Dr James Watts

James Watts is a historian of Britain and Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with interests in political and cultural histories of imperialism, the media, and Britishness. 

His work is also interested in questions of memory and public histories of empire, and especially with current debates around imperial statues and public space. 

Publications

Terrifying and Powerful, Fertile and Homely: Flora Shaw and ‘England’ in Representations of the Imperial Landscape, 1890–1904, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 49:4, 2021 pp. 658-687

 “Land Reform, Henry Rider Haggard, and the Politics of Imperial Settlement, 1900–1920.” The Historical Journal, vol. 65, no. 2, 2022, pp. 415–435.

'Contested Statues: The Clive Memorial Fund, Imperial Heroes, and the Reimaginings of Indian History', Journal of British Studies. 2024;63(1):6-29.

Contact information

Email: j-watts@ucl.ac.uk

Office hours: Mondays 4-5pm, Tuesdays  2-3pm