Katie Barclay

Professor Katie Barclay

Professor

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Professor Katie Barclay is a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Humanities, University of Adelaide. Between 2019 and March 2024, she was Head of Historical and Classical Studies and, from 2021-Mar2024, Director of the Fay Gale Centre in Gender Studies. From 2019-2022, she was Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in the History of Emotions. She is a graduate in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow, where she completed her undergraduate degree, Masters and PhD. Before joining the University of Adelaide, she held a Research Fellowship in the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast. Between 2008 and 2010, she worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick on a project, run jointly with Queen’s, ‘Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925’. In 2007-8, Dr Barclay was the Economic History Society Anniversary Fellow, held through the Institute of Historical Research, London. She came to Australia as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for the History of Emotions (2011-2014), and subsequently held a Discovery Early Career Award (2014-2017). In 2017-18, Barclay was a EURIAS Marie Curie Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus Universitet. She is currently Future Fellow and Professor at Macquarie University, Sydney.

My research expertise can be grouped into three areas: 1) the history of emotions and family life; 2) the history of subjectivity and identity creation, especially with respect to gender; 3) histories of Britain, particularly Scotland and Ireland between the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. I have a particular expertise in how people display, construct and understand emotions in a variety of contexts, but particularly within family relationships and childhood studies, including marriage, parent-child and sibling relationships. This includes histories of love and intimacy, grief and anger and more. I have an innovative approach to exploring how people perform who they are (whether in letters, song, or in everyday interactions), how those performed selves influence social and familial interaction, and how emotion is used as a medium for identity, as a method of communication, and as a tool for negotiating power. Whilst I trained as an economic and social historian, and moved into cultural history, I have spent much of my career in interdisciplinary centres. Thus, my work is marked by a broad range of cultural studies methodologies, intersecting with literature, sociology, law and gender studies. I have worked on case studies that range from medieval Europe to twenty-first century Australia.

I am the author of Love, Intimacy and Power: Marriage and Patriarchy in Scotland, 1650-1850 (Manchester, 2011), Men on Trial: Performing Emotion, Embodiment and Identity, 1800-1845 (Manchester, 2019); A History of Emotions: A Student Guide to Sources and Methods (Basingstoke, 2020); Caritas: Neighbourly Love and the Early Modern Self (Oxford, 2021), Academic Emotions: Feeling the Institution (Cambridge, 2021); with Leanne Downing, Memes, Emotions and the Making of History (Cambridge, 2023) and numerous articles and book chapters.

Between 2019-23, I held an ARC Discovery grant 'Precarious Accounts: Money, Sex and Power in the Industrial Revolution' to explore how accounting practices shaped selfhood and morality across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This will lead to a biography of the Scottish banker Gilbert Innes of Stowe, as well as second monograph on accounts as a source for the self.

With Joanne Begiato at Oxford Brookes, I held an Arts and Humanities Research Council Networking Grant on 'Inheriting the Family', which explores how we use the objects that we inherit from our families to produce identities, families and the nation.

I currently hold an ARC Future Fellowship that explores 'How to Feel Safe at the End of the World'.

  • Appointments
    Date Position Institution name
    2023 - ongoing Professor University of Adelaide
    2019 - 2022 Associate Professor University of Adelaide
    2017 - 2018 EURIAS Marie Curie Fellow Aarhus Universitet
    2017 - 2018 Senior Research Fellow University of Adelaide
    2014 - 2017 Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellow University of Adelaide
    2011 - 2014 Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of Adelaide
    2010 - 2011 Research Fellow Queen's University Belfast
    2008 - 2010 Research Fellow University of Warwick
    2007 - 2008 Economic History Society Anniversary Fellow University of London/ University of Glasgow
    2004 - 2008 Casual Lecturer and Tutor University of Glasgow

  • Awards and Achievements
    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2020 Award Canadian Historical Association Neil Sutherland Prize Canadian Historical Association Canada -
    2018 Award Royal Historical Society David Berry Prize Royal Historical Society United Kingdom -
    2018 Fellowship Senior Fellow of Advance Higher Education Advance Higher Education United Kingdom -
    2016 Fellowship Fellow of the Royal Historical Society Royal Historical Society United Kingdom -
    2015 Research Award Vice-Chancellor’s Women’s Research Excellence Award University of Adelaide Australia $5,000
    2014 Fellowship Visiting Research Fellowship Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh United Kingdom -
    2012 Award Senior Hume-Brown Prize for Scottish History - United Kingdom £2000
    2012 Award Women’s History Network Book Prize Women’s History Network United Kingdom £500
    2011 Fellowship Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Emotions University of Adelaide Australia -
    2010 Fellowship Institute of Irish Studies Research Fellowship Queen's University, Belfast United Kingdom -
    2008 Fellowship AHRC Research Fellowship University of Warwick United Kingdom -
    2007 Fellowship Economic History Society Anniversary Fellowship Institute of Historical Research, University of London United Kingdom -
    2005 Award Women’s History Scotland Essay Prize Women's History Scotland United Kingdom £100

  • Education
    Date Institution name Country Title
    2004 - 2008 University of Glasgow United Kingdom PhD Economic and Social History
    2003 - 2004 University of Glasgow United Kingdom MPhil Social History
    1999 - 2003 University of Glasgow United Kingdom MA(Hons) Economic and Social History

Major Grants

Inheriting the Family: Emotions, History, Heritage, project funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) 2019-2922, With Joanne Begiato, Oxford Brookes, £52,688.

