Dr Sian Edwards

Biography

I am Senior Lecturer in Modern British History. I studied for my History undergraduate degree at the University of Sussex, where I went on to study for my Master's and PhD in Contemporary History. I graduated with my doctoral degree in January 2014. My PhD research, supervised by Professor Claire Langhamer and Professor Ian Gazeley, explored the centrality of the countryside in the training of British youth organisations in the mid-twentieth century and was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018. I began teaching in 2010 and since then have taught on a variety of courses ranging across the degree programme at the Universities of Sussex and Brighton.

Areas of expertise

• ?Youth and youth cultures
• Gender and the history of women
• Leisure and consumption in the twentieth century
• The history of youth organisations and rural history

Publications

Book: Youth Movements, Citizenship and the English Countryside: Creating Good Citizens, 1930-1960 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)

Review: James Nott, ‘Going to Palais: A Social and Cultural History of Dancing and Dance Halls in Britain, 1918-1960’, Twentieth Century British History, 2016, DOI: 10.1093/tcbh/hww011

‘Nothing gets her goat! The Farmer’s Wife and the Duality of Rural Femininity in the Young Farmers’ Club Movement in 1950s Britain’, Women’s History Review. From the forthcoming Special Issue: Revisioning the History of Girls and Women in Britain in the Long 1950s. DOI: 10.1080/09612025.2015.1123022.

Conferences

‘Defend your Liberty: pacifism, citizenship and the Woodcraft Folk during the Second World War’. July 2016, International Children at War conference, University of Salzburg, Salzburg.

‘Growing up in the Countryside’. June 2016, ‘How to Write and Conceptualize the History of Youth Cultures? Workshop’ (invited speaker), Technical University of Berlin, Germany.

‘Has your patrol started digging yet? National service and agricultural work in the Girl Guide movement during the Second World War’. September 2015, Rural History 2015 international conference, University of Girona, Spain.

‘You Can Help on The Kitchen Front! Domesticity and National Service in the British Girl Guide Organisation during the Second World War.’ June 2015. Society for the History of Children and Youth Biennial Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

‘Have you the hands of a hairdresser? The Girl Guide organisation and career advice for the ‘modern girl’ in 1930s Britain.’ March 2015. Social History Conference, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth.

‘Who (and What) is the Countryside for? The Scouting Movements and the Stewardship of the English Countryside in the Post-war Period.’ July 2014. ‘People, protest and the land: a workshop in honour of Professor Alun Howkins’, University of Sussex.

‘Averting Misunderstandings: The Girl Guide Movement and Education for Courtship in 1950s Britain.’ April 2014. Social History Conference, University of Northumbria, Newcastle.

‘Good Wives and Citizens: Gender and the Young Farmers’ Clubs in 1950s England.’ April 2014. British Agricultural History Conference, Denman College, Oxfordshire.

‘Training the Good Citizen: the decline of imperialism in the English Scouting movements during the mid-twentieth century’. July 2013. ‘The Global Expansion of the British Empire’ conference, Peking University, Beijing.