School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies

Profile

June Purvis's research and teaching relates to women's and gender history in Modern Britain (19th and 20th centuries). Her specialisms are women's biography and the suffragette movement in Edwardian Britain which she teaches as a Third Year Special and Optional subject to undergraduates as well as to postgraduate level. She is interested in supervising postgraduate students who wish to study aspects of women's/gender history in Modern Britain. For the past ten years, June Purvis's research has focused on the women's suffrage movement on which she has published extensively. Her recent book Emmeline Pankhurst: a biography (2002) received critical acclaim. June Purvis is also the Editor for the internationally renowned journal Women's History Review, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Research Clusters

• Women's and Gender Studies

Discipline Areas

• Cultural Studies
• Film Studies
• History
• Media Studies
• Politics and Public Administration 

Qualifications

• BA Hons (Leeds University) Sociology
• MEd (Manchester University)
• PhD (Open University) History of Education
• Fellow of Royal Historical Society

Teaching Areas

• Suffrage Autobiographies (MA)
• Group Research Project (Year 3 History)
• Special Subject on Women's Suffrage (Year 3 History)
• Women's History Britain, 1850-1945 (Year 2 History)

Other Professional Activities

• Editor of Women's History Review
• Editor of Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts 
• Member of Editorial Boards of Rethinking History
• Editor for a Books Series on Women's and Gender History with Routledge
• Member of the Steering Committee of Women's History Network (UK), as well as the Chair of its Panel of judges for a Book Prize
• Secretary/Treasurer of the International Federation for Research in Women's History
• Member of a Panel of judges for The Times Higher Young Academic Author of the Year
• Regular book reviewer for The Times Higher

Publications

• 2009 "Christabel Pankhurst and the struggle for suffrage reform in Edwardian Britain", in Irma Sulkunen, Seija-Leena Nevala-Nurmi and Pirjo Markkola (eds), Suffrage, Gender and Citizenship: International Perspectives on Parliamentary Reforms (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), pp. 278-98
• 2009 "Pankhurst, Emmeline, Christabel and Sylvia", entry in International Encyclopedia and Protest, ed. Immanuel Ness (Oxford Blackwell, 2009), pp. 2595-6
• 2007 'The Pankhursts and the Great War', in A. Fell and I. Sharp (eds) The Women's Movement in Wartime: International Perspectives 1914-1919 (Palgrave/Macmillan) pp.141-157, ISBN 0230019668
• 2006 'The strident echo of Miss Hissey', Times Higher Education Supplement 6 August
• 2006 'The Pankhurst Family' in Encyclopedia of Modern Europe: Europe 1789 to 1914 Ed J. Merriman & J. Winter, pp.125-30, ISBN 9780684313597  
• 2005 'Writing Suffragette History: the contending autobiographical narratives of the Pankhursts', (with Maureen Wright) in The Suffragette and Women's History: Special Issue of Women's History Review edited by June Purvis, Vol 14. No.3, March, pp.405-33, ISSN 0961-2025 
• 2005 'The Pankhurst women and the writing of women's history', in Barbara Caine, Mary Spongberg and Ann Curthoys (eds) Companion to Women's History Writing, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.400-403 
• 2004 Entry on Emmeline Pankhurst, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, and also online, Founding Editor Colin Matthew, Second Editor Brian Harrison, Current Editor Lawrence Goldman, pp.571- 577, ISBN 0-19-861412-8
• 2004 Entry on Christabel Pankhurst, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, and also online, Founding Editor Colin Matthew, Second Editor Brian Harrison, Current Editor Lawrence Goldman, pp.567- 571, ISBN 0-19-861412-8 
• 2004 Entry on Hannah Mitchell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, and also online, Founding Editor Colin Matthew, Second Editor Brian Harrison, Current Editor Lawrence Goldman, pp.402-3, ISBN 0-19-861412-8 
• 2003 Emmeline Pankhurst: a biographical interpretation, in Words as Deeds, Literary and Historical Perpectives on Women's Suffrage (Part Two) edited by AnnHeilman, Special Issue of Women's History Review, Vol 12. No. 1,  Mar, pp.73-102, ISSN 0961-2025 
• 2002 Emmeline Pankhurst: a biography, Routledge, 464pp, ISBN 0-415-23978-8
• 1999 Votes for Women (ed.with Sandra Holton), Routledge, pp.297
• 1998 The Women's Suffrage Movement: New Feminist Perspectives (ed.with Mary Joannou), Manchester University Press, pp.227 
• 1995 Women's History Britain, 1850-1945 (ed.) , UCL Press, pp.341
• 1994 Researching Women's Lives from a Feminist Perspective (ed.with Mary Maynard), Taylor and Francis, pp.217 
• 1991 A History of Women's Education (translated into Japanese), Open University Press, pp.159 
• 1989 Hard Lessons: The Lives and Education of Working-Class Women in Nineteenth-Century England , Polity Press, pp.308 
• Numerous articles on history of women's education and on women's suffrage in such journals as Gender and Education , History of Education , European Journal of Women's Studies and Women's History Review as well as articles in The Times Higher .

Present Research

• Women's auto/biographies and the suffragette movement in Edwardian Britain, including a biography of Christabel Pankhurst, the Chief Organiser of the Women's Social and Political Union

Grants Received

• Various small grants, including conference grants, from the British Academy, and an AHRB Research Leave award.