Staff Profiles

Modules taught

• Being Human: Love, Sex & Death (Foundation in Humanities)

• A People's History of Britain (First year)

• Culture, Community & Family in Britain 1660-1918 (Second year)

• Theories, Methods, and Practices in History (MA)

 

Sally's research interests include:

• Emotions (particularly love and heartbreak)
• Romantic relationships (courtship, matrimony, adultery)
• The emotional meanings of material culture
• Letters & letter-writing
• Everyday life, ephemera & the ritual year
• Visual & material culture

Research grants and awards

2019 Awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

2018  Awarded £310 by the Royal Historical Society to co-organise the conference 'Eighteenth Century Now: The Current State of British History' at the Institute of Historical Research with Esther Brot, Dr Joseph Cozens, and Miranda Reading 

2018  Awarded £600 by the AHRC Language Acts and Worldmaking project to co-organise the workshop 'Language and Emotion: From Research to Practice' with Dr Ingrid Medby

2018  Awarded a Scouloudi Publication Award of £650 for The Game of Love in Georgian England (Oxford, 2019)

2015-17  Awarded £1,700 by the Queen Mary Centre for Public Engagement to establish the 'Reading Emotions' community book group with Dr Jane Mackelworth (QMUL)

2016  Early Career International Research Fellow at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions

2016  Awarded £2,000 by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions at the University of Adelaide for the conference 'Romantic Rituals: "Making Love" in Europe 1600-Present' co-organised with Dr Katie Barclay (Adelaide)

2014  Visiting Research Fellow at Chawton House Library and the University of Southampton

2013  Awarded £8,500 by the European Research Council project 'Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel 1400-1800' for the conference 'Emotional Objects: Touching Emotions in Europe 1600-1900' co-organised with Dr Alice Dolan (Herts)

2013-17  Associate Researcher at Historic Royal Palaces

2011-12  Awarded £3,700 by the Friendly Hand Trust to visit the Lewis Walpole Library, Winterthur Museum, and Bard Graduate Centre

2009-12  Full-time three-year PhD studentship from the Arts & Humanities Research Council

Research impact

Sally has five years of experience as a researcher and consultant to factual history programmes on BBC 2 and BBC Radio 4, including series presented by Professor Faramerz Dabhoiwala (The Invention of Free Speech), Professor Thomas Dixon (Five Hundred Years of Friendship), Professor Amanda Vickery (Voices from the Old Bailey; Amanda Vickery on Men; At Home with the Georgians; The Story of Women & Art) and Dr Lucy Worsley (Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History; A Very British Romance).

In 2015, Sally was the consultant on Dr Lucy Worsley's A Very British Romance, and was interviewed about eighteenth century love letters (at 27 mins). 

With Dr Jane Mackelworth (QMUL), Sally co-organises the Emotions Book Club, funded by Oxford Brookes University and the Queen Mary Centre for Public Engagement.

Membership of professional bodies

Sally is a convenor of the British History in the Long Eighteenth Century Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in London, and with Professor Sarah Lloyd co-organises the seminar programme. She is a member of the Social History Society, British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS), International Society for Cultural History (ISCH), Society for the History of Emotions (SHE), and an Affiliated Research Scholar of the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London.

Conferences

2019 'Dead Love: Emotions, Embodiment and the Broken Heart in England, c. 1720-1850', biennial European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH) conference, University of Birmingham

2019 'Teaching Histories of Gender and Emotions using Eighteenth-Century Material Culture', International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS) International Congress on the Enlightenment, University of Edinburgh

2019 'Love in Practice: Studying the Emotional Eighteenth Century', Eighteenth Century Now: The Current State of British History, University College London

2019 'The Progress of Love: Courtship, Emotions & Material Culture in Georgian England', Keynote lecture at Constructions of Love and the Emotions of Intimacy, 1750-1850, University of Warwick

2018 'Love: Searching for Happiness in a "Civilised" Society', British Psychological Society 'Stories of Psychology' event on the History of Emotions, London

2018 'What is love, and how do we do it?', Do We Really Know Everything About Love?, St Hilda's College, Oxford

2018 'Love & Consumerism', Emotions across Disciplines Seminar Series (co-organised with Dr Alexandra Macht), Oxford Brookes University

2018 'Textiles & Emotions in History', Think Human Festival: Craft Activism, OVADA, Oxford

2017 'Valentine's Day & Gift Exchange in Eighteenth Century England', History of Art Research Forum, Oxford Brookes University

2017 'Sensing Love: Courtship Gifts & the Production of Emotions in Georgian England', Embodiment & Emotion Artists Residency, Central Saint Martins & THE CUBE Gallery

2017  'Objects & Intimacy: Sensing Romantic Love in Georgian England', International Society for Cultural History (ISCH) Conference, Senses, Emotions & the Affective Turn: Recent Perspectives & New Challenges in Cultural History, Umeå University, Sweden

2017 'The Emotional Heart', Two Hearts: Dissection and Desire, Barts Pathology Museum, London

2016  'Courtship, Craft & Consumerism: Rediscovering Valentine’s Day in Eighteenth-Century England', Romantic Rituals conference, University of Adelaide

2016 'The Script for Love: Romantic Lexicon in Eighteenth-Century England', Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of Adelaide

2016 'Shaping the Language of Romantic Love in Georgian England', Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of Western Australia

2016 'Love in Letters: "no Mortal ever felt so strong, so soft a Passion"', The Distinction between Passion and Emotion - In Search of Case Studies, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of Western Australia

2016  'Manufacturing Romance: The Economy of Courtship in Georgian England',  Eighteenth-Century Research Seminar (ECRS), University of Edinburgh

2015  '"My heart is in my eyes": Sensory interaction with courtship gifts in Georgian England', Centre for the Study of the Body and Material Culture (CSBMC), Royal Holloway

2014 'Romantic Things', Things: Early Modern Material Cultures, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge

2014 'An interspected letter from one of your Naughty Women: Writing the Adulterous Affair in England 1730-1830', British History in the Long Eighteenth Century Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London

2012 'Textile Transformations: Women's Creation of Courtship & Birth Tokens 1680-1850', Transforming Objects Conference, Northumbria University

2012 'Courtship and Birth Tokens and the Materialization of Female Identity', Social History Society Conference

2011 'Romantic Love & the Eighteenth Century Self', Cambridge Conference on Early Modern Selves, Trinity College, Cambridge

2011 'Ribbons and Rings will work most strange feats: Eighteenth-Century Love Tokens & the Material Expression of Affection', Material Networks | Networked Materials Symposium, Bard Graduate Center, New York

2010 '"I opened, I read, & I was delighted": The Emotional Experience of Love Letters in the Long Eighteenth Century', Women's History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research

Further information