About
I am Professor of Environmental History and the Chaddock Chair of Economic and Social History. My research interests lie predominantly in animal, environmental and cultural history. They initially focused on modern French history and the environmental history of war, and have since branched out into animal history, the history of emotions, the history of medicine, urban history, and transnational history.
I am currently working on two Wellcome-funded projects. I am Principal Investigator on Melting Metropolis: Everyday Histories of Heat and Health in London, New York, and Paris since 1945 (funded by a Wellcome Discovery Award), which runs from 2023-2029, working with colleagues at Liverpool and Queens College, CUNY, as well as Research Artist Bryony Ella. As part of this project, I am working on a book on the history of the British summertime. I am also Co-Investigator, leading the History Work Package, on an interdisciplinary project researching street dogs in India (funded by a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award),which you can find out more about on the ROH-Indies website.
My most recent book Collared: How We Made the Modern Dog is published by Profile Books. It reveals how the shifting fortunes of dogs hold a mirror to our changing society, from the evolution of breeding standards to the fight for animal rights. Wherever humans have gone, dogs have followed, changing size, appearance and even jobs along the way - from the forests of medieval Europe, where greyhounds chased down game for royalty, to the frontlines of twentieth-century conflicts, where dogs carried messages and hauled gun carriages. Italian, Korean and Ukrainian translations are forthcoming.
In 2021 Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London, and Paris was published by the University of Chicago Press. It explores the role and presence of dogs as workers, pets, pests, and beyond in nineteenth and twentieth century London, New York, and Paris. It has been translated into Spanish and Simplified Chinese.
ORCID: 0000-0002-0556-1929