I joined the University of Sheffield in September 2006.
Before this I read history at Merton College, Oxford, and stayed there to study for my D.Phil. In 2002 I took up a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for Contemporary British History (CCBH), Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
I remained at the CCBH to hold a three-year British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship.
My main research interests are in the political, social and cultural history of twentieth-century Britain. I have worked extensively on the national popular press in the decades after 1918, examining the ways in which newspapers both reflected and shaped British society and culture.
My first monograph explored press debates about femininity and masculinity in the inter-war period. My second book, Family Newspapers? Sex, Private Life and the British Popular Press 1918-1978 (OUP, 2009) explored the role of the press as a source of information and imagery about sex, morality and personal relationships.
With Professor Martin Conboy, I have written a wide-ranging history of popular newspapers, Tabloid Century: The Popular Press in Britain, 1896 to the Present (Peter Lang, 2015). I have also worked on the press coverage of child sexual abuse.
I am currently working on a project entitled ‘Everyday Politics, Ordinary Lives: Democratic Engagement in Britain, 1918-1992’, supported by an AHRC Leadership Fellowship (2017-18). This project investigates how British citizens understood politics and how they viewed its relationship to their lives, from 1918 to 1992.
I am co-Editor of the journal Gender and History, and Senior Associate of History & Policy.
At 60, the Sun hasn’t set – but the tabloid’s light is fading
Sep 16, 2024 05:52 am UTC| Business
The British public believe it is time for a new newspaper, born of the age we live in. That is why the Sun rises brightly today. So declared the front page of the Sun on September 15 1964. Sixty years ago, this headline...