Lucinda H S Dean

Dr Lucinda H S Dean (Lucy) serves as Interim Head of Centre for History and Senior Lecturer in History at the University of the Highlands and Islands, specializing in Late Medieval and Early Modern Scotland and Europe. Her academic journey includes previous teaching positions at the Universities of Stirling, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, as well as the Open University (through Dundee). She completed her AHRC-funded doctoral thesis at the University of Stirling in 2013.

Dr Dean's research centers on ceremony and ritual, monarchy and kingship, gender and masculinity, coming of age and the life cycle, material culture, and public history. Her recently published monograph Death and the Royal Succession in Scotland, c. 1214 – c. 1543: Ritual, Ceremony and Power (Boydell, 2024) represents a significant contribution to Scottish historical studies. She has co-edited The Routledge History of Monarchy (2019) and Medieval and Early Modern Representations of Authority in Scotland & the British Isles (2016), demonstrating her expertise in royal studies.

Her scholarly work reveals consistent thematic development with increasing focus on material culture, masculinity studies, and public engagement with history. Recent publications show her expanding research into object-centered analysis of ritual objects and comparative approaches to royal masculinity and aging. Dr Dean has won the IRSS ECR Prize (2014) for her article 'Projecting Dynastic Majesty: State Ceremony in the Reign of Robert the Bruce'.

• IRSS ECR Prize (2014)
• Co-editor of The Routledge History of Monarchy (2019)
• Member of Advisory Committee for Stone of Destiny Reinterpretation at Perth Museum (2021-2022)
• Lead organiser of Royal Studies Network's tenth annual conference (2021)

Dr Dean actively engages with the public through collaborations with Historic Environment Scotland, Royal Collections Trust, Culture Perth and Kinross, and National Museums of Scotland. She has contributed to media coverage regarding the Stone of Destiny in Charles III's coronation and has been involved in the rekindling of the Perth Charterhouse Project. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on Court, Kirk and Burgh in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland, Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture, Public History, and Royal Power, Propaganda and Performance in Early Modern Europe.