I am a social historian of maritime space, focusing primarily on British vessels, coasts and waterways during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. My doctoral research examined shipboard society between the 1750s and 1810s, exploring the ways in which built and natural environments shaped the lives of those who went to sea. Using the records of courts martial, I reconstructed the quotidian experiences and expectations of naval shipboard residents and came to conclusions about understandings of work, labour, fraternity and domesticitiy, with far reaching implications for the history of masculinity on ship as well as on shore. I am currently preparing a monograph based on my doctoral work. Research from this project has already been published in the Journal of Historical Geography and will form part of the 2023 Special Issue of the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies which I am co-editing and contributing to. 

One of the strands of my doctoral research focused on how maritime knowledge was formed and communicated on board British naval ships at the turn of the nineteenth century. Since joining Exeter, I have expanded on this initial focus to investigate the shifting meanings ascribed to seamanship in Britain during this period more widely. The results of this research were recently published in the British Journal for the History of Science.

My new project continues to uncover the multivalent meanings of maritime knowledge, but seeks to understand what men and women engaged in diverse forms of maritime work knew about ecological change along Britain's waterways during the long ninteenth century. This project defines local ecological knowledge as produced through sensory experience and repeated observation as well as the active monitoring of local advocacy groups, and investigates how knowledge was shaped by a range of social categories such as gender, ethnicity, age and social class. Key research questions will be: how did men and women interpret and describe ecological change along Britain’s rivers?; how was the production and communication of knowledge shaped by social class, ethnicity, age, occupation and gender?; what methods and strategies of communicating this change existed, both within communities and to national authorities, and how did these change over time?; how does the history of industrial Britain look different when told from the riverbank? 

I am a member of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies and the Centre for Environmental Arts and Humanities at Exeter, and contribute to the development of seminar programmes and research activities which cross disciplinary boundaries.  

As of 2021 I am PGR Pastoral Tutor, and as of 2022, I am the Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes. Please get in touch if you have any queries about studying for a History MA at Exeter.

Office Hours

My office hours this term are by appointment. Please get in touch by email if you would like to arrange a meeting.