I am a social and cultural historian of France and Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with research interests in war captivity, transnational migration, women’s lives, life-writing, and human-insect relationships in this period. I have published widely in these areas, including articles, book chapters, and a recent co-edited volume on the history of disgust (see full list of publications on RAY above).
I hold a BA and MRes in History and Heritage Studies from Blaise Pascal University (France) and a PhD in History from the University of Warwick (UK). Before joining York St John University, I was Alan Pearsall Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research in London and Caird Research Fellow at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. My research has since been supported by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Society for the Study of French History (SSFH), and the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS).
Since 2023, I have served as EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) Lead for the School of Humanities and as a member of the Humanities Senior Academic Leadership Team (SALT). I have previously held roles as MA History Coordinator, History Course Lead, and Study Abroad Academic Advisor for History, American Studies, and War Studies.
I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes on modules including: Global York: A Social and Cultural History of the City; People and Nature: An Environmental History; Victorian Grubs: Food, Science, and Society; C’est La Vie: An Everyday History of Nineteenth-Century France; Prisons and Prisoners; History, Community, and Culture (employability module); Historians and the Writing of History (MA); Digital Humanities for Historians (MA); and Captives of the Napoleonic Wars (MA).
With over 13 years’ experience in higher education across both Russell Group and post-92 institutions, my teaching is inclusive, collaborative, and research-informed. I am particularly committed to developing students’ confidence through innovative and applied learning. This includes creating opportunities beyond the classroom, such as Students as Researchers projects (Voices of the University, 2016; Women’s History Archives, 2017) and the award-winning Living Lab YSJ Student Cookbook project (2022–23).
My teaching has been recognised through multiple Students’ Union nominations and awards, including the You’re Extraordinary Award (2017), Teaching Excellence Award (2017, 2018), Academic Tutor of the Year (2020), Best Tutor of the Year (2023), Outstanding Feedback Award (2024), and the Sustainability Leader Award (2026, shortlisted with Dr Gary Rivett for People and Nature).
From 2016 to 2026, I delivered – and from 2023 directed – the History programme’s flagship employability module, organising eleven annual public history conferences for second-year students. Since 2018, I have also directed the MA Digital Humanities module and contributed to Digital Humanities teaching on the Humanities MRes.
Prior to our programme revalidation in 2020, I taught a range of modules including The Atlantic World in the Eighteenth Century, Europe in the Age of Nationalism (1848–1914), Early Victorian England, Researching and Presenting the Past, The Making of Britain, and People and Power (MA).
I am a social and cultural historian of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. My work takes a transnational approach and has focused on experiences of prisoners of war, women’s wartime lives, family displacement, and, more recently, historical uses of insects as food (entomophagy). Across these strands, I explore how societies understood survival, mobility, and human relationships with their environments and other species.
Prisoners-of-war history
I have published extensively on the history of Napoleonic prisoners of war, including studies of prisoners’ life-writing, transnational charity networks supporting captives, and the relationships they developed with host societies. In 2022, I contributed a chapter on prisoners of war to The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars, and in 2026 I was commissioned to write a global history of eighteenth-century war captives for the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia in Military History. Alongside this work, I co-founded and directed the Prisoner of War Studies Network with Dr Grace Huxford (University of Bristol), bringing together over 60 scholars across Europe, Africa, Australia, and North America (2013–2020). My research has also contributed to public engagement initiatives, including the digital exhibition The Last Stand: Napoleon’s 100 Days in 100 Objects led by Professors Mark Philp and Kate Astbury (University of Warwick).
Women, Families, and Wartime Migration
My research also examines women’s experiences of war and family displacement. In 2014, I was part of a team of scholars who co-edited and published a rare memoir by Catherine Exley, a woman from Leeds who experienced campaign life firsthand while following her husband during the Peninsular War. Drawing on my deep interest in women’s history, I have published on the experiences of wives of Napoleonic prisoners of war and have forthcoming work on family strategies during the period in a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Contexts edited by Friedemann Pester, Kelly Summers, and Frederike Middlehoff. I also co-lead the Women of York project with Professors Anne-Marie Evans and Brendan Paddison, which seeks to widen access to women’s histories in the city’s heritage and tourism sectors. Our first collaboration with the Yorkshire Film Archive is available on YouTube.
Insects, Diet, and the History of Disgust
My current research in the medical humanities focuses on the history of entomophagy (the consumption of insects as food), examining its implications for public health, food systems, and colonial encounters from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. My article ‘Palatable Bugs for the Victorians’ (Journal of Victorian Culture, 2024) explores the strategies developed by proponents of this diet in the West in the nineteenth century. This research has since led me to explore how contemporaries understood and contested disgust towards insects during the period.
Building on this, in 2025 I secured a book contract with Manchester University Press for a co-edited volume on the history of disgust in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (with Professor Franziska Neumann, Technische Universität Braunschweig), forthcoming in 2027. The volume builds on two international workshops we co-organised in 2021 and 2023, one of which resulted in a commissioned report for the German learned society H-Soz-Kult.
Postgraduate Research Supervision
I welcome enquiries from prospective students interested in pursuing a PhD in related topics.
I currently supervise:
- Nikki Gibson – recipient of the York Georgian Society 2026 Patrick Nuttgens Award for ‘Hidden Voices of Guisborough: Reconstructing Trade, Community, and Social Networks through the Diaries of Ralph Ward (1680–1756) and Ralph Jackson (1736–1790).’
- Alan Chaffey – ‘Transmigration and Disease Transmission: The Health Threat to Britain’s Port Cities, 1850–1914.’
- Ben Pengelly – ‘Status hierarchies and cultural values in British and French military institutions and their impact on senior officers, 1803–1815.’
- Lainey Cross – ‘Provision for Girls at the Royal Albert Asylum in Lancaster, 1872–1920.’
I successfully supervised Lorraine Paylor through to completion in 2025. Her doctoral thesis, ‘Friends for a Purpose: Friendship and Self-Fashioning through the Correspondence of Geraldine Jewsbury (1812–1880)’ (externally examined by Professor Katie Barclay, Macquarie University, Australia), is now being developed into a biography.
Recent publications
For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of working as a historian is collaborating with others to demonstrate the relevance of history to issues that matter today.
I am a member of the Militär, Krieg und Geschlecht/Diversität (MKGD) research network.
Since 2024, building on my expertise in environmental history, I have worked with Dr Gary Rivett to establish and maintain a partnership with the Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA), researching environmental issues at their North Lees Hall site, which feeds into our People and Nature module at YSJ.
Working on the Women of York research project with Professors Anne-Marie Evans and Brendan Paddison has also been particularly rewarding. The project has involved a successful application for a blue plaque and the creation of a women’s history map, shortlisted for the 2017 Women’s History Network Community Prize. In 2018, I co-organised a Women’s History Festival, which attracted over 500 attendees. I greatly value working with archivists and local communities; seeing audiences engage with the Women of York short film we co-produced in 2025 with the Yorkshire Film Archive was a career highlight.
I regularly deliver guest lectures, including talks at the National Maritime Museum and the National Army Museum, and have been interviewed on my research for BBC Look North and BBC Radio York.
