History Research Students' Theses

Current Students

• ASHCROFT, Paul, 'Hyperion Machines or 'When God was a Watchmaker: Examining the Legacy of Clocks in the Scientific Revolution' (Supervisors: Dr Stephen Pumfrey and Professor Sharon Rushton (English))
• BELLAMY, Katherine, 'Mapping the 'altepetl': Investigating spatial organisation and conceptions of place, space, and landscape in early colonial Mexico' (Supervisors: Professor Patricia Murrieta Flores and Professor Ian Gregory)
• BENEDICT, Wills-Eve, 'Automating History: Algorithms, AI and the Future of the Past' (Supervisor: Professor Patricia Murietta-Flores)
• BIRKETT, Steven, "Politics and Pleasure': Local Government, Business and Entertainment in Lancashire's Seaside Resorts since 1974' (Supervisors: Dr Christopher Donaldson and Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird)
• BOWES, Darren, 'The Eisenhower Administration and the School Desegregation Crisis, 1954-57' (Supervisors: Dr Thomas Mills and Dr Richard Johnson [Queen Mary University of London]
• BROSSET, Thomas, 'Living and fighting in Jazīran and Syrian besieged sites (1097-1192)' (Supervisors: Dr Sophie Ambler and Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird)
• EVANS, Charlotte, A Digital Humanities exploration of the environmental pasts and presents of the Kaveri river catchment, South India. (Supervisors: Dr Deborah Sutton, Chris Fleet [The National Library of Scotland] and Dr Jonny Huck [University of Manchester])
• FLEMING, Cameron, 'Jacobite Society in North-West England: Kinship, Gender and Faith 1688-1717' (Supervisors: Dr Sarah Barber and Professor Patricia Murrieta Flores)
• HARRISON, Paul, 'Preparing for war in times of peace; preparing for peace in time of war. The Fleet Air Arm and the Second World War', (Supervisors: Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird and Dr Marco Wyss).
• HOLLINS, Samuel, 'The Europeanisation of British Defence Procurement: The RAF and the Panavia Tornado' (Supervisors: Dr Marco Wyss, Dr Thomas Mills, and Dr Harry Raffal [RAFM])
• JOHNSTONE, Gareth, 'Monks and Monasteries on the Northwest Frontier – a comparative study of the houses and orders of 12th and 13th century North Cumbria, their cooperation and competition' (Supervisors: Dr Fiona Edmonds and Dr Christopher Donaldson)
• LI, Yongrui, 'Chinese Interference on Southern Africa from 1960 to 1990' (Supervisors: Dr Marco Wyss and Dr Thomas Mills)
• MASTERS, Jonathon, 'The economic and social evolution of Lancashire's coastal areas c. 1150-1550: The evidence of minor place-names' (Supervisors: Dr Fiona Edmonds, Professor Ian Gregory and external supervisor Jacquie Crosby [Lancashire Archives])
• MERRIX, Sophie, 'Race, Space and Place: The Lives of Africans in Stuart England, (Supervisors: Professor William Pettigrew and Dr Nicholas Radburn)
• MCHUGH, Jenny, 'To what extent did religious communities shape the nature of Anglo-Scottish relations and the formation of identity during the reigns of David II of Scotland and Edward III of England?' (Supervisors: Dr Fiona Edmonds and Dr Sophie Ambler)
• MOORE, Edward, 'Understanding social and cultural connectivity across the Viking-Age Irish Sea region through the comparative study of stone sculpture' (Supervisors: Dr Fiona Edmonds and Professor Patricia Murrieta-Flores)
• MURA, Lauren, 'The link between vegetarianism and feminism in the eighteenth and nineteenth century' (Supervisors: Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird and Dr Mark Hurst)
• O'NEILL, Jacob, 'Church Organisation and Ecclesiastical Landscapes in Wales: A Comparative Analysis' (Supervisors: Dr Fiona Edmonds and Professor Patricia Murrieta-Flores)
