Staff in History

Katie Bank is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Birmingham researching musical-visual culture in early modern England. Her research reflects an interdisciplinary attention to the role of music and music making within the intellectual history of early modern England, particularly music's intersection with natural philosophy, the passions, and ...

As a historian, I am primarily interested in how institutions and individuals respond to the challenges of war. I believe that this is best studied using an approach which is both comparative and cross-disciplinary.

I am a historian of Modern Europe, and work primarily on Germany during the Nazi and post-war periods. My first book German Catholicism at War, 1939-1945, (Oxford, 2018), explored the social and cultural histories of religion on Germany's Home Front during the Second World War. I teach a range of courses on 20th century European history, including a final-year special subject, 'The ...

My teaching and research centre on the Vikings, the history and archaeology of medieval Iceland, and Old Norse literature. Some of these interests show themselves in my book, Landscape, Tradition and Power in Medieval Iceland(2020). I am interested in how communities and individuals recall and write about the past, in the case of medieval texts like Sagas of Icelanders but also more generally. ...

My current research interests are Latin America and the world, global microhistory, regional identity, race and representation, gender and representation, transnational consumer culture, popular culture movements, movement and migration, language-based movements, and spatial understandings of regional culture.

My primary research interests are in the social, cultural, and transnational histories of the U.S. South, mobility, U.S. empire, and race.

My research is in the history of the West Midlands region, most especially in the politics and society of the Modern era. I have published political biography and electoral analysis as well as studies on sport, business and the arts. I also broadcast regularly with the BBC on historical and political questions. 

Professor Nicholas Crowson is a Professor of Contemporary British History with a particular interest in homelessness from the 1880s to the modern day. This includes recreating the life stories of vagrants in late Victorian times; exploring the hidden history of the mass squatting of military camps in 1946; examining the role of the Reception Centres after 1946; and considering the impact of ...

Tom Cutterham is a historian of Revolutionary America and the late eighteenth-century Atlantic world. He teaches the history of North America from the first English colonisations to the end of the nineteenth century, including courses on women in the American Revolution and the meaning of freedom in American history. Following his first book, Gentlemen Revolutionaries: Power and Justice in the ...

I am a social and regional historian with teaching and research interests in the history of the West Midlands region after 1700 and the history of ethnic minorities and anti-slavery. I am also Editor-in-Chief of the History West Midlands project.

I am a historian of medieval culture, memory and identity, focusing in particular on the impact of the crusading movement. My publications have explored these subjects in the period between the high Middle Ages and the early modern era, and my most recent article, which examined the commemoration of crusaders in late medieval England, appeared in English Historical Review. My forthcoming ...

I am a cultural and diplomatic historian whose research interests centre on US-Russian Relations, the cultural and political implications of new technologies and how Americans have envisaged the future. I am currently writing a history of American perceptions of the Soviet space programme. 

Sarah Fox is a social and cultural historian with interests in the social histories of law and medicine, the body, gender, food, and community.  She works as research associate on the Leverhulme-funded project Material Identities, Social Bodies: Embodiment in British Letters, c.1680-1820at the University of Birmingham.  She is currently co-authoring a book on George III, his dining ...

I am a political historian of twentieth century Britain, with a particular interest in conceptual history, political ideologies, and ideological change.

I have been part of the Department of History since 2003, where I have taken a particular interest in the development of the undergraduate history syllabus and enhancement of teaching; I have also been Head of Department. My historical research has focussed on the complex interplay between politics, society and religion in early-modern German-speaking Europe, and my current project is ...

I work on the histories of coastlines, oceans, and the communities that rely on them. I like to explore the past by ‘doing’ as much as reading, taking small boats out to sea to research the culture and heritage of shorelines, and encouraging students to use built and natural environments to understand how past people lived.

My main interest lies in post war Germany, the political, social and economic reconstruction of the country (including Allied occupation policy) against the backdrop of the Cold War.

