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I am a social historian of modern Britain, investigating people’s perceptions of the future between 1940 and 1985. Ranging from the bleak to the bright, the preposterous to the probable, what can these ‘futures past’ tell us about popular politics in the twentieth century?
I am particularly interested in the history of the vernacular, the development of non-elite political languages over time. These languages often defy the easy categorisation of ‘left’ or ‘right’; nonetheless, they proved very important for people making sense of their lives. I explore these languages in the Mass Observation Archive and in the archived material of post-war sociological studies.
My research also engages with the history of emotions. I explore the ebb and flow of different political moods, particularly hope, despair, cynicism, and fatalism.
I’ve taught various undergraduate modules at UCL’s History Department and School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (SSEES). I am also a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire where I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate modules in twentieth-century European history, nineteenth-century Britain, and contemporary statebuilding.
PhD
Supervisor: Dr Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Dr Robert Saunders
Working title: ‘The Politics of the Future in Britain, 1940-1985’
Expected completion date: 2024
