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Christopher Batten

Chris’ research interests lie primarily in questions of class, power and empire, particularly as they relate to Britain. For his PhD research project, Chris is examining the relationship between prisons and the internment of enemy alien civilians in camps in Britain and its Empire in the period of the First World War, 1914-1922. In doing so, he hopes to make a meaningful contribution and introduce new perspectives to the history of both areas, building on a 2017 chapter he co-authored for an edited volume. 

PhD 

Supervisor: Professor Heather Jones
Working Title: 'Imprisonment, incarceration, internment?' A comparative history analysis of criminal prisons and civilian internment camps in First World War Britain. 
Expected Completion Date: 2025

Publications 

Batten, C., Pickering, J., Walsh, C., Wilcox, N. ‘Life In Ruhleben Camp: Edwardian Britain in Microcosm’. In Whitehead, I., & Larsen, R. Popular Experience and Cultural Representation of the Great War: 1914-1918 (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017) 

Conferences

Beyond the Barbed Wire: Wartime Internment in the Global History of Knowledge Transfer, 1914-1945, London School of Economics, 2023

27th Annual Postgraduate Research Students Conference, German Historical Institute London, 2023

Community, Identity and Commemoration: Britain and the First World War, University of Derby, 2017

Prizes and Scholarships 

2024 – German History Society Scholarship, German History Society

2023 – Western Front Association Prize, Western Front Association

2022 - Chalke Valley History Trust Prize, Chalke Valley History Trust

2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/2023 - Richard Chattaway Scholarship, University College London

2017 - Birmingham Research Institute for History and Cultures (BRIHC) M-Level Scholarship, University of Birmingham 

2015 - The History Prize, University of Derby

Teaching

2023/24, 2024/25 – Making History (HIST0008)
2023/24 – A Global History of Humanitarianism (IRDR0018)
2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 – Writing History (HIST0007)