About
A brief description of who you are and what you do.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- British empire and decolonisation
- The Labour Party and the British left
- British feminist movements
- British humanitarianism and overseas aid
- The British 'culture wars', free speech and the politics of history teaching, writing and commemoration
Current research
My book, Imperial Island, explores the tangled history of the British empire at home from the Second World War to present day. It uses cultural, social and political archives to focus on the stories of 'ordinary people' and their relationship to empire and decolonisation. The book explores topics around migration, border control, policing, education, the media, sport and pop culture to examine how empire has shaped British society and the British people, and how it continues to echo through our contemporary landscape.
My edited collection, Free Speech Wars: how did we get here and why does it matter? (MUP, 2021) brought together a diverse group of writers to explore the free speech 'culture wars' in Britain and in Europe and America. The book used history, politics and philosophy to explain how free speech has become such a contemporary issue of concern and where this debate might take us.
My research more generally has focused on the history of the British Labour party, especially in relation to empire and overseas aid; the British feminist movement, especially in the context of the transnational women's movement and the IWY conferences; Rita Hinden's political thought; and sexism, harassment and abuse in academia and the aid industry.
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Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Pagination
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
I teach across a variety of topics in modern British social, cultural and political history, including gender history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the history and memory of the Second World War, the 1960s as a British cultural moment, and the long and tangled history of the Labour Party.
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
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Biography
I am a feminist historian of modern British history. I am a new imperial historian in approach – I believe that Britain can only be understood as a metropole, and that British history needs to be understood as an imperial history. My book, Imperial Island: a history of empire in modern Britain, tells an alternative history of Britain's relationship with its empire from the Second World War to present day. The book traces the ways that empire and decolonisation have left their mark on British history, society, politics and culture, and tells the story of how ordinary people's lives have been shaped by the messy, complex, brutal, and surprising history of British imperialism.
I am also committed to communicating history beyond the academy, and regularly write for popular outlets such as the Guardian, Tribune, the Washington Post, New Humanist, Popula, New Statesman, Dazed and BBC History magazine. I have appeared on podcasts (No Country for Young Women, Chatham House Undercurrents), and on television and radio (Sky News, Radio New Zealand, BBC Radio 4 Analysis, BBC Radio 4 Sweet Reason, BBC Rethink) as a historical expert.
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
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Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.