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About Me

I am a historical geographer and early modern historian with research interests in the British rural landscape, women’s histories,  and the geographies of protest, property, enclosure and the commons. My research interests span the later medieval and long early modern period from roughly 1400 to 1900.

I am the author of Elite Women and the Agricultural Landscape, 1700-1830 (Routledge, 2017) and co-editor of Hull: Culture, History, Place (LUP, 2017) and Remembering Protest in Britain since 1500: Memory, Materiality and the Landscape (Palgrave, 2018). I am Chair of the Historical Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG and co-editor of Historical Geography (University of Nebraska Press).

Recent Publications

Books

• B. McDonagh (2017) Elite Women and the Agricultural Landscape, 1700-1830 (Routledge). Winner of 1. the Joan Thirsk Memorial Prize for the best book in British or Irish rural history, and 2. the Women’s History Network Book Prize for the best first book in women’s and gender history.
• C. J. Griffin and B. McDonagh (eds) (2018) Remembering Protest in Britain since 1500: Memory, Materiality and the Landscape (Palgrave Macmillan).
• D. J. Starkey, D. Atkinson, B. McDonagh, S. McKeon and E. Salter (eds) (2017) Hull: Culture, History, Place (Liverpool University Press).

Articles and book chapters

• B. McDonagh, ‘Disobedient objects: material readings of enclosure protest in sixteenth-century England’, Journal of Medieval History (forthcoming, 2019).
• J. Aston, A. Capern and B. McDonagh, ‘More than Bricks and Mortar: female property ownership as economic strategy in mid-nineteenth century urban England’ Urban History (forthcoming, 2019).
• McDonagh, ‘Feminist Historical Geographies: doing and being’, Gender, Place and Culture (forthcoming, 2019).
• B. McDonagh and J. Rodda (2018) ‘The Midlands Rising and its pre-history: landscape, memory and protest, 1500-1607’ in C. J. Griffin and B. McDonagh (eds), Remembering Protest in Britain since 1500: Memory, Materiality and the Landscape (Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 53-79.
• C. J. Griffin and B. McDonagh (2018) ‘Remembering Protest’, in C. J. Griffin and B. McDonagh (eds), Remembering Protest in Britain since 1500: Memory, Materiality and the Landscape (Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 1-23.
• D. Atkinson, B. McDonagh, S. McKeon, E. Salter, D. J. Starkey and M. Wilcox (2017) ‘Introduction’, in D. J. Starkey, D. Atkinson, B. McDonagh, S. McKeon and E. Salter (eds) Hull: Culture, History, Place (Liverpool University Press), pp. 1-13.
• B. McDonagh (2017) ‘Rebellious Hull’, in D. J. Starkey, D. Atkinson, B. McDonagh, S. McKeon and E. Salter (eds) Hull: Culture, History, Place (Liverpool University Press), pp. 60-87.
• D. Crouch and B. McDonagh (2016) ‘Turf Wars: conflict and cooperation in the management of Wallingfen (East Yorkshire), 1281-1781’, Agricultural History Review 64.2, pp. 133-156.
• B. McDonagh and C. J. Griffin (2016) ‘Occupy! Historical geographies of property, protest and the commons, 1500-1850’, Journal of Historical Geography 53, pp. 1-10. Winner of the Journal of Historical Geography Global Essay Prize.
• S. Legg, M. Heffernan, B. McDonagh, J.J. Cohen, S. Sassen and S. Elden (2015) ‘The Birth of Territory: a review forum’, Journal of Historical Geography 50, pp. 109-118.
• B. McDonagh (2013) ‘Fragments from a medieval archive: the life and treacherous death of Sir Robert Constable’, Journal of Historical Geography 42, pp. 50-61.
• B. McDonagh (2013) ‘Making and breaking property: negotiating enclosure and common rights in sixteenth-century England’, History Workshop Journal 76 (1), pp. 32-56.
• M. Cragoe and B. McDonagh (2013) ‘Parliamentary enclosure, vermin and the cultural life of English parishes, 1750-1850’, Continuity and Change 28.1, pp. 27-50.
• B. McDonagh (2013) ‘Negotiating enclosure in sixteenth-century Yorkshire: the South Cave dispute, 1530-1536’, in J. Whittle (ed.) Landlords and Tenants in Britain, 1440–1660 (Boydell and Brewer). pp. 52-66.
• B. McDonagh and S. Daniels (2012) ‘Enclosure stories: narratives from Northamptonshire’, Cultural Geographies 19.1, pp. 107-121.
• B. McDonagh, “All towards the improvements of the estate”: Mrs Elizabeth Prowse at Wicken, 1764-1810’, in R. W. Hoyle (ed.) Custom, Improvement and the Landscape in Early Modern Britain (Ashgate, 2011), pp. 263-88.
• B. McDonagh (2011) ‘Enclosure, agricultural change and the remaking of the local landscape: the case of Lilford (Northamptonshire)’, Northamptonshire Past & Present 64, pp. 45-52.
• B. McDonagh (2009) ‘Women, Enclosure and Estate Improvement in 18^th-century Northamptonshire’, Rural History 20.2, pp. 143-62.
• B. McDonagh (2009) ‘Subverting the Ground: private property and public protest in the sixteenth-century Yorkshire Wolds’, Agricultural History Review 57.2, pp. 191-206.
• B. McDonagh (2007) ‘Powerhouses of the Wolds Landscape: Manor Houses and Churches in Late Medieval and Early Modern England’, in M. Gardiner and S. Rippon (eds), Medieval Landscapes in Britain: Landscape History after Hoskins 2 (Windgather Press), pp. 185-200.
• B. McDonagh (2004) ‘Church/Manor/Settlement Relationships in the Yorkshire Wolds’, Medieval Settlement Research Group Annual Report 18 (2004), pp. 16-22.

Media Coverage

B. McDonagh, BBC Radio 4’s Making History, ‘The Diggers’, first broadcast 14/01/2014.

Social Media

@BrionyMcDonagh

Country Focus

Great Britain

Expertise by Geography

England, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Expertise by Chronology

Medieval, Pre-17th century, 17th century, 18th century, Early Modern

Expertise by Topic

Economic History, Gender, Law, Women