Participant Info

First Name
Angela
Last Name
Muir
Country
United Kingdom
State
Affiliation
University of Leicester
Website URL
https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/history/people/staff-pages/dr-angela-muir/dr-angela-muir
Keywords
Eighteenth-century history, early modern history, British history, Welsh history, social and cultural history, women's history, gender, crime, deviance, illegitimacy, courtship, childbirth, midwifery.
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am a social and cultural historian of Britain, with a focus on gender, sex, crime and deviance in Wales and England during the long eighteenth century. I have published on illegitimacy, courtship, midwifery, childbirth, and mortality in Wales. My first monograph Deviant Maternity: Illegitimacy in Wales c. 1680-1800 was published in 2020 by Routledge. My current research explores sex work, sexual violence and poverty in rural and urban Britain during the long eighteenth-century. I am also developing a project that examines the experiences of marginalised groups and ethnic minorities in Wales prior to 1830, which will be the subject of both academic and non-specialist publications. I have worked extensively with legal records, parish registers and poor law accounts, and a range of cultural materials including letters and satirical images. I would be happy to discuss contributions based on any of my research areas.

I am a Lecturer in British Social and Cultural History at the University of Leicester, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. I completed my doctoral research at the University of Exeter with funding from the Wellcome Trust and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. After completing my PhD I was awarded the Power Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Institute of Historical Research, which I took up at Cardiff University while also working as a Lecturer in Welsh History. Throughout my postgraduate studies I kept a personal academic blog Deviant Maternity and I continue to update this occasionally.

I have previous media experience in radio, film and television, as well as a recording artist. Prior to commencing my academic studies I trained as an actor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. After this I worked briefly on stage and in film and television. More recently, I made regular appearances as a guest commentator on BBC Radio Wales’s Jamie Owen show between 2013 and 2018. I am also a musician, and have recorded and performed with several Welsh bands, including EPs and LPs with my own band, The Echo and the Always, and a Maida Vale session with Cut Ribbons in 2016.

I am based in Cardiff, but was born and raised in Canada. English is my first language, and I am a Welsh learner.

Recent Publications

Deviant Maternity: Illegitimacy in Wales, c. 1680-1800 (Routledge, 2020)

‘Midwifery and Maternity Care for Single Mothers in Eighteenth-Century Wales’, Social History of Medicine, 33. 2 (2020), pp. 394–416 

‘Courtship, Sex and Poverty: Illegitimacy in Eighteenth-Century Wales’, Social History, 43.1 (2018), pp. 56-80

‘Death and the Parish: Mortality in Eighteenth-Century Wales’, Postgraduate Journal of Medical Humanities, 4 (2017), pp. 101-133

‘Illegitimacy in Eighteenth-Century Wales’, Welsh History Review, 26.3 (2013), pp. 351-388 

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United Kingdom (England and Wales)
Expertise by Geography
England, United Kingdom
Expertise by Chronology
3, 4, 5, 6
Expertise by Topic
Family, Gender, Law, Local & Regional, Medicine, Sexuality, Sexual Violence, Women