Dr Nicole Robertson
Associate Professor
Summary
Nicole Robertson works on nineteenth and twentieth-century British history. She completed postgraduate study at the University of Nottingham and was awarded the Economic History Society's R. H. Tawney Fellowship. She taught at the University of Nottingham and Northumbria University before joining Sheffield Hallam University. Nicole is currently Associate Professor (Reader) in Modern British History.
About
Nicole's research specialisms include the labour movement and grassroots activism, the development of white-collar work in modern Britain, and the history of retailing, consumer society and the co-operative movement.
Her research has been supported by several fellowships and grants, including the Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Scheme (2015-2017), the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (2015), an AHRC Research Networking Grant (2013-14) and an Economic History Society Small Research Grant (2012).
Her project 'The Clerical Profession and the Administrative Revolution: the Rise of the Modern Workplace in Britain', funded by an AHRC Fellowship, included activities delivered in partnership with the Working Class Movement Library (Salford) and Bishopsgate Institute (London). An online exhibition arising out of the project and delivered in partnership with Bishopsgate Institute can be viewed here:
https://www.shuhistory.com/researchblog/office-life-in-the-twentieth-century
She was Co-Investigator of the AHRC-funded research network 'Tailored Trades: Clothes, Labour and Professional Communities, 1880-1939', with partner organisations Bishopsgate Institute (London) and the People's History Museum (Manchester). Network events included academic workshops at Northumbria University and the University of Exeter, public lectures, school study days and exhibitions. Podcasts and digitised material can be found on the project website. https://tailoredtrades.exeter.ac.uk/
Teaching
College of Social Sciences and Arts
Courses taught:
- BA (Hons) History
Research
Nicole’s current research project, The Clerical Profession and the Administrative Revolution: the Rise of the Modern Workplace in Britain, is funded by an AHRC Fellowship and includes activities delivered in partnership with the Working Class Movement Library (Salford) and Bishopsgate Institute (London). An online exhibition arising out of the project and delivered in partnership with Bishopsgate Institute can be viewed here.
Her research has been supported by a number of fellowships and grants, including the Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership scheme (2015-2017), the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (2015), an AHRC Research Networking Grant (2013-14) and an Economic History Society Small Research Grant (2012).
Publications
Journal articles
Robertson, N. (2024). Women, workers, and women workers: Connections and tensions in transnational activism. International Review of Social History. http://doi.org/10.1017/s0020859024000075
Robertson, N. (2014). The business of leisure: sport, labour and co-operation in post-war Britain. Labor History, 55 (5), 638-653. http://doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2014.961762
Robertson, N. (2012). ‘We try to serve you in every possible way’: The Ewloe Place co-operative society and the Ton Industrial co-operative society during the interwar years’. Llafur : journal of Welsh labour history = cylchgrawn hanes llafur Cymru, 11 (1), 20-35.
Robertson, N. (2012). Collective strength and mutual aid: Financial provisions for members of co-operative societies in Britain. Business History, 54 (6), 925-944. http://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2012.706895
Robertson, N. (2008). ‘“A good deal…and a good deal more”: member activity within co-operative societies’. Socialist History, 32, 18-35.
Book chapters
Robertson, N., Singleton, J., & Taylor, A. (2022). Introduction: Twentieth-century Britain. In Robertson, N., Singleton, J., & Taylor, A. (Eds.) 20th Century Britain: Economic, Cultural and Social Change. Routledge: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003037118-1
Robertson, N. (2017). The Political Dividend: Co-operative Parties in the Midlands, 1917-39. In Labour's Grass Roots. (pp. 147-169). Routledge: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781351154369-8
Robertson, N. (2017). Women at work: activism, feminism and the rise of the female office worker during the First World War and its immediate aftermath. In Labour and Working-Class Lives. Manchester University Press: http://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9781784995270.003.0010
Robertson, N. (2011). The Second Labour Government and the Consumer. In Britain's Second Labour Government 1929-31: A Reappraisal. Eds John Shepherd, Jon Davis and Chris Wrigley. Manchester University Press
Robertson, N. (2009). ‘“Co-operation: the hope of the consumer”? The co-operative movement and consumer protection, 1914-60’. In Black, L., & Robertson, N. (Eds.) Consumerism and the Co-operative Movement in Modern British History: Taking Stock. Manchester University Press
Robertson, N. (2009). ‘A union of forces marching in the same direction’? The relationship between the Co- operative and Labour parties, 1918-39’. In Worley, M. (Ed.) The Foundations of the British Labour Party: Identities, Cultures and Perspectives, 1900-39. Ashgate
Books
Robertson, N., Singleton, J., & Taylor, A. (Eds.). (2022). 20th Century Britain: Economic, Cultural and Social Change. (3rd). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003037118
Robertson, N. (2010). The Co-operative Movement and Communities in Britain 1914-60: minding their own business. Ashgate. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315615035
Black, L., & Robertson, N. (2009). Consumerism and the Co-operative Movement in Modern British History Taking Stock.
Other publications
Robertson, N. (n.d.). Hoster [née Kalisch], Constance Pauline (1864–1939), promoter of women’s employment and secretarial training. Oxford University Press: http://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112230
Other activities
Nicole is a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Study of Labour History and serves on the Economic History Society Publications Committee. She has previously served on the Economic History Society Council and as a Board Member of the National Co-operative Heritage Trust Archive Committee.
Postgraduate supervision
Nicole supervises postgraduates working on 19th and 20th-century British history.
Current postgraduate students are working on:
• The Industrial Fatality in post-Robens Britain, 1974-2014
• Women’s Suffrage in Yorkshire: The non-militant perspectives
• Pacifism and War Resistance within the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1916-1929
Previous projects have included:
• Feminism, Pacifism and Internationalism: The Women’s International League, 1915-1935
• 'The Lady Who Dared' – An Examination of the 1914 Dronfield School
• ‘Lost all sense of the sea’: Popular Navalism and British National Identity, 1884-1939