Birgit Houben is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with KU Leuven. Her work focuses on political and court culture in the early modern Habsburg Netherlands, particularly governance and court institutions. . Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that integrates political, social and cultural history, her research highlights how formal structures and informal networks shaped political authority. She is the editor of The Politics of Female Households. Ladies-in-Waiting across Early Modern Europe (with N. Akkerman, 2013).