So there’s a Daily Mail hatchet job on a number of my colleagues today. I don’t know everyone in it, but I know a few of them, and here’s some of the things they didn’t mention.
Joanna Innes is a leading expert on eighteenth century social policy. She’s been an inspiration to everyone working in that field (myself included).
A number of her articles have massively developed the field of eighteenth century social, governmental and intellectual history.
More than this, she’s a kind mentor and excellent colleague, and someone who always looks out for students and fellow historians.
Robert Gildea I don’t know personally, but I know for a fact he was an inspiring undergraduate tutor.
His work on 19th and early 20th century France has massively pushed forward the field. A true giant.
Marc Mulholland was a brilliant and inspirational colleague and tutor during the very happy two years I spent at St Catz.
I came there as a very green ECR, having had one not-very-successful post at St Hilda’s and an exploited position at Uni Herts beforehand.
He always trusted me to bring my ideas to teaching, and respected my input despite the fact I was so junior. Working with him was genuinely fun.
Aaaaaand... it was teaching Anthropology Approaches with Marc that I first really discovered my love for microhistory.
And finally Chris Brooke, or perhaps more properly ‘a man called Chris Brooke’, as he is described in the article.
I was never taught by Chris, but he was a tutor at Magdalen when I was an undergraduate, and I know he was a fun and inspiring tutor.
One of the main things I remember was him fighting the good fight against homophobia in college, particularly associated with our sports teams, back in the very early noughties.
But he's also fab on twitter, so give him a follow @chrisbrooke (he should totally change that handle to @ amancalledchrisbrooke )