• POLEON, Stephen, 'Report on operations, in the Sackville Street District, Easter Week 1916' (Supervisors: Professor Ian Gregory and Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird)
• PRICE, Rianna, 'Queer(y)ing and 'Curing': Homosexuality in Postcolonial Indian Medicine 1970-2020' (Supervisors: Dr Deborah Sutton and Dr Stephanie Wright)
• PULFORD, Louis, 'Writing Rituals in French Crusade Narrative: The Historia Albigensis of Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay'(Supervisors: Dr Sophie Ambler and Professor Sandra Kemp)
• RALPH, Amanda, 'Sociability and Survivals: Short Tunes with Long Tails – the Penal Laws and cultural patronage in Early Modern Ireland' (Supervisors: Professor Ian Gregory and Dr Sarah Barber)
• ROBINSON, Karianne, 'Masculinity, the Life-cycle, and Industrial Change: South Wales Miners after 1947.' (Supervisors: Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird and Dr Mark Hurst)
• ROME GRIFFIN, Alexander, 'The Religious Landscapes of Hadrian's Wall: A Spatial and Diachronic Analysis' (Supervisors: Dr Eleri Cousins, Professor Patricia Murrieta-Flores and Dr Andrew Birley [Vindolanda Charitable Trust])
• SECCOMBE, Murray, 'Highways, law and governance in the parish of Halifax, c.1550-1700' (Supervisors: Professor Naomi Tadmor and Professor Ian Gregory)
• SKOV, Johanne Marie, 'How Britain landed the 1985 Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia in the context of Western intra-Bloc rivalry, 1979-1985' (Supervisors: Dr Marco Wyss and Dr Thomas Mills)
• SMITH, Amy Louise, 'Songs of Grievance and Provincial Community Politics in England, c. 1570-1640' (Supervisors: Dr Sarah Barber and Dr Jenni Hyde)
• STANLEY, Dabeoc, 'Maritime smuggling networks through insular contexts: Isle of Man and Channel Islands illicit trade, c. 1680-1815' (Supervisors: Dr Nicholas Radburn and Professor William Pettigrew)
• STANNING, Amy Louise, 'Was there a 'taxation revolution' in late Eighteenth-Century Britain?', (Supervisors: Professor Naomi Tadmor, Professor William Pettigrew, Dr William Ashworth [Liverpool University])
• THOMPSON, Shona, 'Empathy and the Commemoration of Racial Violence' (Supervisors: Dr Patrick Hagopian and Dr Nicholas Radburn)
• THOMPSON-BUTLER, Karen Ann, 'Embarrassing Bodies in Late Victorian Britain' (Supervisors: Dr James Taylor and Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird)
• THORNBERRY, Joseph, 'The making of an engaged artist: The life, art and politics of Cliff Rowe, 1904-1956' (Supervisors: Professor Michael Hughes and Dr Sarah Barber)
• TINMOUTH, Chris, 'The Construction of Institutional Memory and Identity in the Furness Abbey Coucher Book' (Supervisors: Dr Fiona Edmonds and Dr Christopher Donaldson)
• WALKER, Matthew, ''The Year of the Holocaust': Schindler's List, Hollywood and Representation' (Supervisors: Professor Mercedes Camino Maroto and Dr Jonathan Munby)
• WALLMAN, Adrienne, 'Beyond the Family Tree: With Particular Reference to Jewish Genealogy, How Does Family History Research Help to Change and Define Personal Identity?' (Supervisors: Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird and Dr Mark Hurst)
• WALMSLEY, Andrew, 'The 'Mexico' Lifeboat Monument (1888), St. Anne's on the Sea: a Symbol for a New Seaside Town and a Touchstone for Memorialization Culture' (Supervisors: Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird and Dr Christopher Donaldson)
• WOODHAM, Liz, 'A Box of Delights: A History of Walking in the English Lake District' (Supervisors Dr Christopher Donaldson and Professor Simon Bainbridge)
• VOSPER, Hazel, 'Investment Influences and Experiences of Female Investors in England, c.1850-1914' (Supervisors: Dr James Taylor and Professor Corinna Peniston-Bird)

