Who we are
History & Policy is a unique collaboration between scholars at the Universities of Cambridge and London, including the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine, and King's College London. H&P is part of the Institute of Contemporary British History at King's College London. H&P is directed by five academic partners based at these institutions and managed by two part-time public affairs managers.
Partners
Virginia Berridge
Virginia Berridge is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Virginia is an expert on the history of post-Second World War public health policy and in particular: smoking, illicit drugs and alcohol, the role of the media and the relationship between science and policy. Her most recent book is Marketing health. Smoking and the discourse of public health, 1945-c.2000 (Oxford University Press, 2007).
Virginia and her team have a long pedigree of delivering policy-relevant research. They have an ongoing programme of public engagement funded by the Wellcome Trust and hold regular events that bring together historians, scientists and health policymakers.
Virginia is regularly consulted by policymakers and has been involved in many initiatives on drugs and alcohol policy. The Department of Health recently appointed her to the Alcohol Education Research Council. To contact Virginia, email virginia.berridge@lshtm.ac.uk.
Alastair Reid
Alastair Reid is a Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge and Visiting Professor of History and Policy at King's College London. Alastair co-founded the History & Policy website in 2002. He is now the joint managing editor of the site and convenor, with Jim Moher, of the H&P Trade Union Forum.
Alastair has an active interest in new media, collaboration between institutions and communicating history to wider audiences. He is an expert on the history of the Labour Party and trade unions and is author of United We Stand. A History of Britain's Trade Unions (Penguin, 2005) and The Tide of Democracy: Shipyard Workers and Social Relations in Britain, 1870-1950 (Manchester University Press, 2010). To contact Alastair, email ajr49@cam.ac.uk.
Richard Roberts
Richard Roberts is Professor of Contemporary History at the Institute of Contemporary British History at King's College London, where History & Policy is based.
Previously a member of faculty at the University of Sussex, Professor Roberts is a highly experienced writer, researcher and teacher. A specialist in economic and financial history, he is author of many books on investment banking and international finance and is currently completing a study of the breakdown of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system in the early 1970s. He is a leading authority on international financial centres, especially Wall Street and the City. To contact Richard, email richard.roberts@kcl.ac.uk.
Simon Szreter
Simon Szreter is a Fellow of St John's College and Professor of History and Public Policy at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge. Simon co-founded the History & Policy website in 2002 and is now joint managing editor of the site.
He is an expert on demographic history with extensive experience of inter-disciplinary work. His most recent book is Sex Before the Sexual Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2010). He is also the author of Health and Wealth: Studies in History and Policy (Rochester University Press, 2005). Through his current work on civil registration, Simon is involved with several interdisciplinary initiatives as well as policy work with the World Health Organisation. He has recently co-authored a series of papers for The Lancet's Who Counts? series on civil registration. To contact Simon, email srss@cam.ac.uk.
Pat Thane
Pat Thane is Research Professor at King's College, London and Professor Emerita of the University of London.
She has extensive experience in both media and policy environments. Most recently, she was appointed by the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser to review the research capability of the Department for Work and Pensions. She also managed the Equalities in Great Britain, 1946-2006 project [pdf file, 840KB] for the Equalities Review. She regularly speaks and writes on issues relating to the history of the welfare state, gender, old age and pensions.
Her most recent books are Unequal Britain: Equalities in Britain since 1945 (Continuum, 2010) and Women and Citizenship in Britain and Ireland in the Twentieth Century: What Difference did the Vote Make? (Continuum, 2010), which she co-edited with Esther Breitenbach. To contact Pat, email pat.thane@kcl.ac.uk.
Senior Editors
History & Policy has two Senior Editors, who (along with Alastair Reid and Simon Szreter) take responsibility for editing and reviewing our policy papers during the process of publication.
Lucy Delap
Lucy Delap is a fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and a member of the History Faculty, University of Cambridge. Her book The Feminist Avant-Garde: Transatlantic Encounters of the early twentieth century (Cambridge University Press, 2007) won the 2008 Women's History Network Prize, and explores the intellectual history of feminism, set within Anglo-American transatlantic exchanges of the early twentieth century. She has recently published an essay collection, The Politics of Domestic Authority in Britain from 1800 (Palgrave 2009), and co-authored Feminist Media History (Palgrave 2010). Her latest research focuses on domestic service, gender and religion. Her monograph, Knowing Their Place: Domestic Service in Twentieth Century Britain, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2011. To contact Lucy, email lmd11@cam.ac.uk.
Paul Warde
Paul Warde is a Reader in Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia, having previously studied and lectured at the University of Cambridge. He is an associate fellow of the Centre for History and Economics, Cambridge. His expertise lies in economic and environmental history, especially resource management, energy history, and the history of environmental thought. Current projects include 'Expertise for the Future', studying the development of predictive modeling and its policy impact, along with scholars at the Royal Institute for Technology in Stockholm, and the Australian National University. He has recently been involved in debates on energy transition policies, international development, and integrating scientific and humanities perspectives on environmental change. In 2008 he was a winner of the Phillip Leverhulme Prize. To contact Paul, email p.warde@uea.ac.uk.
Public Affairs Office
History & Policy also has an public affairs team based at the Institute of Contemporary British History at King's College, London:
Mel Porter (Public Affairs Manager)
Mel joined History & Policy as Public Affairs Manager in March 2006. She has a BA in Modern History from Worcester College, Oxford, and a Master's in Journalism from the University of Westminster. She was previously a press officer in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and a News Analyst in the Cabinet Office. Mel is the author of 'Gender identity and sexual orientation' and co-author with Becky Taylor of 'Gypsies and Travellers' in Unequal Britain: equalities in Britain since 1945 (Continuum 2010). She is also co-author with Alastair Reid of the H&P paper Today's toughest policy problems: how history can help. Mel is now focusing on H&P's health, welfare and social policy engagement.
To contact Mel, email mel.porter@kcl.ac.uk or phone +44 (0)20 7848 7041. Please note that Mel works part-time on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Fiona Holland (Public Affairs Manager)
Fiona joined History & Policy as Public Affirs Manager in September 2010. She has a BA in History from Trinity College Cambridge and a Master's in Development Studies from LSE. Previously she was managing editor of the Global Civil Society Yearbook at LSE and edited Orbit for VSO, which in 2001 won the One World Media Award for best magazine. She has a background in journalism and has curated exhibitions of photography and cartoons in the UK and overseas. At History & Policy she is responsible for environment, development and international issues, including managing the new H&P Environment Forum.
To contact Fiona, email fiona.holland@kcl.ac.uk or phone +44 (0)20 7848 7047. Please note that Fiona works part-time on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.