Graduate Student, History
Thesis Title: 'Monstrous Predatory Vampires and Beneficent Fairy Godmothers': British Colonial Development in Africa in the Marshall Plan Era, 1947-51.
About
I am currently researching a PhD on the relationship between British colonial development in Africa, the Marshall Plan and Anglo-American relations. I am particularly interested in the concept of the 'Official Mind' and how this can be used to examine the intentions and ideologies of the Colonial Office, as well as looking at the personal role of figures such as Arthur Creech Jones, Colonial Secretary. I am also keen to examine the way in which the Anglo-American relationship affected British policy towards the African colonies during the early Cold War. I want to examine particularly how far there was a rhetorical tension between development abroad and re-development at home in the context of the Marshall Plan, and how far this tension was reflected in the policy followed during this period.
I am also active in the university outreach programme and am enthusiastic about the possibilities for increased interaction between academic history and a popular audience. I have recently developed and implemented an interdisciplinary outreach project with a local sixth form, which aimed to encourage more popular engagement with professional academic study. I also work on the UCL Horizons project, which aims to enrich children’s and young people’s social and cultural capital through a range of classroom and non-classroom based activities.
