Miss Zoe Thomas

Research

I completed my doctorate at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2016 and am now a Teaching Fellow in Modern British History at the University of Birmingham alongside Coordinator of the Centre for Gender, Identity, and Subjectivity in the History Faculty at the University of Oxford.

I am currently turning my AHRC-funded doctorate into a book titled 'Women Art Workers and the Arts and Crafts Movement'. My thesis was titled 'The Women's Guild of Arts: Gender, space, and professional identity in London, c. 1870-1930', and examined this institution, alongside the public and private lives of its members. Far from being mere appendages, my thesis argued, women were integral in disseminating the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement through their art, published work, private letters, sociability in newly formed associations, and through extensive kinship and friendship groups.

I am also pursuing other research projects which reflect my interest in nineteenth and twentieth century history: from women's organisations and historical pageants in the interwar period, the integral involvement of artists and designers in shaping the suffrage campaign, through to the gendered nature of professional identity in modern history.

My first article titled 'At Home with the Women's Guild of Arts: gender and professional identity in London studios, c. 1880-1925' was published in Women's History Review in 2015 and my second article titled 'Historical pageants, citizenship, and the performance of women's history before second wave feminism' will be published in Twentieth Century British History in 2017. 

Alongside this, I have extensive experience of teaching modern British, European, and North American history alongside Liberal Arts modules, at the University of Roehampton, Westminster University, King's College London, Royal Holloway, and the University of East London. I have also held internships, paid, and voluntary roles at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and with the National Trust. 

Awards

• Winner of the 2016 Duncan Tanner Essay Prize for best graduate article in Twentieth Century British History
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Wolfson College, Oxford University research bursary recipient. Support for the year to develop book project and £750
• AHRC-funded three-month Huntington Library Fellowship, California, £5,000
• University College London three-month CLASH Fellowship at Standen House, National Trust. Selected for public engagement project to carry out research and assist with curating an exhibition on the Arts and Crafts architect Philip Webb. Awarded £2,500 for materials
• The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, research support grant, £1,562
• Royal Holloway International scholarship for Yale University exchange, £1,500
• Friendly Hand Fellowship, to support archival research at Yale University, £800  
• FRAN Trust Foundation Scotland travel grant, £500
• Royal Historical Society travel grant, £400
• North American Conference for British Studies STERN grant, £280         
• AHRC studentship (full fees and maintenance), £50,000
• Royal Holloway Faculty Research Initiative Funding to fund IHR workshop, £750          
• Gladstone Library Research Scholar, one week funded residential trip, £500
• Design History Society Student Research Travel Award, £400      
• Lancaster University, Joseph Hertford Sutton Prize for the highest MA result in the year, £200
• University of Warwick, Pasold Research Fund MA award, £350

Contact

Please email me at zoemariathomas@gmail.com if you would like to contact me.  

I am also on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/_zoethomas.