About me

Hi! I am Stephanie, a researcher and writer specialised in socio-economic history. Over the years I have focused on global and colonial histories of work, the body, and protest. One of my main interests is in how disability has historically affected socio-economic opportunity. My research tries to understand how (changes in) normative thinking about ‘valuable’ bodies and minds affects power relations, precarity, and protest.

After finishing my PhD at the University of Cambridge, I joined EHESP, France as part of the KAPPA project. I am currently writing a transnational history of disability and ageing. I am particularly interested in how ageing affects the accessibility of care and financial support: how does ageing impact the socio-economic opportunities of disabled people and inspire protest?

My interest in the relationship between disability and socio-economic opportunity was sparked during archival research for my PhD dissertation, The cost of workplace injury. Based on archival research in Mauritius, Ghana, Barbados, the UK, and the International Labour Archives in Geneva, my dissertation demonstrates that workplace accidents in the British Empire in the 1930s had a measurable financial impact which motivated workers and their kin in British colonies to plea for injury compensation. My research shows that disabled workers and their families held state and industry responsible for the costs of injury.

If you would like to know more about me, my research, teaching, and publications, please send me a message. I am also very happy to answer questions from students about navigating sources and literature for disability history, how to find a wonderful PhD supervisor (thank you Gareth Austin!!) and apply for funding, and how to organise archival work..