Professor Jessica Meyer

Profile

I received my BA from Yale University and hold an MPhil in European Studies and a PhD in Modern History from the University of Cambridge. I have been a member of the School of History at Leeds since 2011, first as a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in the History of Medicine and Medical Humanities until 2015, then as the University Academic Fellow in Legacies of War until 2015. I held the position of Associate Professor of Modern British History from May 2015 to June 2022 when I was promoted to Professor of British Social and Cultural History.

Responsibilities

• Director of Postgraduate Research Students

Research interests

My research interests lie at the intersection of the histories of gender, particularly masculinity, medicine and warfare. My monograph on British soldiers' masculine identity during the First World War, Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War in Britain, is published by Palgrave Macmillan. My second book, An Equal Burden: The Men of the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War, is published by Oxford University Press and is available open access. I have also published extensively on the histories of war disability, popular fiction and military medical service. I am currently undertaking research into the history of social reintegration, disability pensions, domestic care provision and gender in Britain after the First World War. I also have research interests in the history of psychological disability, middlebrow, detective and adventure fiction, and representations of the First World War in popular culture.

Research projects

• 2015-2020, Men, Women and Care: The Gendering of Formal and Informal Care in Interwar Britain. Funded by the European Research Council, Starting Grant No.638694.
• 2011-2015, Masculinity and Medical Care in Britain during the First World War. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, Grant No. WT094154MA.
• 2014, World War One at Home (Yorkshire). Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in partnership with the BBC.
• 2011-2019, Legacies of War (Medicine and War Strand)

My blog about my research can be found at http://armsandthemedicalman.wordpress.com/

I co-host Oh! What a Lovely Podcast with Dr Chris Kempshall and Angus Wallace.

A recording of my inaugural lecture, delivered in June 2024, can be found at https://lahri.leeds.ac.uk/inaugural-lectures/.

Qualifications

• PhD. in Modern History
• MPhil. in European Studies
• BA (Liberal Arts)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
• Member of the International Society for First World War Studies
• Member of the Society for the Social History of Medicine
• Member of the Social History Society

Student education

I offer teaching at all undergraduate levels with a particular focus on research and engagement. I contribute to the MA programmes in Social and Cultural History, Modern History and the History of War. I offer postgraduate supervision at both Masters and doctoral level in research into the history of masculinity and warfare, medicine and the First World War, warfare and disability, the history of gender in nineteenth and twentieth century Britain and the history of popular fiction.

Research groups and institutes

• Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums
• Health Histories
• War Studies
• Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Current postgraduate researchers

• Harry Sanderson
• Angus Wallace
• Louise Bell
• Alivia Marie Paniagua-Garant
• Joseph Mellodew

Funding

<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/funding/387-school-of-history-bame-doctoral-scholarship-2025">School of History BAME Doctoral Scholarship 2025</a></li> <li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/funding/314-school-of-history-doctoral-scholarship-2025">School of History Doctoral Scholarship 2025</a></li>