Summary

Dr Emma Hanna is a Teaching Fellow in the University of Portsmouth's Military Education Team working with the Royal Air Force at RAF Halton. She has more than 20 years of experience teaching Military History at the Universities of Kent and Greenwich, with a focus on the history and memory of the two World Wars, and particular interests in the fields of military discipline, war and the media, and early military aviation. Emma has published widely in international journals and edited collections. She is also the author of two monographs, The Great War on the Small Screen: Representing the First World War in Contemporary Britain (Edinburgh University Press, 2009) and Sounds of War: Music in the British Armed Forces During the Great War (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

During the centenary of the First World War, Emma was a Co-Investigator on two major projects: Gateways to the First World War (AHRC, 2014-2019) and Reflections on the Centenary of the First World War: Learning & Legacies for the Future (AHRC, 2017-2020) advising organisations such as the British Council, the BBC, 14-18 NOW, the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the National Children’s Football Alliance and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Emma sits on the editorial board of the British Journal for Military History and was managing editor of the 14-18 Online encyclopaedia coordinated by the Freie Universität Berlin. She is an Assessor for the Office for Students (OfS) and has acted as external examiner for a number of UK universities. She is regularly invited to give public lectures at national museums, academic conferences and to military-related associations such as the Western Front Association, Royal British Legion and the RAF Association.

Emma was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2018 and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2022. Emma’s third monograph, Cavalry of the Clouds: the Royal Flying Corps, 1912-1918 will be published by Yale University Press in 2027.

Research outputs

2025

The Western Front on film and television

Hanna, E.

1 Dec 2025,

Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Capturing Commemoration: Reflections on the First World War Centenary in Britain

Noakes, L., Pennell, C., Hanna, E., Hughes, L., Kempshall, C., Wallis, J.

1 Dec 2025,

Research output: Book

2023

Theatre in the war zone

Hanna, E.

19 Oct 2023,

Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)

2020

Pages of the sea: A UK case study

Hanna, E. L.

10 Nov 2020,

Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)

View all my research outputs