| Post: | Senior Lecturer in History |
| Location: | Arts A A137 |
| Email: | C.L.Langhamer@sussex.ac.uk |
| Telephone numbers | |
| Internal: | 2163 |
| UK: | (01273) 606755 ext. 2163 |
| International: | +44 1273 606755 ext. 2163 |
Biography
Dr Langhamer currently teaches undergraduate courses in Contemporary British History. These include a special subject entitled Domesticity and its Discontents: Women in Postwar Britain and the time and place course 1963:Sexual Revolution in Britain. She has also taught courses such as Britain in the Twentieth Century, Feminism, The Social History of Women 1870-1920, Imagining the North and Introduction to Contemporary History
At postgraduate level she currently teaches a core course for the MA in Life History Research entitled Critical Approaches to Mass-Observation. She has also taught the MA Contemporary History core course, Historical Skills and Methods: doing a research project, and options including The History of Feminism, Women's Lives, Life Histories and Social Change and Making a Contemporary History Video Documentary.
Claire was awarded the University of Sussex Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003.
Claire is the Convenor of graduate programmes and graduate research in the History department. She currently supervises eight doctoral students.
Recent doctoral completions:
Jen Purcell, 'Beyond Home: Housewives and the Nation. Private and Public Identities, 1939-1949.' (2008)
Christine Jesman, 'Conservative Women, The Primrose League and Public Activity in Surrey & Sussex c.1880-1902' (2008)
Benjamin Jones, 'Neighbourhood, family and home: the working class experience in mid-twentieth century Britain' (2009)
Research
Claire's first book explored the complex relationship between women and leisure in England across the period 1920-1960. Departing from approaches which have focused upon particular activities or institutions, Women's Leisure in England, 1920-1960 placed everyday experiences at its centre and paid particular attention to the meanings and understandings of leisure which emerge from the oral history method. The book argued that experiences and perceptions of leisure were fundamentally structured along life-cycle lines: leisure in youth was often characterised by freedom and independence whilst leisure in adulthood became a vehicle for service and duty to others.
Claire is currently working on a history of love and commitment across the period c. 1930-1970. This book project explores changing courtship practices and arenas, discursive constructions of marriage, shifting expectations of emotional and sexual intimacy, extra-marital relationships and the postwar divorce debate. It interrogates the importance of the Second World War as a driver of social change and explores the relationship between postwar affluence and shifting emotional and sexual cultures. It employs a range of life history and documentary materials including evidence drawn from both 'old' and 'new' Mass-Observation. This research developed out of a focus upon courtship and leisure and further develops her interest in life history research and the Mass-Observation archive in particular. An article on adultery has already been published in History Workshop Journal and a piece on courtship in The Historical Journal.
Recent conference papers from this project include
‘Commissioning a Mass-Observation Directive', ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, Network for Methodological Innovation, 2008, ‘Archiving and Reusing Qualitative Data. Theory, Methods, Ethics and Disciplines, ‘Methods and the Archive' Seminar, 2008.
‘Love, Passion and 1950s Girlhood', 1950s Women Network Symposium, ‘The forgotten generation. Girls and young women in the 1950s'. 2008.
‘‘What does it mean to really be in love?' The authenticity of emotional intimacy in mid-century England.' Social History Society Conference, 2008.
‘Prostitution in the Golden Age of Marriage', European Social Science History Conference, 2008.
‘Courtship, Gender and Class in Postwar Britain'. Social History Society Conference, 2007.
‘Adultery in Postwar England', Social History Society Conference, 2006.
Claire is co-director of the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research and the Sussex War and Society research centre. She is on the Editorial board of Women's History Review and History of the Family: an international quarterly. She was a consultant editor for Mass Observation Online and is a Mass-Observation Trusteee. She is also a member of the Mass Observation Academic Advisory Group. She was a member of the Social History Society exec committee, 2006-2009.
Claire co-organises the interdisciplinary network - Women in the 1950s - with Dr Penny Tinkler (Sociology, University of Manchester), Dr Stephanie Spencer (Faculty of Education, University of Winchester) The network aims to shed light on a hitherto neglected generation of girls and women and facilitate reflection on the relationship between the 1950s and the 1960s/1970s, particularly in light of the Women's Liberation Movement.
The Network has organised two symposia: 'The forgotten generation. Girls and young women in the 1950s' (September, 2008, London) and 'Fifties Film: women and gender in focus' (May 2009, Sussex).
We have recently been awarded a grant in the ESRC Research Seminars Competition and a two year seminar sereies will commence in 2009-10.
Selected publications
2008
‘Leisure: comparative history and practices’ Bonnie G. Smith, ed., in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History OUP, USA
2007
‘Love and courtship in mid-twentieth century England’ in Historical Journal Volume 50 pp. 173-196
‘Mass Observation and histories of women’ in Mass Observation Online
2006
‘Adultery in Post-war England’ in History Workshop Journal Volume 62 pp. 86-115
2005
‘Leisure, Pleasure and Courtship: young women in England, c.1920-1960’ Maynes, Soland and Benninghaus, ed., in Secret Gardens, Satanic Mills. Placing Girls in European History, 1750-1960. Indiana University Press ISBN 0-253-21710-5
‘The Meanings of Home in Postwar Britain’ in Journal of Contemporary History Volume 40 pp. 341-362
2003
‘A public house is for all classes, men and women alike’: women, leisure and drink in Second World War England in Women's History Review Volume 12 pp. 423-443
2001
‘Towards a feminist framework for the history of women’s leisure, c. 1920-1960.’ A Gallagher, C. Lubelska, L. Ryan, ed., in Re-presenting the Past. Women and History. Longman
2000
Women’s Leisure in England 1920-1960 Manchester University Press: Manchester University Press ISBN 719057361
1999
‘Manchester women and their leisure: changing experiences from youth to married adulthood 1920-1960’ Manchester Region History Review: Manchester Region History Review Volume XIII pp. 32-42 ISBN 9524320
1995
‘Women’s Leisure in the Life Cycle: an oral history study of Manchester women 1920-1960’ Women's History Notebooks: Women's History Notebooks Volume 2 (2) pp. Mar-14 ISBN 1358-1457