Awarded in 2021

• ASPINWALL, John, 'The Cronica Roberti Biscardi et fratrum ac Rogeri Comitis Mileti: A 12^th Century history of the Norman conquest of Sicily' (Supervisor: Dr Alex Metcalfe)

Awarded in 2020

• BRAMWELL, Erin, 'Rethinking Patent Medicine Culture in the First Half of the Twentieth Century' (Supervisors: Dr James Taylor and Professor Sally Sheard [Liverpool])
• BYRNE, Ruth, "Pauper Aliens' and 'Political Refugees': A Corpus Linguistic Approach to the Language of Migration in Nineteenth-Century Newspapers' (Supervisors: Professor Ian Gregory and Dr Andrew Hardie [Linguistics])
• HUGHES, Lewis, 'The Conflicts, Coalescences, and Matrices of Late-Victorian Celebrity Culture' (Supervisors: Dr John Strachan and Dr James Taylor)
• IGNATOVA, Polina, 'The Idea of the Walking Dead in Medieval Historical Texts with a Particular Reference to the English Examples' (Supervisor: Dr Paul Hayward)
• MESSENGER, Peter, 'Customary Tenure and its Impact on the Rural Built Landscape of North Cumbria, 1603-1925' (Supervisor: Professor Angus Winchester)
• PERRY, James, 'Foreigners, Aliens and Strangers: Foreign-born Migration and Settlement in England and Wales, 1851 to 1911 (Supervisor: Professor Ian Gregory)
• SEDDON, Matthew, "Partly Made Politicians': The Youth Wings of the British Political Parties, 1918-1939' (Supervisor: Dr James Taylor)

Awarded in 2019

• MULLEN, Natalie, 'Negotiating the Asylum: Agency and Authority in Lancashire County Asylum, 1840-1915' (Supervisor: Dr John Welshman)
• PAWELSKI, Matthew, 'The Local Origins of the Industrial Revolution: The Case Study of the Derbyshire Lead Industry, 1700-1850' (Supervisor: Professor Naomi Tadmor)
• SIMMONS, Adam, 'The (Re)Introduction of Nubia and Ethiopia to Europe During the Crusading Era, c.1100-c.1400’ (Supervisors: Professor Andrew Jotischky and Dr Sophie Ambler)
• SIMPSON, Graham, 'Nature of Purgatory in Twelfth-Century Monastic Literature' (Supervisors: Professor Andrew Jotischky and Dr Sophie Ambler)
• WALKER, Martin, 'Habit and Habituation in Seventeenth-Century English Intellectual Thought' (Supervisor: Dr Stephen Pumfey)
• WOOD, Lynsey, 'Pretty Maids All in a Row: The place of women in the line of Tudor and Early Jacobean Succession, 1485-1615' (Supervisor: Professor Naomi Tadmor)

Awarded in 2018

• BAILEY, Katherine, '"The Unquiet Dead": Memorialising Guatemala's "Disappeared"' (Supervisor: Professor Aristotle Kallis and Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird)
• OSBORN, Christopher, 'Contests, Repertoire and Musical Standards in the British Brass Band Movement 1913-2013' (Supervisors: Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird and Professor Jeffrey Richards)

Awarded in 2017

• ALLAN, Susan, 'Folksong In Cumbria: A Distinctive Regional Repertoire?' (Supervisors: Professor Angus Winchester and Dr Thomas Rohkramer)
• BOOTH, Philip, 'The Holy Land Pilgrimage of Thietmar (c.1217-1218)' (Supervisor: Professor Andrew Jotischky)
• HEGINBOTHAM, Christopher, 'Unrequited Desire: Peter Abelard and his Contemporaries. Psychoanalytic Explorations of Late Eleventh and Early Twelfth Century Writers and the Role of Fathers and Fatherhood in the High Middle Ages' (Supervisor: Professor Andrew Jotischky)
• JOULAIN, Amelia, 'A Corpus-Based Investigation of the Representation of Places in Nineteenth Century British Newspapers' (Supervisors: Professor Ian Gregory and Dr Andrew Hardie [Linguistics])
• KERNER, Frances, 'Enclosure and the survival of common land in the Buckingham Chilterns c. 1600–1900' (Supervisor: Professor Angus Winchester)
• LAMBERT, Michael, '"Troubled Families": Discourse, Policy and Intervention in the North West of England since 1939' (Supervisors: Dr John Welshman and Dr Sally Sheard [Liverpool])
• PURDY, Martin, 'Vision and Practice: The Westfield War Memorial Village, Lancaster, from 1918 to the Present' (Supervisor: Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird [doctoral advisor, Mrs Amanda Stretch, Curator Westfield War Memorial Village])
• TOBYN, Graeme, 'English herbs for English bodies: The promotion of native plant remedies 1548-1659' (Supervisor: Dr Stephen Pumfrey)

