About
I research the cultural and social history of British nuclear mobilisation. British Nuclear Culture (Bloomsbury, 2016), offered a new interpretation of the British nuclear century by tracing the tensions between 'official' and 'unofficial' narratives.
Between 2023 and 2025 I am Co-Investigator on 'An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans', funded by the Office for Veteran Affairs, UK Cabinet Office. The project is led by Dr Christopher Hill (University of South Wales), and supported by National Life Stories from the British Library. We seek to understand the role of nuclear test participation in the course of veterans' lives. It will produce educational resources, a project film, an exhibition, and an open access archive on British Library Sounds.
I am also currently working on a number of edited collections, and a case study on proposed Uranium mining on Orkney in the 1970s. Longer term projects include an exploration of life in 1980s nuclear Britain.
I was General Editor of an innovative Open Access e-textbook project, Using Primary Sources (LUP, 2017), funded by JISC. This was a collaborative effort between nearly thirty historians, University of Liverpool Library colleagues, and Liverpool University Press.
I recently supervised two AHRC-funded PhD students, who both completed in 2022. Emily Gibbs is worked on the history of emotions in relation to nuclear Britain, and Harry Roberts worked on nuclear identities in rural Britain.