I completed my PhD at the University of Nottingham in 2001, and, following this, undertook post-doctoral research at the Institute for European History in Mainz and at the University of Warwick. Before taking up my present post at Wolverhampton in 2005, I lectured at the University of Southampton and at Aberystwyth (UWA).

My research concerns the social history of 19th and 20th century Germany, particularly its rural society and the history of migration and minorities, including Germany's Sinte population.  Recent work has explored the relationship between language and conquest in the Great War and in Germany's colonies.

PhD Supervision

I would be interested in supervising doctoral research on 19th and 20th century German history, particularly the history of migrants and minorities, including Germany's Sinte, as well as research on German colonialism. I am currently involved in the supervision of several PhD students who are working on the commemoration and memory of the Great War. Previously, I have also acted as second supervisor to a student researching the Warwickshire coal industry. This PhD was awarded in 2014.

I am a member of the German History Society.

2001 PhD University of Nottingham
1997 MA History, University of Manchester
1996 BA (Hons) History and German, University of Manchester

‘Agricultural Labour’, in Matthew Jefferies (ed), The Ashgate Research Companion to Imperial Germany (Ashgate: Farnham, 2015), 303-16.

‘Particularities of Persecution. The Policing of Gypsies in Saxony 1871-1914’, Immigrants and Minorities 32.1 (2014).

‘“If an Inhabitant Attacks, Wounds or Kills a Soldier, the Whole Village will be Destroyed.” Communication and Rehearsal in Soldiers’ Phrasebooks 1914-1918’, Journal of War and Culture Studies 6.2 (2013), 154-168.

‘Phrasebooks and the Shaping of Conduct in Colonial Africa c1880-1925’, International Journal of African Historical Studies 46.2 (2013), 305-328.

‘War of Words. Bridging the Language Divide in the Great War’, War in History 18.4 (2011), 515-529.

‘Leipzig im Spiegel englischer Quellen ca. 1860-1914’, Stadtgeschichte. Mitteilungen des Leipziger Geschichtsvereins (2008) 87-93.

Social Relations in the Estate Villages of Mecklenburg c.1880-1924 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).

‘Correction in the Countryside: Convict Labour in Rural Germany 1871-1914’, German History 24.1 (2006), 39-61.

‘Agency and Protest: Migrant Labourers in Northern Germany 1890-1924’, Labor History 47.3 (2006), 319-341.

Teaching interests

I am currently teaching undergraduate modules on  German History between 1871 and 1945, on 19th Century European and American History, on the Great War, and on migration in the 19th and 20th centuries. 

External academic roles

External Examiner - University of Lincoln 2013-2017