Economic and Social History

The Economic and Social History research theme brings together staff and postgraduate students with interests in economic and social history, very broadly defined. It cuts across chronological and geographical boundaries, aiming to reflect on conceptual and methodological issues that are shared by historians of different periods and places.

This group brings together staff and postgraduate students, especially those on the MA in Social and Economic History and those undertaking PhDs in relevant areas, in an informal setting to discuss current research. It also provides sessions from time to time on areas of training particularly relevant to postgraduate students, such as databases or publishing in economic and social history journals.

As the discipline becomes ever more specialised and compartmentalised, the group takes a deliberately broad definition of economic and social history in order to reflect upon the state of the field. As such, we cover a wide range of periods and places, from medieval peasants to the modern welfare state, and include research on Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia.

Current research interests include:

• social structure and social mobility
• poverty, welfare and living standards
• material culture and consumer behaviour
• slavery and the slave trade
• natural disasters and environmental history
• legal culture and crime
• gender, age and household economics
• urban mercantile culture
• labour and class conflict
• customary justice and land governance
• banking and financial history
• social memory and popular culture

Staff

• Dr Alex Brown
• Dr Chris Courtney
• Dr Barbara Crosbie
• Dr Adrian Green
• Dr Tom Hamilton
• Prof. Richard Huzzey
• Dr John Lee
• Prof. Cherry Leonardi
• Prof. Christian Liddy
• Dr Jennifer Luff
• Dr Julie Marfany
• Dr Andrzej Olechnowicz
• Prof. Julie-Marie Strange
• Prof. Justin Willis
• Prof. Andy Wood