Associate Professor in Modern History, University of Reading
I am broadly interested in late C19th and early C20th political cultures including gender, feminism and that heady mix of working class politics and religion.
My existing research 'The Soul of the Labour Movement' is a detailed examination of the Victorian morality and spirituality upon which the life of the labour movement was built and includes the wider contribution of the women's movement, children's associations and radical literary traditions. My new book 'The Labour Church: Religion and Politics in the Early Twentieth Century' will be published by I.B. Tauris in spring 2018.
My current research concerns early female pioneers in politics, focusing largely on female MPs between 1919 and 1931 primarily as 'sex-candidates'. I examine the contribution of early female MPs but also reassess the importance of the 1918 Representation of the People Act on British democracy, in relation to women and the emergence of female public politicians. I am particularly interested in Nancy Astor, who was the first female MP to sit in the House of Commons, whose papers are held here at the University of Reading.
I am privileged to work on the Vote 100 programme and from January 2019 I will project manage the Astor100 project, a series of events inspired by the election of Astor in 1919.
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