Dr Lucy Robinson

Biography

I went to Oxford Brookes University as a mature student and took a joint honours degree in English Studies with History. I then moved to Sussex to take the English Literature masters programme, Sexual Dissidence and Cultural Change. After which I moved back into History for my Dphil research, 'Gay Men and the Revolutionary Left in Britain since 1957 - Tracing the development of Identity Politics', which was awarded in 2003.  It was published as 'Gay Men and the Left in Post-war Britain: How the personal got political' by MUP in 2007.  Since my appointment at Sussex I have been developing teaching and research in the History of the 1980s.

Role

As well as teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Contemporary British History, I am Year Two Tutor and involved with facilitating a number of student led initiatives. I am also academic lead one the teaching led digitisation project Observing the Eighties

Community and Business

Lucy is an active member of The Brighton Salon and a regular judge for the 6th form debating competition Debating Matters.  She has worked with museums, community groups and local history groups. Lucy has worked with veterans artists and writing from the Falklands War in two projects MARS (Morality and the Representation of Suffering) and Translate Trauma.  In 2011 Lucy co-launched a collaborative project with musicians, fans, documentary makers and broadcasters looking at rockumentary - musicDOC11.  She also co-authored an influencial report on the kettling of young protestors. Political Protest and the Police: Young People in Brighton, Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics. 2011.  Her work on the JISC funded digitalisataion project 'Observing the Eighties' has gained considerable press attention.  She is also co-founder of a new archive 'Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change', which has recently been awarded an AHRC network grant

My research so far has covered the history of sexuality, identity politics and the Left throughout the twentieth century. I also work on the history of youth and youth culture (particularly counter-culture) as well as on popular culture, the theatre and literature. Specific research areas are: Homosexual law reform, Gay Liberation, activism and terrorism, the 'Loony Left', Punk, Anti-Nazism and Rock against Racism, Paedophile organisations and the campaigns around AIDS.  I am now working on the relationship between popular culture and politics in 1980s Britain and contemporaray protest.

I have more recently been exploring a number of ways in which historians can connect with outside communities particulary through popular cultural representation.  For example I have been working with Falklands veteran writers and artists in  a research project that brings together Life History, History and Neuroscience in a project called Translate Trauma and the Jisc funded digitisation project Observing the Eighties.

I was jointco-ordinator of Morality and the Representation of Suffering (MARS).  http://www.marsproject.co.uk/index.html.   MARS works with veterans and war photographers to explore the ethics of shared narratives of war.

I co-ran musicDOC11 a collaborative project with documentary makers, broadcasters, archivists and musicians on music documentary history and practice. http://www.musicdoc.org.uk/  You can find out more about musicDOC11 in this interview for MusicFilmWeb http://www.musicfilmweb.com/2011/07/lucy-robinson-history-music-films/

I am also one of the organisers of the new  Interdisciplinary Network for the Study of Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change which has recently been awarded an AHRC network grant.

 http://www.reading.ac.uk/history/research/hist-subcultures.aspx.

I am academic lead on the innovative JISC funded project Observing the Eighties which will create a digital archive of the 1980s, including holdings of the Mass Observation Project, British Library Oral History Collection and the Sussex University Documents Collection.  We are producing an open access education resource.  http://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/observingthe80s/about/

There is recent coverage of the project here http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/24/1980s-time-forgot-digital-archive

A further development of this project has been SCARLET+ to explore the use of augmented realities in university teaching.  http://teamscarlet.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/scarlet-adding-augmented-reality-to-the-university-of-sussexs-toolkit/

I am currently writing a book on the relationship between popular culture and politics in the 1980s.

I currently teach the Second Year Time and Place course '1984: Thatcher's  Britain', Britain in the Twentieth Century and the first year course The History of Now. I  co-teach the Second Year thematic 'The Sixties'.  At masters level I have taught a course on the Falklands War and the video documentary option.

I supervise Dphils who are situated in both the History and Media departments.

In 2008 I received a University of Sussex Teaching Award

Student Consultation

A171

Tuesday 11-12

Wednesday 2-3

Warne, Christopher and Robinson, Lucy (2013) Investigating the sixties at a sixties institution: teaching as historiography. Historical Research. ISSN 0950-3471 (In Press)

Warne, Christopher (2013) Subcultural theory in France: a missed rendez-vous? In: Subcultures, popular music and social change. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge. (In Press)

Robinson, Lucy (2012) Putting the charity back into charity singles: charity singles in Britain 1984-1995. Contemporary British History, 26 (3). pp. 405-425. ISSN 1361-9462

Robinson, Lucy (2012) Explanations of post-traumatic stress disorder in Falklands memoirs: the fragmented self and the collective body. Journal of War and Culture Studies, 5 (1). pp. 91-104. ISSN 1752-6272

Robinson, Lucy (2011) Soldiers' stories of the Falklands War: recomposing trauma in memoir. Contemporary British History, 25 (4). pp. 569-589. ISSN 1361-9462

Robinson, Lucy (2011) 'Sometimes I like to stay in and watch TV...' Kinnock's Labour Party and media culture. Twentieth Century British History, 22 (3). pp. 354-390. ISSN 0955-2359

Robinson, Lucy (2011) MusicDOC11: music documentary, history and practice. [Show/Exhibition]

Akehurst, Tom, Purbrick, Louise and Robinson, Lucy (2011) Political protest and the police: young people in Brighton. Project Report. Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE) CAPPE, University of Brighton, Brighton.

Robinson, Lucy (2011) [Review] Diego F. García Quiroga & Mike Seear (2009) Hors de combat: the Falklands-Malvinas conflict in retrospect. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 30 (2). pp. 258-259. ISSN 0261-3050

Robinson, Lucy (2010) [Review] Nick Crowson, Matthew Hilton & James McKay (Eds) (2009) NGOs in contemporary Britain: non-state actors in society and politics since 1945. Economic History Review, 63 (2). pp. 548-549. ISSN 0013-0117

Robinson, Lucy (2010) [Review] Gordon Carr (Dir) (1973) The angry brigade: the spectacular rise and fall of Britain's first urban guerrilla group. Anarchist Studies, 18 (1). ISSN 0967-3393

Robinson, Lucy (2009) [Review] Adrian Horn (2009) Juke box Britain - Americanisation and youth culture, 1945-60. Contemporary British History, 23 (4). pp. 605-606. ISSN 1361-9462

Robinson, Lucy (2008) [Review] David Bell & Joanne Hollows (Eds) (2006) Historicizing lifestyle: mediating taste, consumption and identity from the 1900s to 1970s. Contemporary British History, 22 (4). pp. 599-612. ISSN 1361-9462

Robinson, Lucy (2007) Gay men and the left in post-war Britain: How the personal got political. Critical labour movement studies . Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719074349

Robinson, Lucy (2007) The Bermondsey by-election and leftist attitudes to homosexuality. In: Public men: Masculinity and politics in modern Britain. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230007635

Robinson, Lucy (2006) Three revolutionary years: The impact of the counter culture on the development of the gay liberation movement in Britain. Cultural and Social History, 3 (4). pp. 445-471. ISSN 1478-0038