School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies

Profile

I am a cultural historian who specialises in the leisure habits of the working classes. My recently completed PhD thesis investigates the reading and cinema-going habits of the working classes in Britain during the 1930s, focusing in particular on local ‘taste-communities’ in Derby, Portsmouth and South Wales. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis draws from the work of both cultural historians and cultural studies scholars to analyse the nature of the relationship between the production and consumption of cultural goods. 

I have published articles on the cinema trade’s attitudes towards audience taste in the 1930s, and the film pleasures of miners and their families using the South Wales Miners’ Institutes. I am currently writing an article which compares the tastes of middle- and working-class consumers in Britain during the 1930s.

I have taught on both History and Film Studies degrees at Portsmouth, and am currently teaching full-time in the History department. 

Qualifications

• PhD in History – University of Portsmouth
• MA History (Distinction) – University of Portsmouth
• BA History (Hons) (First Class) – University of Portsmouth

Research Clusters

• Social, Historical and Cultural Change in Europe

Research CV 

Current Research Projects

I am currently writing an article which compares the tastes of middle- and working-class cinema-goers in London, using Sidney Bernstein’s film questionnaires as the major primary resource. I am also researching the leisure habits of Portsmouth’s working classes in the 1930s. 

Authored Books

• Popular Culture and Working-Class Taste in Britain 1930-39: A round of cheap diversions? (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010)

Journal Articles

• ‘Popular cinema-going in Britain in the early-1930s', Journal of Contemporary History, 46:2, 2011.
• ‘Kinematograph Weekly in the 1930s: Trade Attitudes Towards Audience Taste’, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 3.2, November 2006, pp. 229-243.
• ‘“A Very Profitable Enterprise”: South Wales Miners’ Institute Cinemas in the 1930s’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 27.1, March 2007, pp. 27-61.

Books Reviews

• Butler, Margaret, Film and Community in Britain and France: From La Règle du Jeu to Room at the Top, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004), for Institute of Historical Research website, 2005.

Grants Received

• AHRB/C bursary for MA and Doctoral work.