Awarded in 2016

• DEBENHAM, Jory, 'Codes and Variations in Music Composed in Terezin' (Supervisors: Professor Derek Sayer and Professor Michael Beckerman)
• MADDOX, Kelly, 'Japanese Imperialism in the Context of Genocide' (Supervisor: Professor Aristotle Kallis)
• ROBIN, Sarah-Ann, 'Love and the Object: The English in the 17th Century' (Supervisors: Dr Sarah Barber and Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird)
• SAVILLE-SMITH, Katherine, 'Seeking Success: Provincial Gentry and Middling Families in Cumbria Encounter the East Indies in the Long Eighteenth Century' (Supervisors: Professor Angus Winchester and Dr James Taylor)
• SMITH, Kirsten, 'Espionage in British Popular Culture of the 20th Century: Gender, Moral Ambiguity and the Inextricability of Fact and Fiction' (Supervisor: Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird)

Awarded in 2015

• MEAD, Emily, 'Rulership and Authority in Early Norman Sicily Under Countess Adelaide' (Supervisor: Dr Alex Metcalfe)
• CORNELL du HOUX, Adrian, 'Journeys to Holiness: Lay Sanctity in the Central Middle Ages, c.970- c.1120' (Supervisor: Dr Paul Hayward)
• CORBETT, Timothy, 'The Place of my Fathers' Sepulchres: The Jewish Cemeteries in Vienna' (Supervisors: Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird and Dr Thomas Rohkramer)
• FERDOUS, Sayeed, 'Trials of Prolonged Partition: Truncated East Bengal, Forgotten East Pakistan and the Aftermath in Bangladesh' (Supervisor: Professor Derek Sayer)
• HOPKINSON, Thomas, 'Exploration, Scientific Observation and Encounters with the Other: Patrick Brydone's account of Sicily and Malta' (Supervisor: Dr Alex Metcalfe)
• PULLAN, Amanda, 'British Women's Pictorial Needlework: An Examination of Seventeenth-Century Domestic and Religious Life through Four Principal Subjects' (Supervisor: Professor Naomi Tadmor)

Awarded in 2014

• BISHOP, Nicola, 'Masculinity and Modernity: A Comparative Study of Lower-Middle-Class Clerical Identities in America and Britain between 1850 and 1940' (Supervisors: Dr James Taylor and Professor John Schad [English])
• CUNNINGHAM, Niall, 'Religious Change in Ireland from the Great Famine to the Present: A GIS Approach' (Supervisors: Professor Ian Gregory and Professor Angus Winchester)
• DOHERTY, James, 'The "Defence of Christendom" in Latin and vernacular writing of 12th and 13th centuries' (Supervisor: Professor Andrew Jotischky)
• SCOTT, Alex, 'The Role of Museums and Galleries in the Urban Regeneration of Liverpool' (Supervisor: Dr Yoke-Sum Wong and Professor Derek Sayer)
• SHARPLES, John, 'Chess (and other games) in Popular Culture' (Supervisors: Professor Jeffrey Richards and Dr Thomas Rohkramer)
• VALNY, Tereza, 'Czechoslovakian Crisis of 1938' (Supervisor: Professor Derek Sayer)

Awarded in 2013

• BOWEN, James, 'The Governance of Common Land in South Shropshire and the Welsh Borders from the Late Medieval to the Present' (Supervisor: Professor Angus Winchester)
• COOK, William, 'Scandinavian Identity in Cumbria, c. 900-1250' (Supervisor: Professor Angus Winchester)
• HAMMOND, Wilfred, 'The Political Engagement of Lancashire Catholic Gentry, 1558-80' (Supervisor: Professor Michael Mullett)
• MARCHLEWSKI, Ann-Kathrin, 'St Cnut of Denmark, King and Martyr: His Lives, their Authors and the Politics of his Cult, c.1086-1200' (Supervisor: Dr Paul Hayward)
• SMITH, Nigel, 'Cultural Landscape Characterisation in Upland Environments' (Supervisor: Professor Angus Winchester)
• WILKINSON, Alexander, 'Photographic Imaginaries: History in Theory, c.1918-1980' (Supervisor: Professor Derek Sayer)

