The SSLH runs two bursary schemes. Articles in this section are reports back from the recipients of bursaries setting out how they were able to advance their research.
Gavin McCann is researching a book on trade unions and education. Here he writes about his visit to the South Wales Miners’ Library in search of a lost culture of socialist education. ‘I was in a second-hand bookshop in Cambridge — it would have been 73-74 — and came across two volumes of the history of the mining industry. I thought, bloody hell, where has … Continue reading Gavin McCann on the libraries of the South Wales miners
My PhD research examines the development of anti-fascist activism within industrial communities in twentieth-century Britain. It explores localised anti-fascist movements and how factors such as class, employment, and education influenced political engagement. Focusing on two case studies, South Wales and North West England, the project examines the shared characteristics and distinctive experiences of anti-fascist activism across different industrial regions. While anti-fascism in Britain has received … Continue reading Harry Griffiths (Bangor) on anti-fascism in South Wales and the North West of England
My BA project explores the lived experiences of Gurkha soldiers and their families in Kent, focusing on how they have evolved as a distinctive form of military labour and how they have navigated migration, settlement, and identity in Britain. Gurkhas occupy a unique position as Nepalese nationals who serve under the British Crown. In the British context, they are greatly mythologised as ‘the bravest of … Continue reading Drishya Rai (Cambridge) on Gurkha military labour, identity, and settlement
My dissertation focuses on the individual and political legacy of the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) with particular emphasis on the period 1979 – 1991. This period covers the ideological polarisation of Britain under Thatcher’s premiership. It was also a time when the LPYS grew dramatically to nearly 600 branches by 1985, only to contract and ultimately be closed down by the Labour Party in … Continue reading Steven Cox (Liverpool John Moores) on the legacy of Labour Party Young Socialists
My MA dissertation research focuses on a wave of state repression of Italian militants from the late 1970s to mid-1980s. On 7 April 1979 several Italian militants and intellectuals of Potere Operaio (workers’ power), Autonomia Operaia (workers’ autonomy), and unaffiliated activists critical of the Italian Communist Party, were arrested for participation in the armed group ‘The Red Brigades’ and the suspected kidnapping and killing of … Continue reading Jamila Squire (Westminster) on international solidarity with Italian political prisoners: 1979-84
It is one thing to read E. P. Thompson’s published, polished texts; it is quite another to handle the papers he once worked on, to see the rust left by paper clips, the gum pressed between pages, the coffee stains on letterheads, and the quirky cat he drew (surely the same cat he invoked in The Poverty of Theory, where he wrote with characteristic scorn, … Continue reading Bowen Ran (Rotterdam) on E. P. Thompson and the formation of The Making of the English Working Class
My MA dissertation focuses on the ways in which anti-fascism manifested in 1930s Merseyside, a topic that has received little attention in existing scholarship. I am particularly interested in identifying the key individuals and organisations active in the region, and in exploring how class, religion, and ethnicity intersected in shaping local anti-fascist responses. I am also examining what made Merseyside a significant battleground for fascist … Continue reading Ben Howarth (LJMU) on anti-fascist mobilisation in 1930s Merseyside
This report outlines my research on the spatial practices of Glasgow’s Showpeople, focusing on the domestic yards where they live between periods of travelling fairground work. These yards—often built into the city’s post-industrial landscape—are not simply resting places but complex working environments. They are shaped by Showpeople’s cultural knowledge, and wider urban pressures. My research details how these spaces are designed, maintained, and defended—what they … Continue reading Graham Skeate (KU Leuven & Edinburgh) on the life, labour and spaces of Glasgow Showpeople
My dissertation investigates how professional photography both presented and produced the figure of the coalfield woman during and after the 1984-85 miners’ strike across Yorkshire and County Durham. After attending the inspiring third annual John L. Halstead Memorial Lecture delivered by Natalie Thomlinson in November 2024, I became interested in understanding how photographic material and practices helped to construct and consolidate the ‘heroic narrative’ of … Continue reading Emily Thorpe (Durham) on photographic representations of coalfield women in the 1984-85 miners’ strike
My PhD investigates the lives and labours of social care workers in England and Wales between 1979 and 2010. Between 1979 and 1999, care assistants were the fastest growing sector of employment, increasing by 419%, while industrial jobs saw the greatest decline. Care work was, in many ways, the model of post-industrial working-class employment, characterised by low-paid, feminised, precarious, and emotionally demanding labour. My PhD … Continue reading Freya Willis (Oxford) on social care workers’ experiences of work, gender and class, 1979-2010
Society for the Study of Labour History 