Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow

Contact Details

• Tel:  +44 (0)116 252
• Email: eh132@le.ac.uk
• Office: No 1 Salisbury Road, Room 008
• Office Hour: Semester 2, Wednesday 2pm-4pm

Biography

I joined the department as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in October 2011. Prior to this, I completed my BA in History and MA in Contemporary History at the University of Bristol and D.Phil at the University of Oxford. My research interests are in the areas of Irish history, the built environment and visual culture. My doctoral work examined how the city of Dublin changed during the 1960s, how and why this project was contested, and what this can tell us about the emergence of ‘modern’ Ireland. My new project pursues my interest in modernity and technology but shifts focus, examining the emergence of a demotic culture of photography in Ireland during the twentieth century, engaging with debates surrounding representations of Ireland and moreover, to consider the use of amateur photography as a source in the writing of modern history.

Research Interests

I am a social and cultural historian of twentieth century Ireland. I am particularly interested in the creation of ‘modern’ Ireland since partition, and in exploring this through the use of visual and material sources. My doctoral work focused on the evolution of the built form of Dublin during the 1960s: examining how speculators and local government planned to reconstruct the city, how these changes were contested by individuals and civil society, and the city that emerged at the nexus of these competing interests. My postdoctoral project, supported by the Leverhulme Trust, is entitled ‘Popular Photography and Camera Culture in Ireland, 1922-2000’. This project explores how photography became a key part of daily life in twentieth century Ireland (and beyond): playing a role in governing citizens, the formation of an active civil society, and constituting subjectivities. You can find out more about it here: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/historical/research/grants/popular-photography-camera-culture-in-ireland-1922-2000

Publications

1. ‘Dublin’s north inner city, preservationism and Irish modernity in the 1960s’, Historical Journal 53 (4) December 2010 (Royal Historical Society Alexander Prize proximo assessit 2010)
2. Modern Dublin: Urban Change and the Irish Past, 1957—1973 (forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2012)