Dr Cath Feely

About

I am a Senior Lecturer in History, with research interests in nineteenth and twentieth-century British Cultural and Social History.

Research interests

My research interests lie at the intersection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century British social, cultural and intellectual history. Put simply, I am interested in how ideas are consumed, adapted and used in modern Britain. In the past, this has largely led to published work on the history of publishing, bookselling, the popular press, reading and writing.

My teaching in public history has led to the role of historical storytelling and heritage in civic life and promotion in the interwar period. I am currently developing a research project on the role of provincial towns and cities and the marketing of Empire, which will cultimate in a co-produced display at Derby's Museum of Making on Derby's involvement in the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, scheduled for 2024.

I also conduct pedagogic research with a particular focus on civic engagement and creativity in learning and teaching.

Recent publications

'Karl Marx's Capital and Transatlantic Radical Book-Trade Networks in the Early Twentieth Century' in Catherine Feely and John Hinks (ed.), Historical Networks in the Book Trade (Routledge, 2017)
'Only a "Scrap of Paper": The Prison Reading of British Conscientious Objectors, 1916-1919', in Shafquat Towheed and Edmund King (eds), Reading in the First World War: Readers, Texts, Archives (Palgrave, 2015)
'"What say you to free trade in literature?" The Thief and the Politics of Piracy in the 1830s', Journal of Victorian Culture, 19:4 (2014)
‘From Dialectics to Dancing: Reading, Writing and the Philosophy of Everyday Life in the Diaries of Frank P. Forster’, History Workshop Journal, 69 (2010), pp. 90-110
'Making Meaning from Material: New Histories of the Book', special dossier of articles co-edited with Kathryn Green and Matthew Yeo, European Review of History, 17:2 (April 2010)

Membership of professional bodies

Elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (for significant contribution to the promotion of the discipline), September 2021
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2015

Professional interests

I am strongly committed to exploring how history and heritage can promote civic participation. The use and communication of history is a thread running through my research, teaching and public engagement and in 2020 I coordinated the Derby ‘hub’ of Being Human, the national festival of the humanities. This involved producing a series of podcasts and virtual events with Derby Museums, Derbyshire Record Office, Derby Local Studies Library and the National Trust.

You can access our 'Global Derbyshire in 10 Objects' short podcasts on Spotify.

We produced three live-streamed events that are still freely available to watch online, all in partnership with regional heritage organisations and our Lights, Sound and Live Events students: The Museum of Me, A Whole New World: Maps of the Derwent Valley Mills and Parts Unknown: The Extraordinary Maps of Hermann Moll.

I am a core member of the University's CivicLAB research group and help to deliver the University's Civic University Agreement in the city of Derby and the county of Derbyshire. I enjoy consulting for archives, museums, heritage organisations, artists and anyone interested in participatory research and engagement with history and heritage. I have particularly worked with the Derbyshire Record Office and Derby Theatre in widening access to their collections and am an academic advisor of several archive projects. I am also currently a trustee of the Arkwright Society at Cromford Mills (2021-).

Qualifications

BA (Hons) Politics and Modern History, University of Manchester
MA Cultural History, University of Manchester
PhD History, University of Manchester: ‘Karl Marx, Capital and Radical Book Cultures in Britain, 1881-1945’

Recent conferences

Selected pedagogic presentations

'Working with Students and Partners', 'Collaboration, Co-Production and Community between Public History and HE', online workshop as part of the AHRC-funded 'What is Public History Now?' Network, run by Professor Julia Laite (Birkbeck), 6 July 2022
(With Caroline Jones) ‘Creative Projects in Urban History Pedagogy’, part of Urban History Month, sponsored by the History Department, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, October 26, 2021
‘In Defence of the Discussion Board: Creating Structured and Dynamic Interactive Activities in History’, ‘Digital Pedagogy Workshop’, East Midlands Centre for History Learning and Teaching, University of Nottingham, 6 July 2020
(With Dr Tom Neuhaus) ‘History, Employability and Civic Engagement: opportunities and challenges’, ‘Engagement for All in the History Classroom’, Liverpool John Moores University (Keynote opening session, sponsored by History UK), 11 July 2019
(With Dr Kathleen McIlvenna and Dr Tom Neuhaus) ‘Connecting Lines: Building a Virtual Museum to Get Old Technology Moving’, ‘Power Lines’, National Council on Public History Annual Conference, Las Vegas, 19 April 2018
(With Dr Ruth Larsen, Dr Tom Neuhaus, Dr Ian Whitehead) ‘Presenting the Past. Enhancing Achievement and Ambition Amongst Second-Year Undergraduate History Students’, Bielefeld Conference on Teaching History in Higher Education, University of Bielefeld, 25 May 2016

Selected conference and seminar research papers

'The Trenches, the Tram and the Trolleybus: A Twentieth-Century Story', 'Telling Stories: History, Narrative and Fiction', Queen University, Belfast, 15 September 2022
‘“What can I do today unto these my daughters?” Reading my grandmother’s bible’, online seminar in ‘The Books that Bring Us Together ‘series, Inheriting the Family project, Oxford Brookes University, 4 November 2021
“Certainly nothing half so revealing exists in the documentary form”: The Newsagent’s Shop in Interwar Britain’, North American Conference on British Studies, Vancouver, 16 November 2019
‘A Prospect of Derby: History, Heritage and the Remaking of Urban Narratives’, ‘Urban History Beyond the Academy’, Leeds Beckett University, 25 May 2018
‘The Warm Glow of the Paper-Shop Window: Newsagents on Display and 1920s and 1930s Britain, 20s/30s Network Conference on ‘Display’, 6 May 2017

In the media

I have appeared regularly on both local and national radio, talking about topics as diverse as 1950s housewives, the 1966 World Cup and the history of mobile libraries. These have included both live and prerecorded interviews.

Examples include:

BBC Radio 3, 'Free Thinking':'Postcolonial Derby: Privateers, Pieces of Eight and the Postwar Playhouse'. A whole 45-minute programme focusing on Derby's contribution to the Being Human Festival, with an interview with me about the archive of Derby Theatre
BBC Radio 4, 'Making History', short interview on the history of the mobile library

Teaching responsibilities

I typically teach across the History programmes, from Foundation to PhD level.

At undergraduate level, these often include:

Nations and Nationalism: Europe 1789-1914 (1st year)
Living with Dictatorship: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in Comparative Perspective (2nd year)
Research in Practice (2nd year)
Exploring the Slum: The Politics of Poverty in Britain (3rd year)
Revolt Against Reason: Philosophy and Culture in Europe, c. 1870-1930 (MA)

At postgraduate level, I teach on both the MA History and MA Public History and Heritage. I also supervise research projects, independent studies, public history consultancies and MA dissertations. I am currently supervising PhD projects on nineteenth- and twentieth- British social and cultural history.

In 2017, I led the development of an MA Public History and Heritage, delivered in partnership with heritage organisations, with a view to equipping students with both the research and practical skills to enrich the local historical culture; graduates are now working as researchers, curators, audience specialists, archivists, textile conservators and freelance consultants, all across the region. In 2017, I was awarded Lecturer of the Year by the University of Derby in recognition of my excellence and innovation in involving partners with the design of this degree.

Additional interests and activities

I particularly enjoy collaborating with artists to explore historical topics and to make the 'stuff' of history accessible in a playful way.