I am originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and came to Birmingham after teaching in the History Department at West Point.  My intellectual interests focus on Modern Central and Eastern Europe, modern international history, global insurgency and counterinsurgency, as well as international law and the regulation of war.

 

I work on the social and cultural history of Britain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (the Tudor and Stuart periods). I am interested in how the profound changes to religion and society over the course of this period played out in domestic life and practices of belief, with particular focus on the role of visual and material culture (images, objects, built environment) in shaping ...

My teaching focusses on the social and cultural aspects of eighteenth-century Britain. I'm particularly interested in how men and women experienced their lives in the context of wider understandings of power, gender and the body. 

My research focuses on social history, material culture and architecture in sixteenth and seventeenth century England.

I’m a British/Canadian academic interested in security and intelligence in the past and present and in a US/UK/Canada context.  My work has covered a range of topics, such as state surveillance against Canadian universities, UK and US counter-terrorism, a history of informants, and the world's most famous police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 

I work on the cultural history of modern Britain, with particular interests in histories of gender, sexuality and selfhood.

I am an award-winning historian of nineteenth-century British history, with a particular focus on the experience of living and dying in the urban environment. I am also a public historian who works with charities, community groups, the media, heritage organisations and museums, helping to engage the wider public in history. My last research project Finding the Peterloo Eleven, was shortlisted for

I am a social and cultural historian of gender, objects, and consumerism in the long eighteenth century (1666–1832). I have broad research interests in the history of gender (particularly masculinity and manhood), domestic life, religion, manufacturing and consumption (in both a national and international context), material and visual culture, and the built environment in the early modern ...

I am an historian of colonial empire with a special focus on the Middle East and the Mediterranean in the twentieth century.

I work on the discourse and politics of economic development in the French League of Nations Mandate in Syria and Lebanon, on the history of Fordism in the post-Ottoman Middle East, and on the global history of colonial commodities and natural resources.

For full details ...

An anthropologist by education, I enjoy doing interdisciplinary research. My main interest is the production of heritage in post/colonial contexts and the associated politics of history, social memory and development, including local as well as transnational relations and practices, from heritage management to tourism and the social lives of the people living near designated heritage sites.

I am a Lecturer at the Ironbridge Centre for Heritage, University of Birmingham, interested in the interaction between people and place and the role of heritage in this interaction. I am particularly interested in the role of heritage in place making and place identity in urban and rural areas, exploring especially local communities’ perceptions and their dynamics and potential in ...

I am a social and cultural historian of modern Britain, with particular focus on histories of youth, gender, leisure, and urban redevelopment in post-war period.

I am interested in social, cultural and religious history from the early modern to the modern period (16^th - 20^th century). I am currently working on two research projects: the first is on global Protestantism and the networks of radical religious communities (a collaboration with Dr. Kat Hill, Birkbeck); the second project is a study of the role of children in Protestant missions in ...

Having graduated from the University of Düsseldorf with a degree in mathematics, history and philosophy I completed an M.Phil in International Relations and PhD in Modern History at the University of Cambridge. I took up a lectureship in European history at the University of Hull in 1993 before joining the Department of Modern History here at Birmingham in 1994.

Amy Luck is a public historian who specialises in understanding, quantifying, and sharing the value and impact of cultural heritage, particularly on wellbeing and mental health.

My geographical areas of expertise include Eastern Europe, modern Europe and Russia/Soviet Union. I am interested in comparative socialisms and nationalisms, cultural history and the history of science. 

I am the Associate Professor in Ottoman and Islamic History  in the Department of History and a member of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies. My research focuses on the intellectual and political history of the Ottoman Empire between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. I am particularly interested in how ideas about history and the nature of kingship in ...

Alex is a historian of modern Britain and the First World War with a particular interest in combatants’ identities and endurance. His research focusses on the experience of conflict, military morale, national identities, and perceptions of crisis. Alex’s work has appeared in the journals War in History and The Historical Journal whilst his first monograph Making Sense of the Great ...

My primary research interests are in the history of politics, religion, and the book in early modern Britain and Europe, especially but not exclusively c1598-1660.

