Biography

I research the history of aid, development, and internationalism in the twentieth century and connections between international humanitarianism and the British welfare state.
I completed my doctoral dissertation, ‘Saving the Children: British Humanitarianism in Europe and Africa, 1915-1945’ in 2014 at the University of Bristol. My dissertation analyzed the history of the major NGO Save the Children ‘from the outside in’. Drawing on international, multi-archival research, it viewed Save the Children through the eyes of its far-flung friends and rivals, as well as its British leaders and supporters. In doing so, it recovered the connections between humanitarianism and a vision of interpersonal internationalism popular amongst the British radical left in the aftermath of the First World War. It also revealed the ways in which international aid was dependent upon British imperial identities, ideals and networks.
My teaching interests include the history of human rights and humanitarianism, the development of modern welfare states, British, international and imperial history. I have held fellowships at the Library of Congress, Columbia University and the University of Cape Town. On completion of the Max Weber Fellowship in September 2016 at the EUI I will return to my position as a lecturer at the University of Bristol.