Retha M. Warnicke

Retha M. Warnicke is an historian specializing in the study of politics and protocol at the English court of the Tudor era, and gender issues, especially focused on women and on queenship. During her senior year of college, she won the Listenfelt Scholarship for outstanding Undergraduate History Major, followed in 1961 by a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. She rose through the ranks to become Professor of History at Arizona State University. She was the Director of Graduate Studies at the History Department from 1987–1992, and she was Chair of the History Department from 1992-1998. Professor Warnicke was the first woman hired in the History Department of ASU, and taught the first Women's History course ever offered there. She is best known for her controversial theories over the life of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. These theories were outlined in various articles in the mid-1980s and elaborated in her 1989 book The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII. Professor Warnicke has served on editorial boards, such as the Medieval Renaissance Texts and Studies. In 2005, she was elected to the nominating committee of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. A charter member of this society, she became its second president in 1995. The National Endowment for the Humanities selected her as a panelist twice. She belongs to several prestigious societies, including the Royal Historical Society. She participates regularly in conferences of the Pacific Coast Branch of the North American Conference on British Studies and also of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.