Economic and Social History

  • Joanna Thomas

    Economic and Social History

    PhD Researcher in Economic and Social History (ESRC+3)
    University of Exeter, Centre for Maritime Historical Studies

    Start date: September 2015

    Research topic: Britain's seafaring men and women: an analysis of the maritime labour force 1850-1911

    My research is focused on 19th-century British seafarers and maritime communities. Using quantitative and qualitative methods I am investigating the maritime labour force from 1850 – 1911, and am looking at the impact of the introduction of the steamship and the change from sail to steam on the social and economic structures of the maritime labourers. I am examining social backgrounds, motivations for going to sea, opportunities for social mobility in maritime communities, crew financially investing in shipping, and women at sea and their roles in maritime communities and businesses.

    Research supervisors: Professor Maria Fusaro, Dr David Thackeray

    Email: jt472@exeter.ac.uk

  • John Clews

    Economic and Social History

    PhD Researcher in Economic and Social History (ESRC 1+3)
    University of Exeter, College of Humanities

    Start date: September 2016

    Research topic: Private Patients in Pauper Palaces: Fee-paying Patients in English County and Borough Asylums, 1880-1910

    My research considers the practice of treating fee-paying patients in publicly funded and operated county and borough lunatic asylums in late Victorian and Edwardian England. At the crux of my research lies the question of how class divisions were manifested and developed within public asylums throughout the period. I will also seek to understand institutional and familial motivations for using the pauper asylum to house this group of patients. I hope to analyse institutional practices in three regions in an effort to understand if this practice was a uniform phenomenon or shaped by regional forces.

     

    Research supervisors: Professor Mark Jackson, Dr Alison Haggett

    Email: j.clews@exeter.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/john-clews-32312242

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnClews89

  • Linda Henderson

    Economic and Social History

    PhD Researcher in Economic and Social History (ESRC 1+3)
    University of Exeter, College of Humanities

    Start date: October 2018

    Research topic: Class, Gender, and the Nature of Scientific Improvement – a case study of the Aylesbury Duck Industry 1820-1920 (PhD subject) “Feathering the Nest” – The Social and Economic Networks of the Aylesbury Duck Industry in the Nineteenth Century (MRes Dissertation)

    My research will be investigating the notion of agricultural scientific improvement and progression, and how this is perceived and defined by gender and class.

    The Aylesbury Duck Industry will be used as a case study to explore these ideas in depth.

    The MRes dissertation will focus on the social and economic networks of the Aylesbury Duck Industry in the 19th Century. This will involve exploring the trade connections between Buckinghamshire where the ducks were produced and the London markets of Smithfield and Leadenhall where the ducks were sold. The emphasis being on the lived experiences of women within all parts of the industry.

    Research supervisors: Prof Henry French, Prof Jane Whittle

    Professional memberships/Positions held: Member of Economic History Society and British Agricultural History Society

    Email: lh650@exeter.ac.uk

  • Saskia Polly Lowe

    Economic and Social History

    PhD Researcher in Economic and Social History (ESRC 1+3)
    University of Exeter, College of Humanities

    Start date: October 2019

    Research topic: The Marriage Market or Simply the Market? The Spouse as a Contested Commodity in Eighteenth Century Britain (MRes), Morality and the Market: Contested Commodification of the Body in Eighteenth-Century England (PhD)

    My PhD research considers the eighteenth-century market through a socio-economic lens. I apply interdisciplinary ideas about ‘contested commodities’ and conflicting ideas of morality to early modern market attitudes, exploring and comparing varied instances in which the body was involved in transactions, such as in the sex trade, slavery, and the cadaver trade.

    My MRes dissertation explored changes to perceptions and practices of marriage within the context of the shifting eighteenth-century economy. Through the combined analysis of advice literature, parliamentary debates and satire, it explored the intertwined nature of the social and the economic.

    Research supervisors: Professor Sarah Toulalan, Dr Richard Ward

    Email: spl213@exeter.ac.uk

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/PollyLowe16