Professor Heather Jones

Heather joined University College London as Professor in Modern and Contemporary European History in 2018, having previously worked at the London School of Economics and Political Science where she was Associate Professor in International History.

Heather works on war cultures 1880-1945. Her main research expertise is on the First World War. She is a particular specialist in prisoner of war studies; her first monograph, Violence Against Prisoners of War in the First World War in Britain, France and Germany 1914-1920  was published with Cambridge University Press (hardback 2011; paperback 2013). She has co-edited two books, three special journal editions and two sections of Cambridge University Press's 2014  History of the First World War, 3 vols (editor-in-chief Jay Winter), and published over 29 scholarly articles and chapters on the First World War. Her forthcoming monograph is on the British monarchy and the First World War and is due to be published with Cambridge University Press in 2021. She is currently working on a major study on the impact of blockade during the global First World War. She has also published on her two other areas of expertise: the history of Ireland in revolution and war 1912-1923 and the history of Weimar Germany.

From Dublin, Heather is a graduate of Trinity College University of Dublin where she did both her BA and PhD and where she was a foundation scholar and a Government of Ireland Research Scholar. She completed her MPhil at St John's College, University of Cambridge as a British Council Chevening scholar and an AHRB funded scholar. She completed her PhD in History at Trinity College Dublin in 2006; it won the Eda Sagarra medal for 'best thesis funded by the Irish Research Council'. In 2007-08, Heather held a Max Weber Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the European University Institute, Florence. She has an excellent knowledge of Irish, French and German and good Italian.

Heather is a Fellow of the Imperial War Museum's Institute for the Public Understanding of War. She is a member of the Executive Board of the International Research Centre of the Historial de la Grande Guerre at Péronne, France. She is one of the seven General Editors leading the 14-18 Online Encyclopedia of the First World War project which is the largest network of First World War researchers worldwide, spanning more than 50 countries and containing more than 1,000 peer reviewed open access articles by historians. Heather is also a co-convenor of the Institute of Historical Research's War, Society and Culture Seminar.

PhD supervision

Heather particularly welcomes enquiries from students interested in researching any aspect of the history of the First World War and its aftermath. She has supervised or co-supervised seven completed PhD theses and is currently supervising or co-supervising four PhD students.

Currently supervising: Chloe Pieters, 'The impact of the First World War upon the structure and understanding of the family in Belgium and Britain' (UCL); Yorai Linenberg, 'Non-Eastern Front Jewish prisoners of war in German captivity in the Second World War' (LSE); Christopher Batten, 'Class and Civilian Internment in the British Empire during the First World War' (UCL); Joshua Madrid, 'English Catholics in the Second World War: Understanding the Social and Cultural Roles of Religion in Modern Warfare' (UCL). 

Recently completed: Mahon Murphy, 'Prisoners of war and civilian internees captured by British and Dominion forces from the German Colonies during the First World War' (LSE, with David Stevenson); Tommaso Milani, '"Les Belles Années du Plan": Hendrik de Man and the renewal of interwar European socialism' (LSE, with Piers Ludlow); Ian Stewart, '"The Titans of the Early World": Celtic Ideas and National Thought in Britain, France and Ireland, 1700-1900' (LSE, with John Hutchinson); Alex Mayhew, 'Making sense of the Western Front and how this impacted on morale: English troops' perceptions of crisis' (LSE); Artemis Photiadou, 'The evolution of British interrogation policy in the Second World War and in Cyprus 1939-1959' (LSE).

Major publications

• Heather Jones, For King and Country: The British Monarchy and the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
• Heather Jones, Violence Against Prisoners of War in the First World War: Britain, France and Germany 1914-1920 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, hardback; 2013, paperback)
• Nicolas Beaupré, Heather Jones and Anne Rasmussen, eds, Dans la Guerre 1914-1918: Accepter, Endurer, Refuser (Paris: Belles Lettres, 2015)
• Heather Jones, Jennifer O'Brien and Christoph Schmidt-Supprian, eds, Untold War: New Perspectives in First World War Studies (Boston, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2008)

To view more publications for Professor Heather Jones, please view her Iris Profile.

Media appearances

Heather has contributed to numerous radio and television programmes, including Sky News, France 24, 'Great Continental Railways', 'Heroes of the Somme' and RTE's 'Nationwide'. She has also personally presented and scripted four programmes for BBC Radio 3, two BBC World Service radio programmes, and three BBC Radio 4 documentaries, including a major two-part history of the Easter Rising for its centenary in 2016. Her work has twice been selected for BBC Radio 4's 'Pick of the Week', and she has contributed to BBC Radio's 'Start the Week' programme and RTE's 'Morning Ireland'.

Listen to Heather's work:

• The Easter Rising 1916, BBC Radio 4, March 2016: Episode 1, 'Could You Not Just Wait?'
• The Easter Rising 1916, BBC Radio 4, March 2016: Episode 2, 'Changed Utterly'.
• Minds At War, 'Le Feu', BBC Radio 3, June 2014.
• 'The Frontline Prince', BBC Radio 4, September 2017.

Teaching

• Controversies and Debates in First World War Studies (MA elective module)
• Europe's First World War, 1911-1923 (advanced undergraduate seminar)
• Professional Writers and Witnessing War: Europe 1914-1945 (undergraduate research seminar)