I am a historian of political and social activism with a particular focus on civil liberties and human rights and, increasingly, extra-Parliamentary conservative action in its many different forms which I examine across a range of different political spaces. I acted as Director of Modern British Studies at Birminghamfrom its formation in 2014 until 2018 and I am an Associate Editor of the ...

I specialise in the impact of Great Power intervention in the Balkans and Middle East in terms of diplomacy and conflict, predominantly from a British perspective. My teaching reflects these interests and more broader interests such as the origins of the two world wars and the Cold War. Modules taught include ‘Conflict in the Modern Middle East’, ‘Facing the Fuhrer, the Duce and ...

I study the social and cultural history of Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire in the late 19th and 20th centuries. I'm interested in the origins of modern ideas about race, gender, family, and national identity. Those questions have led to me write about a range of topics, including the Irish in Britain, queer history, and the co-operative movement. I'm currently working on an intellectual ...

My research and teaching considers what the history of the United States might tell us about colonialism, racial capitalism, and social movements in a global context.

I am a historian of modern East Central Europe. My main research interest lies in the international, social and economic history of interwar and postwar Poland.

I am a historian of medieval Italy and the Mediterranean, with wider interests in the global history of the pre-modern past. I study urban change and radical social movements, and my first book examines the transformation of the city of Milan in the long eleventh century. As a Leverhulme Fellow, I am working on how the use of coinage in the same period altered experiences of religion and gender ...

I am a historian of memory and communities, with research expertise in local and family history, the social history of archives, and the mental afterlife of conflict. I am especially interested in the ways memory and the representation of the past shapes individual and collective identities, with a particular emphasis on the experiences of non-elite men and women. My first book, Recollection ...

Social, cultural and military history of the two World Wars, including a focus on drug culture, consumption and control.

I am a historian of medieval religious cultures (c.1000–c.1300), with particular interests in crusading, pilgrimage and monasticism.

At the broadest level, I am a cultural and social historian of race, science and empire in the modern world.

I am a historian of modern Eastern Europe. My main fields of research are the social history of Poland and the Baltics, Germany’s relations with Eastern Europe, and the history of nationalism and ethnic conflict. I am currently Deputy Director of the College of Arts and Law Graduate School. From 2020 to 2022 I was Director of the Institute for German and European Studies (IGES) ...

I am Professor of Modern History. My primary research interests are in global environmental history and modern European social and cultural history.

I am a social and cultural historian of modern Egypt, with particular interest in Egyptian popular culture and vernacular modernity.

I am interested in the value of cultural heritage has to communities, particularly how it impacts wider individual and communal social values; including wellbeing and mental health. 

I am a specialist in race and immigration history and have a particular interest in racial science, race and the media and the history of racial violence. My present research also focuses on constructions of Jewish history and the treatment of minorities in Britain during the Second World War.

I am a historian of modern South Asia (present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). My research interests range from the early colonial period with the coming of the East India Company’s rule to the late colonial period – the mobilization of Indian soldiers transforming the First World War into a global conflict. I am particularly interested in histories of gender based ...

Earlier this month we learned of the death of our colleague and friend Dr Margaret (Marga) Small. Colleagues and students within and beyond the School of History and Cultures are devastated by the loss of a wonderful scholar, an inspirational teacher, and a most dedicated citizen of her Department, School, College and University.  We have set up an online Book of Condolence for anyone ...

I am an historian of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain and empire. I research how historical actors produced, consumed, and derived meaning from, the material world. I am currently working on a monograph provisionally entitled Losing Possession in the Long Eighteenth Century. My recent books include, Material Goods, Moving Hands: Perceiving Production in England, 1700-1830 (2014), N ...

I work on the creation and regulation of communities in the early and central middle ages. I’m particularly interested in the ways in which institutions or groups of people – as well as individuals – were gendered. I’ve just finished writing a book on monasteries and families in the early middle ages (600CE-1100CE); previously, I’ve worked on the origins of ...

