| Susan Brigden | |
| Birth Name: | Susan Elizabeth Brigden |
| Birth Date: | 1951 6, df=y |
| Nationality: | British |
| Occupation: | Historian and academic |
| Spouse: | Jeremy Wormell |
| Awards: | Wolfson History Prize |
| Alma Mater: | University of Manchester (BA) Clare College, Cambridge (PhD) |
| Thesis Title: | The early Reformation in London, 1520-1547: the conflict in the parishes |
| Thesis Year: | 1979 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Geoffrey Elton |
| Discipline: | History |
| Notable Works: | Thomas Wyatt: The Heart's Forest |
Susan Elizabeth Brigden (born 26 June 1951)[1] is a historian and academic specialising in the English Renaissance and Reformation. She was Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Lincoln College, before retiring at the end of 2016.[2]
Brigden was educated at the University of Manchester (BA) and Clare College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a PhD in 1979. Her doctoral supervisor was the eminent Tudor historian Geoffrey Elton, and her thesis was titled 'The early Reformation in London, 1520-1547: the conflict in the parishes'.[3]
She stated that her interest in Tudor history was "rather accidental". She missed out on her first choice special subject at the University of Manchester and was instead allocated to a paper on the Reformation taught by Christopher Haigh. Her interest in the period grew from there and she wrote her undergraduate thesis on the Pilgrimage of Grace.[4]
In 1980, Brigden was elected a Fellow in history at Lincoln College, Oxford. This made her the first female fellow of that college. Prior to arriving at Lincoln she taught at Newcastle University and Durham University.[2] In 1984, she became a university lecturer in the Faculty of History, University of Oxford.[5] She later became Reader in Early Modern History.[6] At Lincoln College, in addition to her duties as Fellow and tutor, she was the College's Tutor for Women.[7]
Among Brigden's former doctoral students are Alexandra Gajda of Jesus College, Oxford[8] and Lucy Wooding, who succeeded Brigden as Lincoln College's early modern history tutor in 2016.[9]
In May 2024 Brigden appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time discussing the life of Thomas Wyatt alongside Laura Ashe and Brian Cummings.[10]
Brigden won the Wolfson History Prize in 2013 for her book Thomas Wyatt: The Heart's Forest.[11] In 2014 she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[12] She is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS).[13]
Brigden is married to Jeremy Wormell.[14]