This project explores how, when and why people hold on to the things they inherit within their family, and when and it what contexts such items move into national heritage, such as through moving into museums or archives. It brings methodologies from the history of emotions to interrogate how our affective and familial investments in the past come to shape national histories.

Precarious Accounts: Money, Sex and Power in the Industrial Revolution, project funded by the ARC 2019-2021, DP190100626, $150,000

This project aims to provide a historical perspective on contemporary debates around the uses of self-tracking technologies. It expects to generate new knowledge on how practices for quantifying the self relate to significant social and economic change, notably during the industrial revolution, and so how measuring systems and the production of big data shape the world. It does so using a case study of Gilbert Innes, a banker known for his sexual exploitation of women and obsessive book-keeping. The expected outcome is a history of how accounting shaped identity and morality in the nineteenth century. Through improving our understanding of how quantification practices shape society, this research supports their effective use today. Outcomes include: a workshop, monograph, articles and book chapters, edited collection.

Family, Identity and the Stolen Generation, project funded by SA Stolen Generations Community Reparation Fund, $92,202, With Katie Barclay, Jenni Caruso (University of Adelaide) & Steven Barclay, Cheryl Love and Joffre Pearce (Murray Bridge High School)

The Njarrindjeri people of the Murray Bridge region were deeply impacted by the forcible removal of their children. It has left deep legacies, not only in terms of hurt and loss of family and identity for the members of the community who were removed or who lost their children, but for the wider community and for their children in the present, who live in its shadow. Despite this, the history of the Stolen Generations is not widely told in South Australian schools, nor are these legacies and their impacts well understood. This project is a community engagement project between members of the Stolen Generation community residing in the Murray Bridge region and the students of Murray Bridge High School, supported by academics at the University of Adelaide. In brief, it involves conducting oral histories with the Stolen Generation and using them as the basis for local activities and engagement between students and the community, an online memorial, and the production of a curriculum, including teaching resources, that can be rolled out in schools across South Australia. It shall also contribute to academic histories on this subject.

A History of Intimate Relationships in Scotland: Emotion and Family among the Lower Orders, 1661-1830, project funded by the ARC 2014-2017, DE140100111, $373,329

Small Grants, Conference and Seminar Funding

2019 ANZAMEMS Special Project Funding, ‘Western Civilisation in the 21st Century’, $15,000

2018 University of Adelaide Faculty Research Active Award Scheme (Teaching racial equality in schools), $2,977

2017 University of Adelaide Faculty of Architecture Conference funding (Mapping the Emotional Cityscape), $3,582

2017 ARC Centre for the History of Emotions Symposium Scheme (Mapping the Emotional Cityscape), $3,474

2016 ARC Centre for the History of Emotions Conference Panel Bursary Scheme (Big Berks), $13,750

2015 University of Adelaide Faculty Research Active Award Scheme (The Bank of Mum and Dad) $5,000

2015 University of Adelaide Interdisciplinary Research Fund (Dislocated Children: Children in/and Care) $26,000

2015 Economic History Society Conference Grant (Marriage Symposium) £1,000

2014 University of Adelaide DVC Teaching & Learning Grant (e-learning project) $10,000

2012 Strathmartine Trust Grant (reproduction of images) £1015

2012 Scouloudi Publication Grant (reproduction of images) £1000

2011 Economic History Society Conference Grant (ESHSS Conference) £1951

2011 Royal Historical Society Conference Grant (ESHSS Conference) £100

2010 Roberts Fund, University of Warwick (research) £600

2010 Economic History Society Conference Grant (Women’s History Network Conference) £2000

2010 Royal Historical Society Conference Grant (Women’s History Network Conference) £200

2010 Royal Historical Society Conference Grant (ESHSS Conference) £200

2007 Economic History Society Conference Grant (Historical Perspectives Conference) £2000

2007 ESHSS Conference Grant (Historical Perspectives Conference) £200

2006 AHRC Conference Grant (Historical Perspectives Conference) £2000

2006 ESHSS Conference Grant (Historical Perspectives Conference) £200

2005 Economic History Society Conference Grant (Historical Perspectives Conference) £2000

2005 Arts and Humanities Collaborative Research Training Initiatives Fund, Roberts Trust (Historical Perspectives Seminar Series) £360

I am actively engaged in teaching and learning and a Senior Fellow of Advance Higher Education. I have previously led the department strategy for Learning & Teaching, and currently support work in this area as Head of Department. Recently, I have been working on a series of resources to support teaching in the history of emotions, including A History of Emotions: a Student Guide to Sources and Methods (2020); with Sharon Crozier-de Rosa and Peter Stearns, eds, Sources for the History of Emotions: a Student Guide (2020), and with Francois Soyer, a four volume collection of sources, Emotions in Europe, 1517-1914: A Sourcebook.