I am a social and cultural historian with particular specialisms in British history and the Anglophone world post 1850, histories of work, artistic culture, feminism, suffrage, and women’s and gender history. My first book Women Art Workers and the Arts and Crafts Movement (2020) won the Historians of British Art award for a single-author book with a subject between 1800-1960 and ...

I am a Professor of Environmental Humanities working on environmental issues, both past and present, in a global context.

I work on the social and religious history of Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a particular interest in the intersection between religion and the body, medicine, and the life course.

Rebecca Whiteley is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History. She is researching the history of medicine and sex in nineteenth-century Britain, through a study of printed visual culture across genres: medical illustration; satirical and ‘popular’ print; and pornography. Rebecca works on the intersections of visual and material culture, the history of ...

I am interested in all aspects of the history of war, but with a particular focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  My research explores British military history, military thought and strategy in this period: in particular, it covers British colonial warfare, counterinsurgency, the First World War and the Second World War. My teaching includes these topics, as well as ...

I am a historian of the English reformation, with broad interests in the history and theology of late-medieval and early modern Europe. My research explores the religious and cultural history of England over the course of the long sixteenth century, with a particular focus on the impact of religious change on the lived experiences of ordinary people.

 

I teach the history of religion and society in the early and central middle ages, and research on the cult of saints’ relics, miracles and religious cultures from the tenth to the thirteenth century in England. I am also the Director of Birmingham Research Institute for History and Cultures.

I am a global historian. I primarily research and teach the history of China.

I am an economic and social historian of the later modern period focusing mainly on landed society.

I am an archaeologist with an interest in what archaeology ‘does’ in the world – how it came to be as it is, why we study what we do in the way we do it, and what that means in terms of understanding ourselves. I work particularly in two fields: cultural heritage; and conflict archaeology, especially the archaeology of battlefields. I have been recently honoured with a ...

I am professor of early modern history at the University of Birmingham, specialising in the political and cultural history of late sixteenth and early seventeenth century England.

My research focuses on the interaction between regional identity, early modern politics and cultural production.

I am a social historian with interests in late nineteenth and early twentieth century British history, particularly anything related to sport. I have a real interest in the sporting history of Birmingham and the West Midlands and my current research is focused upon the development of athletics within the city at the commencement of the twentieth century.

I am a medievalist working primarily on regional history and archaeology, medieval lordship and community, and cultural history, in England and France between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. My current research is focussed particularly on parish churches.

I studied at the University of Leeds for my first degree (1967-70) and then moved to the University of Oxford (Balliol College) in order to prepare a doctorate under the supervision of Professor Richard Cobb (1970-73). Whilst undertaking research in France I was a boursier of the French government attached to the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail (1971-72).

I am a historian specialising in the religious history of 19^th and 20^th century. I recently retired from my Birmingham chair, but I am still very active in research and postgraduate supervision.

 

The History of the Turks, Medieval, Early Modern and Modern, has been my avocation since my first visit to Turkey as a teenager in 1966 and my principal occupation since I completed by doctoral studies at the age of thirty.

 

I studied Medieval and Modern History for a BA in the School of History at Birmingham, inspired by Dorothy Thompson; Economic and Social History for a MA at Sheffield at the feet of Sidney Pollard; and undertook my PhD in Social History in the Department of Economic and Social History back in Birmingham under the supervision of John Harris.

 

My interests lie in how we produce and consume categories of heritage within changing cultural and cross-cultural contexts. I am particularly interested in how tourists experience the past and how tourism works with heritage to shape identities at the individual and collective level. 

I studied for a degree in History at Cambridge University, graduating in 1972. I then stayed at Cambridge for doctoral research, on the activities of European universities in the crisis caused by the division in the papacy between 1378 and 1417. I joined the History Department at Birmingham in October 1979. I retired at the end of December 2016.

I am a social, gender and cultural historian focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I also specialize in the relationship between history and heritage.

I study Medieval history, 400-1250, especially Italy and comparative history