Regina Poertner

Regina Poertner is Associate Professor in History at Swansea University’s School of Culture and Communication. A Rhodes Scholar with a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, she has held research fellowships at the German Historical Institute London and the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History.

Research Interests

• Early-modern history (1450–1800)
• History of law and legal reform
• Western political thought
• Counter-Reformation and constitutional debates

Her work explores how legal ideas shaped society and economy, ranging from Habsburg confessional policies to British family entails and Tudor portraiture.

Recent Publications & Trends

Poertner’s recent articles and reviews (2021-24) centre on the historiography of human rights, Tudor monastic dissolution, and Christian jurisprudence, reflecting sustained engagement with legal-intellectual history and interdisciplinary methodologies.

Awards & Grants

• Helmut-Coing Prize (2008)
• AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership “Redeeming Death” (PI, £76,590, 2016-20)
• British Academy and various international research grants

Postgraduate Supervision & Teaching

She currently supervises two PhD projects on nationalism in the English Civil War and on mortality & portraiture in Tudor England & Wales. Her taught modules span methodological training, historiography, and thematic surveys from the Enlightenment to twentieth-century America.

Collaborations & Outreach

Poertner collaborates with the National Portrait Gallery and National Trust, and welcomes new partnerships across the public and private sectors.