Economic and Social History

Amy Ridgway

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

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 20^th 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/

Joanna Thomas

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 19^th-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

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

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

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

Start date: October 2019

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

My PhD research will consider the eighteenth-century market through a socio-economic lens. I will apply interdisciplinary ideas about ‘contest commodities’ and conflicting ideas of morality and the market to early modern market attitudes and actions, exploring and comparing specific disputed goods and services, such as food, prostitution and the cadaver.

My MRes dissertation explores 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 will show the intertwined nature of the social and the economic by exploring the parallels between changes to marriage and to the market.

Research supervisors: Professor Sarah Toulalan, Dr Richard Ward

Email: spl213@exeter.ac.uk