly Philippa Gregory's "Tudor Court" series at shy of fourteen years-old. It is embarrassing to admit, as a scholar, just where the roots of our passion began. I then fell in love with Showtime's The Tudors; and other Tudor-related media (Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I - check!). I was Tudor and English Reformation mad! I was particularly drawn to Anne Boleyn and began piecing her life together - through the use of secondary sources - trying to decipher the woman that she was. 

In 2013, after taking two years out of education, at twenty years-old, I decided to apply for medieval programs in the UK. I was accepted to all but knew, in my heart, that Winchester was for me -- and it was the best decision I ever made. There my interests broadened from Tudor Mania to Late Medieval Society and Aristocracy; Gender History; Queenship Studies; Anglo-Saxon gender politics; the Ancient World with Alexandria and Hypatia. I fell in love with Christine de Pizan and Margery Kempe. Æthelflæd, Myrcna hlæfdige (Lady of the Mercians) became a figure close to my heart. The education I received in Winchester opened up my eyes to a hidden world that most do not consider when they approach historical study.

There is more I could say, but it will speak louder in the work I will share on this blog.


Warmly,

Darcy

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