Skip to main content
Stephanie Ward

Dr Stephanie Ward

(she/her)

Senior Lecturer in Modern Welsh History

School of History, Archaeology and Religion

Email
WardSJ2@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 75277
Campuses
John Percival Building, Room 4.28, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am an historian of modern Britain with a particular interest in Welsh history. My research primarily focuses upon histories of working-class life in interwar Britain including gender identities, political culture, social movements, social policy and family life. I am interested in the relationship between citizens and the state a theme which was explored in my monograph Unemployment and the State: The Means Test and Protest in 1930s South Wales and the North-East of England (Manchester University Press, 2013). I have published on working-class women’s politics, men’s embodied gendered identities and patterns of courtships amongst working-class youths. I am the History Editor for the University of Wales Press ‘Gender Studies in Wales’ series.

 

Research interests

  • Economic and social history of modern Wales
  • Comparative and regional histories of Britain
  • Unemployment, social policy, social and political movements with particular reference to the economic depression of the 1930s in Britain
  • Gender history including studies of masculinity, marriage, family and identity in twentieth century Britain

Publication

2023

2021

2020

2019

2017

  • Ward, S. 2017. History and heritage. In: Loughran, T. ed. A Practical Guide to Studying History: Skills and Approaches. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 282-301.

2015

2013

2012

2011

2008

Articles

Book sections

Books

Research

Projects

Gender in Modern Wales

Beth Jenkins, Paul O'Leary, Stephanie Ward (eds), Gender in Modern Welsh History: Perspectives on Masculinity and Femininity in Wales from 1750 to 2000 (UWP, 2023).

This innovative collection of essays presents a reappraisal of gender as a category of analysis in modern Welsh history.

Project Activities:

Symposium: 'New Perspectives on Femininity and Masculinity in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Wales', Cardiff University, September 2019.

 

Families and the State in Modern Britain, c.1919 - 1969

This project seeks to explore the relationship between families and state in the first half of the twentieth century. It examines how the state intervened in family life and how popular representations of families shaped such interactions. Crucial to understanding the relationship between families and the state is how individuals and families responded to social policy and everyday encounters with state representatives. The project draws upon a number of regional case studies to offer a comparative perspective.

 

Project Activities

'Black Political Culture in Interwar Seaport Towns' - BA/Leverhulme Small Grant Project

This research project aims to uncover experiences of political activism amongst Black British citizens in
interwar Britain. It will explore how to reconstruct this history given the fragmentary nature of the primary
source material and the marginalisation of Black British experiences in the historiography. The research will
principally focus upon the experiences of men and women of African and West Indian descent who lived in
well-established ethnically diverse communities in the port cities of East London, Liverpool and Cardiff. The
primary ambition of the project is to uncover political experiences in the context of the everyday and family life
in the period before the Windrush generation.

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • Inventing a Nation: Politics, Culture and Heritage - 20 credits (HS1109)
  • History in Practice - 20 credits (HS1119)
  • Politics and the People in Modern Britain (HS6221)
  • Debating History - 20 credits (HS6201)
  • Making History - 20 credits (HS6202)
  • Dissertation - 30 credits (HS1801)

Postgraduate

  • Wales, 1880s-1980s - 20 credits (HST084)
  • Dissertation

Biography

Education and qualifications

  • 2004-2008 PhD in History: 'The Means Test and the Unemployed in South Wales and the North-East of England, 1931-39', Aberystwyth University
  • 2003-2004 MA Economic and Social History of Wales, Aberystwyth University
  • 2000-2003 BA (hons) History, Aberystwyth University

Career overview

  • 2016 - present Senior Lecturer in Modern Welsh History, Cardiff University
  • 2009 – Lecturer in Modern Welsh History, Cardiff University
  • 2008 – 2009 Lecturer in Economic and Social History, Aberystwyth University

Honours and awards

  • ESRC 1 + 3 Studentship

Professional memberships

Supervisions

  • Twentieth cenutry Welsh history.
  • Gender in twentieth century Britain.
  • Social movements and political cultures.
  • Social policy and local government.

Current supervision

Myya Helm

Myya Helm

Research student

Michael Jonas

Michael Jonas

Research student

Martyn Thomas

Martyn Thomas

Research student