Yasmin Vetter

Yasmin Vetter

Department of History
Doctoral researcher

Contact details

PhD title: From Exile to Establishment: The Influence of Transnational Scholarly Networks on the Elizabethan Church.
Supervisor: Professor Elaine Fulton and Dr Jonathan Willis
PhD History

Qualifications

  • 2016 Master of Letters Reformation Studies (University of St Andrews)
  • 2018 Magistra Theologiae (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main)

Biography

In 2010 I started my degree in Evangelischer Theologie (Protestant Theology) at the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main. Additional to the ancient Greek and classical Latin that I had learned in School, I learned biblical Hebrew during my first year at Uni.

I finished my Grundstudium (Undergraduate level) with a Zwischenprüfung in 2013 and started my Hauptstudium (Postgraduate Level) the following semester.

In 2015/2016 I took a gap year to pursue a MLitt Reformation Studies Degree at St Andrews University that I was awarded in November 2016.

I returned to Germany in the academic year 2016/17 and finished my theology degree in 2018. In May 2017 I presented my first conference paper at a conference of the Graduiertenkolleg Frankfurt am Main.

I was awarded the title Magistra Theologiae in April 2018. Even though my theology degree was interdisciplinary having included Old and New Testament studies, Systematic, Religious Science, Philosophy, Practical Theology and Church History, I had the chance to specialize in the field of Church History.

In October 2018 I started my PhD in the Department of History at the University of Birmingham. Here I am combining my expertise in Reformation studies and in Theology to research the English Reformation.

During my second year in Frankfurt I worked as a tutor for first semester students in the context of their Propädeuticum (foundation course).

Before I went abroad in 2015 I worked as a student research assistant for Dr.theol.habil. Benedikt Hensel in Old Testament Studies on his research on Judah and Samaria.

Research

My project aims to significantly enhance our understanding of English Protestant history and theology during the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I. It argues that the Elizabethan Church and Elizabethan Protestant debates on conformity had their roots in the exiles’ discussions, primarily of those in German-speaking regions. It examines how Elizabethan Protestants’ time in Marian Exile and the networks they created with Continental reformers shaped their political and theological beliefs.

To reconstruct detailed networks and the transmission of political, intellectual and theological ideas, my project adopts a prosopographical approach. I focus on key figures in Marian exile who later sat on Elizabeth I’s bench of bishops, figures who have received little scholarly attention in recent decades. Richard Cox, Edwin Sandys, John Parkhurst and James Pilkington were at the centre of debates on liturgy and conformity in both periods and had strong connections to important continental reformers like Heinrich Bullinger and Peter Martyr Vermigli. My project will situate the theology and policy of these figures, in exile and in office, amidst their ongoing correspondence with key figures in England and on the continent.

The transnational connections of these English Protestants reveal how Continental reformers influenced English theologians’ beliefs, academic networks and the development of the Elizabethan Church and government.

Other activities

  • 2018       I am a Co-founder of ‘Heads down, phones off’ (a PGR study and writing group within the School of History and cultures)
  • 2018/19 I am Co-Student Rep for 1st year PhDs of the School of History and Cultures
  • 2017       I have presented a paper on ‘Intellectual women in the early English Reformation’ at the Conference Gelehrte – Intellektuelle – Experten. Repräsentantion und Vermittlung religiöser Wissensbeständein Frankfurt am Main, Germany