University of Kent

Research

I studied for my BA and MA degrees at Goldsmiths, University of London, before taking up a Leverhulme Trust studentship to work on my PhD at the Centre for Contemporary British History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London in 2002.  After completing my PhD in March 2006, I taught part-time at the Universities of Hertfordshire and Kent.  I was awarded an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for Contemporary British History in April 2007, before joining SSPSSR in October 2007 as lecturer in social history at the Medway campus. 

Samuel Barnett, the first warden of Toynbee Hall, seated amongst the residents of the settlement - William Beveridge is sitting on the step next to him.  Image courtesy of the Barnett Research Centre at Toynbee Hall

 

Research interests
My research interests lie within the fields of twentieth century British social history, with special reference to the history of social policy in the period ca. 1900 to 1979.  I am particularly interested in the historical development and social construction of urban youth, citizenship and delinquency, drawing upon interdisciplinary approaches from the social sciences and literary studies.

The opening of the Mallon Gardens at Toynbee Hall in 1957: L-R Sir John Anderson, former Home Secretary and trustee of Toynbee Hall; Stella and J.J. Mallon, the warden of the settlement; fourth from right, the Duchess of Devonshire; far right, Mrs Rosetta Reardon, settlement housekeeper and longest-serving member of staff (1913-63).  Image courtesy of the Barnett Research Centre at Toynbee Hall

 

Current research

I am organising a conference on the centenary of the Children's Act 1908, which will be held at the Medway campus on 30 June and 1 July 2008. This conference is supported by the Royal Historical Society. See http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/events/childrens-act/cfp-childrens-act.pdf for the call for papers.

I am now working on the history of youth policy from 1939 to the present day, with current projects looking at the operation of the juvenile courts between 1930 and 1950 and the institutional care of children and young people during the Second World War. I am also examining the development of the welfare mix in the provision of youth services, and the evolution of charities' work with young people in the second half of the twentieth century.

Poverty, Philanthropy and the State: Charities and the Working Classes in London 1918-1979 will be published by Manchester University Press in 2009. This book is based on and expands my doctoral research, which looked at the university settlements in London and their relationships with their local communities, local and national government. It presents case studies of these charities' work in the provision of healthcare, legal advice and advocacy, youth clubs, probation and the juvenile courts.

Publications to Date

Monograph
Poverty, Philanthropy and the State: Charities and the Working Classes in London 1918 – 1979 (Manchester University Press, 2009)

Journal articles
'Growing up with a city: exploring settlement youth work in London and Chicago, c.1900-50', London Journal 34 (3) 2009

‘Negotiating space: gender, social work and policy, Toynbee Hall c.1884 to 1950’, part of the cluster: Rima Lunin Schultz, ‘Mapping Social Relations: Residency and the Boundaries of Race, Class and Gender at Hull-House and its Neighbourhoods 1889 – 1935’, forthcoming Journal of Women’s History, 2009

‘Juvenile delinquency, the juvenile courts and the Settlement Movement 1908-1950: Basil Henriques and Toynbee Hall’, Twentieth Century British History, 19 (2) 2008 doi:10.1093/tcbh/hwm038

Chapters in edited collections

'Cesare Lombroso', in Keith Hayward, Shadd Maruna and Jayne Mooney eds, Fifty Key Criminological Thinkers, (London: Routledge, 2009) in press

‘Creating Local Elites:  the University Settlement Movement, National Elites and Citizenship in East London, 1884 – 1940’, in S Couperus, C Smit and DJ Wolffram (eds), In Control of the City:  Elites and the Dynamics of Urban Politics, 1800 – 1960 (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2007)

Research dissemination
'Conference Report: the Children Act 1908: Centennial Reflections, Contemporary Perspectives', forthcoming in History Workshop Journal, 67 (Autumn 2009)

Jugendkriminalität in London: Metropole der Messermörder  Das Spiegel Online  29 October 2008

'Young people, welfare, delinquency and citizenship 1900-1960', History in Focus, Issue 14 - the Welfare State, Autumn 2008

'How do-gooders invaded the Victorian East End', The Independent, Weds 3 September 2008, p. 33

‘Children, charities and the state, c.1900 – 1960’, Timeline, Summer 2007

‘Shaping the “Young Citizen”: Twentieth Century British Youth Work, Leisure Studies Association Newsletter, May 2006

‘Milestones in History: William Beveridge, 1 September 2003’, BBC History, September 2003

Book reviews

Nicola Madge, Children These Days (Bristol: Policy Press, 2006) in Journal of Social Policy, October 2007

Review of Nigel Scotland, Squires in the Slums (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007) History (forthcoming)

Review of Judy Giles, The Parlour and the Suburb: Domestic Identities, Class, Femininity and Modernity, (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2004), Reviews in History, http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/bradley.html

Teaching

I currently convene SO326 Introduction to British Economic and Social History and HI672 the Emergence of Industrial Society in Britain 1700-1900 at the Medway campus.  I also contribute to SA310 Introduction to Social Science Methods at Medway and to SO535 Youth and Crime at Canterbury.

Memberships

• Chair of History Lab Plus, the network for early career historians, 2008 onwards
• Member of the Executive Committee of the Social History Society
• Founding organiser of the History Lab, the national network of postgraduate historians www.history.ac.uk/histlab
• Conference Programme Secretary, Social History Society Annual Conference, Warwick 2009
• Early career representative, History Advisory Panel, Higher Education Academy