Dr Laura King
- Position: Associate Professor in Modern British History
- Areas of expertise: The history of families, emotional and inter-generational relationships, and everyday life in twentieth-century Britain; public history and collaborative methodologies in research.
- Email: L.King@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 6745
- Location: 4.31b Parkinson Building
- Website: Twitter
Profile
Having completed a BA in Modern History and Politics and MA in Twentieth-Century History at the University of Sheffield, I continued to study for a PhD there, supported by an AHRC Doctoral Award.
My first job post-PhD, in 2011, was as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick, where I ran a public engagement project, Hiding in the Pub to Cutting the Cord? Fatherhood and Childbirth in Britain from the 1950s to the Present.
I moved to Leeds in 2012, to take up a position as Arts Engaged Fellow (2012–2015), reflecting my growing interest in collaboration with partners and audiences beyond the campus. In 2015, I was appointed University Academic Fellow in the History of Health, Family and the Everyday, and in 2017 became Associate Professor in Modern British History.
I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the Social History Society, Women's History Network and Oral History Society. I am also Deputy Director of History & Policy, and sit on the editorial board of the journal Genealogy.
Research interests
My research focuses on the social and cultural history of everyday family life and emotional relationships in modern Britain. I have written about fatherhood, childbirth, family archives, the remembrance of the dead, and methodologies for collaborative public history. My current work focuses on remembrance and family history, and is based on collaborative research with a group of family historians. A book, provisionally entitled Living with the Dead, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.
Past research projects include collaborative work on ‘Family Archives’, a project exploring children as ‘Agents of Future Promise’, and research into men’s experience of becoming a father, in ‘Men, Masculinity and Maternity’.
One of the most exciting parts of working as an academic historian, for me, is collaboration with others. My work on remembrance has involved projects with the Grief Series, Leeds Museums and Galleries and Leeds Dying Matters partnership, amongst others. In the past I’ve worked with a wide range of museums, arts organisations, charities, local government and community groups. I’m always happy to hear from anyone outside academia who is keen to collaborate.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>Student education
I teach on various aspects of modern British history, and on modules which encourage students to work with external partners and engage with public audiences.
I am able to supervise MA and PhD students focusing on the social and cultural history of twentieth-century Britain, particularly those with interests in gender, family, health and the life course. I welcome all enquiries - please do get in touch.
Postgraduate research students
Current:
Judy Cox: Female chartists: Political auxilaries or glorious agents?
Kelsie Root: Stillbirth in England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
Kate Wvendth: Ancestral Attributes: Intergenerational Influences and Family Development in Britain, c.1750–1950
Catherine Philip (MRes): The Financial Effect of the 1909 Flamborough Coble Disaster; Pride, Prejudice and Bumbleism in the Administration of the Disaster Relief Fund
Completed:
Lauren Wells: Meanings and Representations of male to female cross-dressing in Britain, c.1870 to 1945
Charlotte Tomlinson: A Million Forgotten Women: Propaganda and the Women’s Voluntary Services in Britain during the Second World War
Eleanor Murray: Learning Parenthood: Family, Schooling and Childhood, 1930–1980
Research groups and institutes
- Health, Medicine and Society
- Medical Humanities Research Group