It was a great honour to sign the Culture for Labour open letter, alongside over 500 other writers, artists, architects and academics, in support of the Labour Party Manifesto for the 2019 British General Election. The final paragraph sums up my thoughts on this exciting and important political document: We are excited at the prospect … More Culture for Labour: for the many, not the few
This semester has been quite a whirlwind, but it was great to commence the end of year conference season with a visit to Canberra for the 2019 Romantic Studies Association of Australasia Conference at UNSW’s Canberra campus, from 20-23 November. The programme was diverse but cohesive, and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to … More Conference season, part 1: Romantic Studies Association of Australasia
It’s hard to believe that it is now two years since my PhD passed examination! I placed the text of my PhD under embargo for two years from 13 November 2017, while I developed the monograph of my first book, Milton Keynes in British Culture: Imagining England, published in February of this year. The embargo … More PhD thesis now open access
In November 2019 I commenced work on a policy briefing report with Prof. Ralph Horne and Dr. Elizabeth J. Taylor, exploring some of the historical factors which would need to be considered in developing any future decentralisation policy for the state of Victoria. This report, prepared for the bipartisan policy forum Balance Victoria, has just … More Balancing Victoria: Prospects for Decentralisation
I’m pleased to be presenting on my book and current works in progress at the first Deakin Cultural Heritage seminar of the semester on 31 July 2019. The seminar title is “Ideal landscapes, planning and heritage in postwar British culture”, and the abstract as follows: While Britain’s postwar planned landscapes, including modernist urban redevelopments and … More Deakin Cultural Heritage seminar, 31 July 2019
I reviewed two excellent books for History Australia journal this summer and the review has just gone to print in the latest issue. Seamus O’Hanlon‘s City Life: The New Urban Australia (NewSouth, 2018) and Ben Schrader’s The Big Smoke: New Zealand Cities, 1840–1920 (Bridget Williams Books, 2016) were interesting to read in dialogue with each … More Review published: Urban histories of the nation and beyond in Australia and New Zealand
It was extremely exciting to be asked to write for the relaunched Tribune magazine, who have taken an especial interest in rethinking recent British political history, especially around urban policy. My article, “Come to Milton Keynes,” can be found here. It discusses the new, fascinating exhibition The Lie of the Land being held at the … More Article for Tribune: Come to Milton Keynes!
The University of Sydney’s Political Economy department are a fantastic team and I have previously mentioned how fascinating and enriching I found their 2018 Historical Materialism conference. Their blog Progress in Political Economy is one I always read with great interest, and so it was very exciting to be asked to write a guest post … More Guest post for Progress in Political Economy: Imagining England, Imagining the Centre
I’m excited to announce that my first book, Milton Keynes in British Culture: Imagining England, has been published by Routledge as part of their series Routledge Studies in Modern British History. The publisher page can be found here, and a free preview is available via Google Books. The publisher’s description can be found here: The … More New book: Milton Keynes in British Culture
This month I will be taking up a three-month Gilbert Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowship in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. This fellowship is designed to support the development of publications arising from PhD research by recent graduates of the department. I am pleased to have been offered one … More Gilbert Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowship
