PhD - Full-time
"The Emotional Life of the Poor in England between 1600 and 1800: How did the poor cope with poverty?"
First Supervisor: David Hitchcock | Chair: Sheila Sweetinburgh
Historically the poor were categorized as ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ by those higher up the social order. The ‘voice’ of the poor is usually lacking from the discourse, hence why this study of the emotions of the poor forms part of a broader ‘History from Below’ investigation. This research primarily focuses on the emotions and emotional turmoil as experienced by the English poor of the seventeenth-century, via their encounters with subsistence living and catastrophe, and rural and urban social networks driven by the harsh moral norms and the systematic policing of the poor laws. This study of emotional upheavals of the poor, which have been under-explored until recently, aims to make further links between the consequences of emotional turmoil and our understanding of the causes of wider social turbulence in seventeenth-century England.
Until 2023, Lizzie worked as a Senior Lecturer in Secondary History Education and Senior Fellow of the HEA at Canterbury Christ Church University. Lizzie also has professional experience managing international charitable expeditions and development projects for young people. Lizzie comes from a secondary school teaching background, having worked in departmental and faculty leadership roles in both selective and non-selective schools across the UK and in Egypt.
Lizzie currently works part-time for the National Citizenship Service managing residential courses, as safe-guarding lead, supporting outward bound activities, teamwork, and leadership personal skills of participants. Lizzie is parent governor of Holy Trinity primary school in Gravesend, Kent, also continuing her work on issues to do with the development of school history curricula at primary and secondary levels.