Dr Natalie Thomlinson

Biography

Dr. Natalie Thomlinson is currently working as a Lecturer of Modern British Cultural History (1800-2000) in the Department of History, University of Reading , United Kingdom. Responsibilities: I am the undergraduate dissertation convener for history. I teach on the following courses: Part1 Option: 'Black Britain: Postwar histories of race and migration in the United Kingdom' Part 2 Option: 'Sexual Politics: Gender, sex and feminism in Britain from 1918' I also contribute to team-teaching on the the Part 1 modules 'Journeys Through History' and 'Research Skills and Opportunities', as well as the Part 2 Modules 'A People's History of Modern Britain' and 'Historical Approaches and My Dissertation'. Areas of Interest: I am a historian of feminism and gender in modern Britain, though my work is fundamentally concerned with how both of those categories are mediated through race and class. My first book, Race and ethnicity in the women's movement in England, 1968 - 1993 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) examined debates between white and ethnic minority women about the place of race in the feminist movement in England during this period, and was selected by Choice magazine as an 'Outstanding Academic Title' for 2016. Using a source base of oral history, feminist periodicals and archived personal papers, this monograph presents a historically grounded account of second-wave English feminism that unpacks how the legacy of empire, the racialised structures of English society, and the traditions of leftist thought, inscribed and limited the ways through which white and ethnic minority feminists interacted with and thought about each other. Having explored the social world and intellectual landscape of feminist radicals in this research, I have become increasingly curious in examining the reception of feminism in British society and culture more broadly during this period. In particular, I am interested in understanding the ways in which 'feminism' was taken up (or not) and reworked in popular discourses, and the various and sometimes contradictory meanings that attached themselves to 'feminism' during this process, as well as the broader question as to how individuals negotiated gender in the everyday. My major vehicle for examining these questions at the moment is a project I am undertaking with Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite at UCL on women, activism and the miners' strike of 1984/5. Specifically, through using a mixture of oral histories, archived sources and memoirs, we are examining how metropolitan feminists portrayed, understood and interacted with the women from mining communities who were involved in supporting the strike, and how in turn, such women understood feminists. We are also interested in how the persistent requests of women involved in the strike to 'tell their stories' itself shaped their subjectivities and prompted them to reflect on gender identities and relations in highly specific ways. Finally, we are also using this project as a way of examining the broader changes in the lives of women from mining communities during this time - changes that were often highlighted by a media focus on women's activism during miners' strike, rather than simply caused by the strike itself. More broadly, I am also interested in oral history, Black history, the history of the left and radicalism, and feminist theory.

Research Interest

Areas of Interest: I am a historian of feminism and gender in modern Britain, though my work is fundamentally concerned with how both of those categories are mediated through race and class. My first book, Race and ethnicity in the women's movement in England, 1968 - 1993 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) examined debates between white and ethnic minority women about the place of race in the feminist movement in England during this period, and was selected by Choice magazine as an 'Outstanding Academic Title' for 2016. Using a source base of oral history, feminist periodicals and archived personal papers, this monograph presents a historically grounded account of second-wave English feminism that unpacks how the legacy of empire, the racialised structures of English society, and the traditions of leftist thought, inscribed and limited the ways through which white and ethnic minority feminists interacted with and thought about each other. Having explored the social world and intellectual landscape of feminist radicals in this research, I have become increasingly curious in examining the reception of feminism in British society and culture more broadly during this period. In particular, I am interested in understanding the ways in which 'feminism' was taken up (or not) and reworked in popular discourses, and the various and sometimes contradictory meanings that attached themselves to 'feminism' during this process, as well as the broader question as to how individuals negotiated gender in the everyday. My major vehicle for examining these questions at the moment is a project I am undertaking with Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite at UCL on women, activism and the miners' strike of 1984/5. Specifically, through using a mixture of oral histories, archived sources and memoirs, we are examining how metropolitan feminists portrayed, understood and interacted with the women from mining communities who were involved in supporting the strike, and how in turn, such women understood feminists. We are also interested in how the persistent requests of women involved in the strike to 'tell their stories' itself shaped their subjectivities and prompted them to reflect on gender identities and relations in highly specific ways. Finally, we are also using this project as a way of examining the broader changes in the lives of women from mining communities during this time - changes that were often highlighted by a media focus on women's activism during miners' strike, rather than simply caused by the strike itself. More broadly, I am also interested in oral history, Black history, the history of the left and radicalism, and feminist theory.