Participant Info

First Name
Laura
Last Name
Burkinshaw
Country
United Kingdom
State
Affiliation
University of Hull
Website URL
https://twitter.com/Laura_Burks
Keywords
Social and cultural history in the maritime world, Royal Navy, national identity, popular naval enthusiasm, interwar Britain, First World War, British popular culture, propaganda, Military, Naval history, 20th Century, Modern
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Dr Laura Burkinshaw, BA(Hons), MA, is a maritime historian who completed her PhD thesis on the Royal Navy and national identity from the University of Hull and Sheffield Hallam University. Her principal historical focus is the Royal Navy, cultural navalism, and national identity from 1880 until the Second World War. She specialises in the history of naval advocacy and interest groups, and has researched extensively on the representation and cultural impact of the Royal Navy in the British popular consciousness.

Laura’s  Masters examined the evolving representation of the sailor in the British popular consciousness between 1793-1835. She completed her undergraduate dissertation on the Navy League and popular naval interest groups in the Edwardian period. Her dissertation was awarded the British Commission for Maritime Prize for ‘outstanding dissertation on maritime subjects’ for Undergraduate dissertations 2015.

Laura is currently involved in a project with Cultures of Incarceration Centre at University of Hull. Partnering with the Freedom Festival 2024, it aims to bring reading and creative writing groups to HMP Hull and HMP Full Sutton

Recent Publications

Academic Qualifications:

  • PhD in History, University of Hull: ‘They are people who have lost all sense of the sea’: Navalism and National Identity in Britain, 1914 – 1939′. Fully funded by a North of England Consortium for Arts and Humanities scholarship. Due for submission in the autumn of 2021.
  • Masters in History, University of Warwick: ‘”Goodbye to Tom Bowling?” The Evolution of the Representation of Jack Tar in the Popular British Consciousness 1793-1835’. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Laura_Burkinshaw/publications
  • BA (Hons) in History and English Literature, University of Hull: History thesis: ‘To what extent did the Navy League influence popular naval enthusiasm between 1894-1914?’. Awarded the British Commission for Maritime Prize for ‘outstanding dissertation on maritime subjects’ for Undergraduate dissertations 2015

Academic Publications:

  • Burkinshaw, L., ‘Some of These Things are True, and Some of Them Lies. But They are All Good Stories’: The Historical Fiction of Hilary Mantel’, in R. Bradford (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature. Vol 1, 311-322. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2021.
  • Burkinshaw, L. 2019. ‘Churchill’s Thin Grey Line: British Merchant Ships at War 1939–1945’. International Journal of Maritime History. 31 (4), 929–930

Recent Talks

  • ‘Small boys wore sailor suits’, British popular naval enthusiasm between 1895 and 1939- British Commission for Maritime History New Researcher Conference. 2019
  • ‘Beyond Jutland: Submarines, Q-Ships and the Dover Patrol’-Great War 100 public history conference-  (partnered with The Western Front Association and Herts at War).
Media Coverage
Country Focus
England, United Kingdom, Britain
Expertise by Geography
British Isles, England, United Kingdom
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, Modern, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Material Culture, Military, Public History, World War I, World War II