Richard Lesmoir-Gordon

Research Topic

The title of my thesis is currently: How did events and experiences reconfigure gendered identities during the Second World War? (South-West France.)

The thesis will build on my M. Phil work, which looked at three French women in the Quercy and Armagnac regions who were either involved with the Resistance, or were victims of German reprisals or of punishment by French people as alleged collaborators. It focused on how the circumstances of war had prompted these women to act in unexpected or unconventional ways.

In the D. Phil thesis, I will be adding other women to the work, with the same focus, but will also examine men, again through individual case-studies, looking at how masculine identities responded to defeat, Occupation, Resistance, collaboration and Liberation.

Finally, the thesis will consider how long-lasting were the changes brought by the war, through the late 1940s and the 1950s.

Supervisor: Professor Martin Conway