Ms Siobhan McGurk
Academic History
I completed a BA in History at Cardiff University in 2009, and with the support of the AHRC I recently completed my MA studies, also at Cardiff University. My dissertation focused on the work of Symbolist and Surrealist artist Claude Cahun, with particular emphasis on the way in which dominant and counter ideas about women’s bodies influenced her self-portraiture and writings. I am interested in the ways in which individual’s understand, accept, reject and develop conflicting discourses, and the extent of our freedom to do so.
Ym 2009 cyflawnais BA mewn Hanes ym Mhrifysgol Caerdydd, ac eleni, gyda chymorth yr AHRC fe gyflawnais MA mewn Hanes yma hefyd. Canolbwyntiodd fy nhraethawd estynedig ar waith yr artist Symbolaidd a Swrrealaidd, Claude Cahun, gyda phwyslais arbennig ar sut gwnaeth syniadau dominyddol a gwrth syniadau am gyrff menywod, ddylanwadu ar ei hunan bortreadau a'i hysgrifennu. Mae gen i ddiddordeb yn y modd y mae unigolion yn deall, derbyn, gwrthod, a datblygu syniadau anghyson, ac i ba raddau mae’r rhyddid gennym i wneud hynny.
Research Interests
Social, cultural and gender history of the France between 1870 and 1940.
Historiography.
The interaction between art, science and mass culture and in particular how this shaped popular understandings of the body in early twentieth-century France.
The art of Claude Cahun, and its relationship to Symbolism, Surrealism and to wider society.
The development of psychiatry in relation to social and biological sciences in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe.
Gender history.
The different and developing understandings of sexuality in early twentieth century France.
Nineteenth-century Welsh emigration to France.
Publications
‘Claude Cahun, Symbolism and Surrealism: The Importance of Historical Contextualisation’, History Compass 10:1 (2011), pp. 47-55.
Teaching
Year 1
Making of the Modern World – HS1105 (including Welsh medium)
Year 2
Approaches to History – HS1701 (including Welsh medium)