Jil Stoltz
stoltzj@tcd.ie
Biography
I am from Luxembourg, and completed my undergraduate degree in European Cultures and History at the University of Luxembourg in 2010. I began my MPhil in Early Modern History at Trinity in 2011.
Research
‘The dog in early modern England’
My research focuses on the place of the dog in English culture during the long eighteenth century. Dogs were ubiquitous and highly esteemed during this period. I am interested in the process of turning the working dog into a pet in the context of urbanisation and broader social and economic change. During the early modern period dogs were no longer only kept at court for entertainment purposes but people of the middling sort also kept canine companions. However, perceptions of dogs remained ambivalent. I will investigate how contemporaries differentiated between the dog as a co-worker and the dog as a pet, as well as between the dog as a luxury item and as a companion.