Member, University Public Lectures Committee
Member, HASS BGP Management Committee
BA(Hons) University of Northumbria, 1988
Dip.CG University of Northumbria, 1989
PhD University of Northumbria, 1993
Associate Lecturer in History, University of Northumbria, 1991-1999
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Society for the Study of Labour History
Co-operative Archive Committee
North East Labour History Society
North East England Historical Institute (NEEHI)
Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society
Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne
North East Teaching and Learning Network
AHRC Research Fellowship, 2007
Victorian society and politics; nineteenth-century British radicalism, especially Chartism; The Victorian press; Modern British History with reference to the North East of England;
My most recent work is a major collection of essays on labour history(co-edited with Alan Campbell and John McIlroy), Histories of Labour: National and Transnational Perspectives(Merlin Press, 2010)In 2009 I co-edited (with Owen R Ashton)a Special Issue of Labour History Review, 74.1 (2009)on Chartism
I have contributed 11 entries to Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor (eds) Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism (British Library, 2010)
I am currently researching the life and career of the Irish nationalist and Catholic press magnate Charles Diamond MP(1858-1934
I am the co-author(with Dr Richard C Allen) of a new history of Newcastle which is to be published by Carnegie Press.
I welcome proposals from postgraduates who are interested in any aspect of Victorian society and politics, from a national or a regional perspective.I would be particularly interested in projects which focus upon the history of the popular press or the Irish in Britain.
in 2011 my postgraduate student, Marcella Sutcliffe was awarded a doctorate for her study British radicals and Italian nationalists
My current postgraduate students are:
Tony Bryan (PhD: The South African War)
Tanju Sen (MPhil:Women in 19th C. Bengal)
Susan Beaumont (PhD: Women and early banking in Newcastle upon Tyne)
Marcia McLuckie (MLitt: The Literature and History of the NE Country House c.1900)
Director, North East England Historical Institute [NEEHI]
Vice Chair, Society for the Study of Labour History
Editor, Labour History Review
Editorial Advisory Board Member,Northern History.
A Director of BUTTRESS (Tyne and Wear Buildings' Preservation Trust).
Member of the Co-operative Archives Trust,Holyoake House, Manchester.
HIS 3080 Victorian Society, 1832-1884
HIS 3079 Popular Politics and Reform, 1811-1850
HIS 2037 Progress and Plenty? British History 1815-1914
HIS 2112 Outsiders: Minorities in Modern Europe
HIS 3008 Reading History
HIS 3010 Writing History (Dissertation)
HIS 8037 The British Press [MA in British History]
MA Dissertations