Honorable mention: Marissa Smit-Bose, “Multispecies Diplomacy: Ottoman Horses, Mantuan Buyers, and Renaissance Equestrianism (1486-1600)”
Dr. Smit-Bose’s dissertation centers on horsemanship; more specifically, it examines the political, cultural, and diplomatic capital that the Ottoman Empire and its ‘Turkish’ horses acquired in Renaissance Italy. Her work provides an original and fascinating lens through which to explore political, diplomatic, cultural, and economic history of the early modern world.