I am an environmental historian of animal-human relationships in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly interested in materiality, embodied approaches to the environment, and time and temporality. I'm also committed to engaged teaching and pedagogy, particularly relating to the environment and sustainability. 

Research

My forthcoming book - Skinning Empire: Environment, Embodiment and Time in British Taxidermy History (OUP) - explores the flow of animal bodies that supplied the taxidermy trade in the long nineteenth century in Britain and the British Empire. It investigates the materialities, sensations and temporalities of specimen creation in relation to colonial hunting and skinning, transportation and shipping networks, embodied craft, and museum and exhibition display. I've also published on this work here.

Before starting as a Lecturer in Imperial and Environmental History, I was a Research Associate on Dr Andy Flack's AHRC project, 'Dark-dwellers as more-than-human misfits', researching perceptions of the sensory adaptations of dark-adapted and nocturnal creatures, drawing on approaches from disability studies, sensory studies and environmental history. We've published this work here and here. 

My new research interrogrates the environmental and embodied experiences of time and temporality in the long nineteenth century.

Teaching and other roles

I teach environmental, imperial and public histories across the curriculum, and I am a core member of the teaching team for the Environmental Humanities MA. I am interested in creative approaches to teaching and learning, and to teaching that helps students to consider their relationship with the natural world. 

In the 2024-25 session I am teaching:

• Environment and History - Unit Coordinator (MA)
• Themes in Environmental Humanities (MA)
• Global Empires (Yr 3)
• Picturing the 20th Century (Yr 3)
• Public Role of the Historian - Unit Coordinator (Yr 2)
• Outlaws (Yr 2)
• War and Society - Unit Coordinator (Yr 1)
• Approaching the Past (Yr 1)

I have additionally taught on:

• Approaches to History (MA)
• Wild Things (Yr 2)
• Global History (Yr 2)
• Rethinking History (Yr 2) 
• Decolonisation (Yr 2)
• Modern World (Yr 1, History)
• Ideas and Society (Yr 2, Liberal Arts)
• Foundation Year in Arts and Humanities (supervisor)

I am Director of the Environmental Humanities Summer School. I am co-Events Officer and member of the steering committee for the Centre for Environmental Humanities. I have held roles including Study Abroad Academic Director (SAAD) for History, administrator for the Centre for Environmental Humanities (CEH).

Email: [email protected]