Awarded in 2012

• DENMAN, Derek, 'Materialising Cultural Value in the English Lakes, 1735-1845: A Study of the Responses of New Landowners to Representations of Place and People' (Supervisors: Professor Angus Winchester and Dr Michael Winstanley)
• LINCOLN, George, 'Settlement Patterns in Sicily and Calabria in the pre-Norman and Norman Periods' (Supervisor: Dr Alex Metcalfe)
• WILKINSON, Oliver, 'Challenging Captivity: British Prisoners Of War In Germany During The First World War' (Supervised by: Professor Stephen Constantine and Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird)

Awarded in 2011

• GIBBS, James, 'Settler Mythologies: Citizenship, Land and Kenyan Independence' (Supervisors: Professor Stephen Constantine and Dr Deborah Sutton)
• MORRIS, Marcus, 'H.M. Hyndman and the Development of British Socialism: A Reputation Reassessed' (Supervisor: Dr James Taylor)
• PLATT, Jane, 'A Sweet, Saintly, Christian Business? The Anglican Parish Magazine, 1839-1918' (Supervisors: Dr James Taylor and Dr Thomas Dixon [Queen Mary, London])
• ROBERTS, Rachel, 'The Construction of the 'Half-Breed Indian' in American Culture from the 1890s to the 1930s' (Supervisor: Dr Tim Hickman)

Awarded in 2010

• DELLER, William, 'Proofs of Age: Their nature and uses 1270-1440'. PhD.
• EDWARDS, Ben, 'With God on Our Side: British Christian responses to the Spanish Civil War'. PhD.
• MANKIN, Kenneth, 'In the Care of Godly Settlers: The NCH and child migration to Canada'. MPhil.
• MILLER, Wendy, 'The role of the family and the transformation of dairying, c.1870-1950'. PhD.
• PURKISS, Richard, 'Anarchism in the city and province of Valencia, 1910-1936'. PhD.
• RASMUSSEN, Matthew, 'Till we have built Jerusalem: Mormonism and the Making of a Lancashire Zion'. PhD.
• ROSE, Sarah, 'The Honour of Pontefract, c. 1066-1485'. PhD.

Awarded in 2009

• FISHER, Eleanor, 'Local Authorities and the Management of the Common Lodging House in Lancashire, 1851-1914'. PhD.
• GLEDHILL, Jonathan, 'The Structure and Exercise of Lordship in South Eastern Scotland, 1094-1434'. PhD.
• HUNTER, John, 'Aspects of Death in the North-West: Graveyards and Gravestones'. MPhil.
• LAWRENCE, Dianne, 'Material culture and the transfer of female gentility to the British Empire during the latter half of the 19th century'. PhD.
• MOATT, Michelle, 'A Limpid and Abundant Spring': A re-reading of Walter Daniel's Life of Aelred Rievaulx'. PhD.
• PARKER, L.R., 'Forgotten Lancashire? Rural settlements in the East Lancashire Textile District, c.1800-1914'. PhD.
• SHANNON, William, 'Approvement and Improvement in Early Modern England: Enclosure in the lowland wastes of Lancashire c.1500-1700'. PhD.
• VAUKINS, Simon, 'The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy Motor-Cycle Races 1907 to the 1960s: Politics, Economics and National Identity'. PhD.
• WORDSWORTH, R.B., 'The Church Book of Cockermouth Congregational Church, 1651-1700'. MPhil.

Awarded in 2008

• CRAWLEY, Roger, 'Historical Perceptions of Christopher Marlowe'. PhD.
• EDWARDS, Sam, 'American war memorialisation in Europe'. PhD.
• GALE, Andrew, 'Recruits and Identities: the West Country in the First World War'. PhD.
• HASHIMOTO, Yorimitsu, 'The 'Yellow Peril': Anglo-Japanese Perspective, 1893-1913'. PhD.
• McGLADE, Fred, 'The Creation and Development of the British Army Film and Photographic Unit in the Second World War'. PhD.
• STANSFIELD, Robert, 'Politics, Governance, and the War of the Roses: The Political Elites of South-West England 1450-1500'. PhD.
• VICKERS, Emma, 'Homosexuality and military authority in British Armed Forces, 1939-1945'. PhD.