Participant Info
- First Name
- Allison
- Last Name
- Abra
- Country
- Canada
- State
- allison.abra@umanitoba.ca
- Affiliation
- St John’s College, University of Manitoba
- Website URL
- Keywords
- Modern Britain, war and society, military history, women, gender, dance, popular culture, espionage, WWI, WWII
- Availability
- Media Contact
- Additional Contact Information
- PhD
- PhD
Personal Info
- Photo
- About Me
Allison J. Abra is a historian of modern Britain, whose research focuses on women and gender, popular culture, nationalism, emotion, and war and society in the period of the two world wars. Her first book, Dancing in the English Style: Consumption, Americanisation, and National Identity in Britain, 1918-50, was published by Manchester University Press as part of its series “Studies in Popular Culture” in 2017. Her current book project is an emotional history of British secret agents during World War II.
She holds a PhD in history from the University of Michigan, and is Warden and Vice-Chancellor of St John’s College at the University of Manitoba. She was previously associate professor of history and a fellow in the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society at the University of Southern Mississippi, where from 2019-2021 she was also the General Buford Blount Professor in Military History.
- Recent Publications
“The Performing Arts and their Audiences.” A Cultural History of Leisure in the Modern Age. Brett Bebber, ed. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Forthcoming, 2022.
“Popular Culture and Modern War.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Military History. Ed. Kaushik Roy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Dancing in the English Style: Consumption, Americanisation, and National Identity in Britain, 1918-50. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017.
“Dancing in the English Style: Professionalisation, Public Preference, and the Evolution of Popular Dance in 1920s Britain.” Brett Bebber, ed. Leisure and Cultural Conflict in Twentieth-Century Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012. 41-62.
“Doing the Lambeth Walk: Novelty Dances and the British Nation.” 20th Century British History 20:3 (2009): 346-369.
- Media Coverage
- BBC Four, MPB - Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WDAM-Hattiesburg
- Social Media
- @AllisonAbra
- Country Focus
- Britain
- Expertise by Geography
- British Isles, England, France, United Kingdom, Western Europe
- Expertise by Chronology
- 19th century, Modern, 20th century
- Expertise by Topic
- Gender, Military, Women, World War I, World War II
