Lynsey Cowlishaw

Lynsey Cowlishaw (Shaw) is an interdisciplinary PhD candidate in History and Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London. Her doctoral research re-examines the life and cultural afterlife of the Tudor heir Arbella Stuart through portraiture, archival research and practice-based performance, exploring how women close to power can become marginalised in historical memory. Her work combines early modern history with cultural memory studies, narrative theory and digital storytelling to examine how identity, place and gender shape the ways historical figures are remembered and reinterpreted.

Alongside her academic work, Lynsey is a film and television producer and professional performer. She brings experience in screen production, music and live performance into her research methodology, developing site-responsive approaches to historical interpretation and storytelling.

She also works with Smartify CIC, the global digital platform for museums and heritage sites, helping to develop digital interpretation and storytelling tools for cultural institutions worldwide. Her broader practice explores how historical scholarship can be translated into accessible contemporary storytelling formats across performance, media and heritage contexts.