About
I am a social and cultural historian of modern Britain, focusing on the intersecting histories of race and womanhood in the latter decades of the twentieth century. I am interested in how race, racial thinking, and racism have shaped, and continue to shape, women's lives in modern Britain. After completing my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Leeds and UCL, I received my PhD in History from the University of Manchester in 2021. I joined Liverpool in 2022.
Most of my research to date has focused on the history of colonial and post-colonial immigration in post-war Britain, and women's lives, identities, and politics within this context. In particular, I write about how women outside of 'high politics' engaged with political issues around race, racism, and immigration, and the myriad, sometimes subtle, mechanisms they deployed to encourage change around these issues, for better or for worse. In short, I'm fascinated by how women 'do politics' in their everyday lives, and how this is bound up with race.
My previous and current projects have expanded on these themes around race, gender, and politics. My PhD thesis explored the experiences and activism of Black women in Britain and how they mobilised around issues such as housing, motherhood, policing, and feminism. My current project examines how white women of all political shades shaped and contributed to racist, anti-immigrationist, and fascist discourses in late-twentieth-century Britain, as well as how they constructed notions of 'whiteness' and white superiority. These projects have been adapted into several peer-reviewed publications in the Historical Journal, Modern British History, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, and several edited collections.
I welcome PhD supervision enquiries from any student interested in pursuing a doctorate related to any of the above themes.