Georgina Watson is a second-year PhD candidate at Manchester University's History Department. Her thesis, 'War, Wealth, and God's Will: The Order of St Stephen between Crusade and Commerce in the late sixteenth century' examines the disconnections of early modern Mediterranean trade, crusade and religious interactions between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Ottoman Empire. She has specific interests in the role of Christianity within commercial trading, the construction of European noble family's identities within literary texts and portraiture and the varied usage of private military orders to shape Muslim/Christian diplomacy throughout the early modern Mediterranean.

Georgina's paper for the MEMSA Crossing Borders, Contesting Boundaries Podcast is entitled 'The Perspective of Fakhr ad-Din al-Ma'n II'.

Music: Aitua, 'Blind Fire', from the album Elements. Used with the kind permission of the artist. All rights reserved.