Category: Research bursaries

Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Theo Christodoulidis (University of Dundee) on industrial Dundee’s female migrant millworkers c.1841-1891.

My research investigates female migrant mill and factory workers housed at asylums and poorhouses in Dundee and its environs between 1841 and 1900. I have spent the last four years digging through primary sources, assessing and analysing recorded manifestations of anomic symptoms, and evidence of anomic experience, drawing on data principally from the Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum, Montrose Asylum, the Dundee East poorhouse, and the … Continue reading Theo Christodoulidis (University of Dundee) on industrial Dundee’s female migrant millworkers c.1841-1891.

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

John Russell (Queen Mary University of London) on the Labour Party’s reorientation in Middle Eastern policy following the Suez Crisis.

Financial support from the Society for the Study of Labour History allowed me to fund several research trips to the Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the People’s History Museum in Manchester in 2024 and 2025. These visits were used to research and draft the final chapters of my PhD thesis – an exploration of the Labour Party’s relationship with Zionism in the middle … Continue reading John Russell (Queen Mary University of London) on the Labour Party’s reorientation in Middle Eastern policy following the Suez Crisis.

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Lewis Willcox (St Andrews) on the rural labour movement in Scotland, c.1918-1935.

The ‘Celtic Fringe’ is a somewhat unorthodox location for a labour historian to conduct archival research. Beyond the dynamics of agrarian protest between the 1880s and the 1920s, studied by historians such as Jim Hunter, Eric Hobsbawm, Iain Robertson, and Neville Kirk’s study of industrial unrest in Ballachulish, rural Scotland has received little attention from labour history. My PhD thesis aims to challenge the prevailing … Continue reading Lewis Willcox (St Andrews) on the rural labour movement in Scotland, c.1918-1935.

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Srajit M Kumar (Heidelberg) on time and the working-class movement in 20th century North India

My dissertation focuses upon the various intersections between time and working-class politics through a study of the North Indian industrial city of Cawnpore (now Kanpur) in the early 20th century. I interpret time here in two ways. First, in its objective sense, as in its interpretation as linear time, represented through the ‘tyranny of clock time’. In other words, how time played a central role … Continue reading Srajit M Kumar (Heidelberg) on time and the working-class movement in 20th century North India

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Micaela Panes (Cardiff) on Labour women’s political activism in south Wales and south-west England, c.1920s-1969.

My thesis explores the experiences of socialist women throughout south Wales and south-west England across a period of rapid political, social, and economic change (c.1920s-1969). Local histories of Labour Party politics have long demonstrated the importance of exploring the grassroots and have been vital in uncovering the role and experiences of women. While historians have covered substantial ground in this area, particularly when exploring interwar … Continue reading Micaela Panes (Cardiff) on Labour women’s political activism in south Wales and south-west England, c.1920s-1969.

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Gavin McCann on the libraries of the South Wales miners

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

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Research bursaries

Harry Griffiths (Bangor) on anti-fascism in South Wales and the North West of England

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

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Bowen Ran (Rotterdam) on E. P. Thompson and the formation of The Making of the English Working Class

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

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Graham Skeate (KU Leuven & Edinburgh) on the life, labour and spaces of Glasgow Showpeople

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

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Freya Willis (Oxford) on social care workers’ experiences of work, gender and class, 1979-2010

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

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