I am a historian of modern Britain, specialising in the twentieth-century histories of relationships, gender, sexuality, and youth culture.

 

Research

I'm a social historian and my research focuses primarily on the history of inter-personal relationships. I have published articles on the history of marriage, friendship, and heterosexuality and my current research explores the social history of gender and sexuality in post-war Britain from a number of different perspectives.

 

Teenage Intimacies: Sex, self and social life in England, 1950-1980
I am in the process of developing my first book which interrogates teenage girls' heterosexuality in England between 1950 and 1980. This research uses oral history and Mass Observation testimonies to explore how questions of sex shaped girls' experiences of growing up during the era of so-called 'Sexual Revolution'.

 

The Labour of Liberation
In addition to the above work, I am currently researching the work of feminist activists in the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing upon materials held in the Feminist Archive South, this project focuses on the work of women's centres and rape crisis centres to demonstrate how feminist organisations provided essential social services in the late-C20. This work explore the cross-overs and boundaries between work and activism and demonstrates the need for histories of activism to engage more deeply with the materiality, as well as the ideology, of activist campaigns in the past.

 

Schools as Social Spaces in Post-War Britain
My next research project aims to re-write the history of schools in post-war Britain by focusing not on their role as formal education providers but instead examining them as a key site for young people's social lives.

 

Teaching

I teach the following 'Special' units:

• Teenage Kicks: Youth Culture in Britain since 1918 (3rd year Special Subject, unit convenor)
• Decade of Discord: Britain in the 1970s (2nd year Special Field, unit covenor)

I contribute to the following 'Option' units:

• The Making of Contemporary Britain (2nd year TB2 Option, unit convenor)
• Rewriting Modern Britain (MA TB1)
  
  

I also co-ordinate the Skills strand of the first year core unit Approaching the Past.

 

 

Contact Details

Office: 71 Cotham Hill, Room G.06
Phone: 0117 33 10532
Email: hannah.charnock@bristol.ac.uk
Twitter: @HannahLC88

 

Office Hours

I am on research leave in Spring 2021. Please drop me an email if you wish to arrange a meeting.