Economic and Social History

  • Amy Ridgway

    Economic and Social History

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

    Start date: September 2014

    Research topic: Wage labour and poverty on a Dorset estate, c.1680-1834

    For my PhD, I am undertaking a comprehensive analysis of wage labour and poverty in Dorset from c.1680 to 1834. My research, which will be a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, will help bridge the gap in literature by directly linking these two topics. It will consider how individuals and households managed to survive at the subsistence level and what happened if they did not manage to ‘get by’. The research will focus on the Kingston Lacy estate, in east Dorset.

    Research supervisors: Professor Jane Whittle, Professor Henry French

    Professional memberships/Positions held: Assistant Editor of Ex Historia, Member of the Economic History Society, SWDTC Conference Chair 2015

    Email: acr216@exeter.ac.uk

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/amy_ridgway1

  • Clare Maudling

    Economic and Social History

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

    Start date: September 2013

    Research topic: Post-war reconstruction in the South West

    I am researching the post-Second World War reconstruction of Bristol, Plymouth and Exeter and the challenges the cities faced in rebuilding. I am particularly interested in the political and architectural continuity between the inter-war and post-war eras and the economic and financial constraints placed on blitzed cities in the late 1940’s. I am also researching the interwar planning and housing projects undertaken in each city to demonstrate the continuity in planning seen in the 20th century. My other research interests include architectural history, the evolution of town planning and housing, local studies, and the history of Devon.

    Research supervisors: Professor Richard Overy, Professor Richard Toye

    Professional memberships/Positions held: Royal Historical Society (post-graduate member) International Planning History Society (student member) Devon History Society

    Email: clm228@hotmail.com

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClareMaudling

    Website/Blog: https://reconstructingcities.wordpress.com/

  • Guy Solomon

    Economic and Social History

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

    Start date: September 2014

    Research topic: The living standards of Tyneside coal miners during the Industrial Revolution

    Email: gss208@exeter.ac.uk

  • 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

  • Josh Rhodes

    Economic and Social History

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

    Start date: September 2013

    Research topic: Agrarian Capitalism in England, c.1650 - c.1800: A new methodological approach

    My research challenges traditional approaches to the development of agrarian capitalism in England by proposing a new way of defining and measuring capitalist agrarian development. I employ an innovative methodology to reconstruct and map seventeenth- and eighteenth-century landholding in more detail than has previously been possible. Using this dataset, I examine the lives of individual cultivators, focusing on subletting, by-employment, life cycle, labour, and market orientation.

    Research supervisors: Professor Henry French, Dr Freyja Cox Jensen

    Professional memberships/Positions held:   Member of the Economic History Society Member of the British Agricultural History Society Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy  

    Email: jmr208@exeter.ac.uk

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshrhodes12

    Website/Blog: https://eprofile.exeter.ac.uk/joshrhodes

  • 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