Why My Research Matters

Emerging historians produce cutting-edge work that will help shape the field in the years and decades to come. In Why my Research Matters, we ask research students and newly minted PhDs to reflect on the importance of their research for the field of history and the wider world.

Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ and the Brexit Pesticide Debate

Catherine Price 18 February 201913 December 2022

Rachel Carson’s controversial book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, can help us understand the Brexit pesticide debate.

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Resistant Women: Indigenous Women Remember El Salvador’s 1932 Insurrection

Diana C. Sierra Becerra 9 March 20153 January 2023

Sierra Becerra on the eighty-three year anniversary of the 1932 insurrection in El Salvador, the largest in Latin America during the Great Depression.

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Why My Research Matters: 18th Century Scottish Highlanders, Globalization & ‘National History’

Richard Lockton 10 February 20153 January 2023

Richard Lockton explores what the historical developments behind the forging of the British Union in the 18th century can tell us about its potential dissolution in our present day

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Coal, Community & Collaboration: Engaging with the Past in an Industrial Village

Nigel Cavanagh 12 January 201511 January 2023

Nigel Cavanagh writes about his PhD research, community heritage and public engagement at the industrial archaeology site at Elsecar, Yorkshire

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Why My Research Matters: Mean Girls and Criminal Women in Australian History

Alana Piper 10 November 201411 January 2023

Alana Piper on the importance of her research into female social networks in the criminal subcultures of urban Australia between 1860 and 1920.

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Constructing Alliances: Why my Research on the Miner’s Strike Solidarity Movement Matters

Diarmaid Kelliher 13 October 201410 January 2023

Diarmaid Kelliher writes about his research 'The Miners' Strike and the Metropolis, 1984-5: Mapping Networks of Solidarity.'

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Why My Research Matters: Say Burgin

Say Burgin 8 September 201410 January 2023

In the first of HWO’s new monthly series profiling the important historical work being done by early career researchers, we asked Say Burgin at the University of Leeds to reflect on the importance of her doctoral research both for the…

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Why My Research Matters

What

Where

When

Series

Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ and the Brexit Pesticide Debate

Resistant Women: Indigenous Women Remember El Salvador’s 1932 Insurrection

Why My Research Matters: 18th Century Scottish Highlanders, Globalization & ‘National History’

Coal, Community & Collaboration: Engaging with the Past in an Industrial Village

Why My Research Matters: Mean Girls and Criminal Women in Australian History

Constructing Alliances: Why my Research on the Miner’s Strike Solidarity Movement Matters

Why My Research Matters: Say Burgin