Lucy Wray is a Senior Research Associate working on the AHRC project, 'Mariners: Religion, race and empire in British ports, 1801-1914'.

Lucy is a historian of Ireland, and Britain, specialising in visual culture, with extensive experience in public history and digital humanities.

She completed her PhD at Queen's University, Belfast, researching the social and cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth-century Ireland through photography. Her doctoral thesis centred on the work of Belfast photographer Alexander Hogg (1870-1939), exploring representations of everyday life in the city. Lucy’s research makes interventions in understanding what images reveal about the relationship between class, poverty and visual culture in the city.

Lucy’s current research agenda uses the history of the dairy industry in Ulster through a set of innovative visual and material methodologies.

From 2022-2023 Lucy was a Research Associate at Ulster University, managing the Madill Archive project. This cultural heritage and digitisation project was supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and involved organising an expansive archive which included over 5,000 photographs. 

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

Lucy is a British Association for Irish Studies (BAIS) council member. She is committed to raising awareness of Irish History in Britain and has obtained a National Lottery Heritage Fund Grant for her public photographic exhibition project ‘Faces of the Irish Diaspora’ which be on display in College Green, Bristol, in March 2025.

In 2022, Lucy was awarded Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS). She is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (AFRHS). She is actively involved in digital humanities, public history, cultural heritage and museum initiatives. During her PhD, Lucy acquired placements with the British Library, London and National Museums Northern Ireland, working with their respective photographic collections. She has been employed on a freelance basis by institutions, including the National Portrait Gallery, to lend her expertise and consultation.

TEACHING

Lucy is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). In addition to teaching modules in Irish history and politics, visual culture, photography and world history, she has designed and delivered modules for Open Learning and Lifelong Learning at QUB and is committed to Widening Participation initiatives.

Lucy is currently supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations. If you are a history student at the University of Bristol interested in undertaking a dissertation on Irish History, photography or visual culture, do not hesitate to get in touch