Professor Selina Todd
I am Professor of Modern History and a specialist in the history of modern Britain, particularly during the 20th and 21st centuries. My research focuses on the history of working-class life and women's lives. I am interested in ordinary people's experience and memory of the past. My research examines class and gender relations, social mobility, work and education - often by using oral histories and unpublished autobiographies.
My first book, Young women, work, and family in England, 1918-1950 (Oxford, 2005) won the Women's History Network annual book prize. My second book, The People: the rise and fall of the working class, 1910-2010 (London, 2014), was a Sunday Times bestseller. My most recent book is Tastes of Honey: the making of Shelagh Delaney and a cultural revolution (London, 2019). I am currently writing a history of social mobility in modern Britain.
I am very interested in how history can inform the present and help us create a more egalitarian future. I work closely with communities and organisations that share this vision. These include MaD Theatre Company in Manchester, the Socialist Educational Association, A Woman's Place UK and policymakers interested in sex and class equality. I write for the Guardian and other publications on equality and education.
I greatly enjoy teaching and among the papers I offer are Approaches to History to First Year history students and a Special Subject entitled Britain from the Bomb to the Beatles, 1945-67, which is studied by Finalists. I am delighted to hear from prospective graduate students interested in researching feminism, sex and class inequality and working-class life.
Research Interests
You can find some of the oral histories included in my book The People showcased at this dedicated website.
My most recent research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and you can read about it here.
I am involved in several collaborative projects and networks. These include:
- The Oxford Gender, Identity and Subjectivity Centre
- 'Rags to Riches: experiences of social mobility since 1800'
- Women, Work and Value, a transnational network co-ordinated by Dr Josie McLellan at Bristol University.
- I am one of the convenors of Oxford's women's history seminar
