Mark Collett

Research Topic

Colonialism, Journalism and Pacifism: E.D. Morel and British Society, 1873-1924

I am a current DPhil student at St. Peter's College. My research project is focused around the figure of E.D. Morel, the campaigner for reform in the Belgian Congo who would later be imprisoned for his opposition to Britain's involvement in the First World War, before becoming a member of the first Labour government shortly before his death. Despite his high profile during his lifetime and his many achievments, Morel has been the subject of remarkably little serious academic attention. I intend to examine his life and career as a whole, with a particular focus on the methods deployed by Morel in the construction of his personal authority as a campaigner and rhetorician, and the place of him and his works within the discourses of imperialism, pacifism and morality in Britain in the 1910s and 1920s.

Beyond Morel, I am interested in a variety of more or less morbid topics: the histories of violence, war, empire, the city, masculinity and memory. I am allergic to narrow specialisation and attempt to engage with the findings and techniques of other disciplines as much as I possibly can.

I did my BA at Oxford (2013-6) and took a brief excursion to Cambridge for my MPhil (2016-7) before returning here for my DPhil in 2018.

Supervisor: Dr Marc Mulholland