 

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2023 Co-Supervisor Consider “anti-Tom” novels as proslavery propaganda in comparison to slave narratives. How did these texts represent female sexuality and motherhood within the plantation system? Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Miss Jacqueline Victoria Cook
    2023 Co-Supervisor Kunwinjku History Painting- A reconceptualisation of Kunwinjku art as personal & biographical responses to historical events, in the mediums of rock art and contemporary painting. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Kerri Elisabeth Meehan
    2022 Co-Supervisor Fact, Fiction, or Representation? An Exploration into the Portrayal of Historical Women in Historical Fiction. Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Miss Tielah-Jade Cannon
    2022 Co-Supervisor Marginal Martyrs: Faith, Doubt, and John Foxe, c. 1553-1558 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Grace May Howe
    2022 Co-Supervisor Labour-Environmentalism in Australia, c. 1975-2020 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Nicholas James Herriot
    2019 Co-Supervisor Intimacy, Power, and Separation: The Impact of Military Service on Marital Relationships in World War II Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Emma Gwen Carson

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2021 - 2022 Co-Supervisor Feeling Heads: Phrenology and Emotion in the United States, 1820-1850 Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Lachlan James McCarron
    2020 - 2023 Co-Supervisor “Dear Daddy”: Australian Children and their Servicemen Fathers during the Second World War Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Miss Jade Tayla Ryles
    2020 - 2023 Co-Supervisor Memory politics and Scottish exceptionalism in the referenda of 1979, 1997, 2014, and 2016. Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Miss Courtney Paige Davis
    2019 - 2023 Principal Supervisor Sex, Money, Art and Death: A Biography of my Grandparents, Edith Birks and Basil Burdett with a Family History of the Birks - Napier - McDougall Dynasty. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Michael Henry Napier Heim
    2019 - 2024 Co-Supervisor ‘Knot of Love and Concord’: Loyalty in the Life of Mary I Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Miss Meagan Elizabeth Nattrass
    2018 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Married Women’s Litigation in the English Court of Chancery, 1698-1758 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Emily Ireland
    2018 - 2022 Principal Supervisor Romantic and Socio-Sexual Scripts in Eighteenth-Century Britain Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Miss Lani Gerbi
    2017 - 2018 Co-Supervisor 'Baptism, No Wall of Division': Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptists and Dynamics of Toleration Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Matthew James Gray
    2016 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Women, Piety, and Patronage in Reformation England, c.1530-1558 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Stephanie Joan Thomson
    2016 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Mysticism and Emotional transformation in a Seventeenth-Century English Convent Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Jessica McCandless
    2015 - 2018 Co-Supervisor Emotions in Place: The Creation of the Suburban 'Other' in Early Modern London Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Jade Michelle Riddle
    2013 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Aristocratic Women at the Late Elizabethan Court: Politics, Patronage and Power Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Joanne Lee Hocking
    2013 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Dynastic Marriage in England, Castile and Aragon, 11th-16th Centuries Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Lisa Anne Joseph

  • Board Memberships
    Date Role Board name Institution name Country
    2021 - 2023 Member College of Experts Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen Belgium
    2019 - ongoing Member Management Committee Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender Australia
    2014 - 2015 Advisory Board Member Advisory Reference Group ‘Diploma/Associate Degree of Tertiary Studies Renewal of Course Accreditation’ Melbourne Polytechnic Australia
    2009 - 2011 Director Glasgow Women’s Aid Glasgow Women’s Aid United Kingdom

  • Committee Memberships
    Date Role Committee Institution Country
    2020 - ongoing Member Mary Bennett Prize Australian Women's History Network Australia
    2015 - ongoing Co-Founder Dislocated Childhoods Research Cluster University of Adelaide Australia
    2015 - 2018 Member School of Humanities Teaching and Learning Committee University of Adelaide Australia
    2014 - ongoing Chair Family & Emotions Research Cluster ARC Centre for the History of Emotions Australia
    2014 - 2019 Member WHN Book Prize Committee Women's History Network United Kingdom
    2014 - 2014 Member HUMSS Faculty Research Committee University of Adelaide Australia
    2014 - 2019 Chair History Discipline Teaching and Learning Committee University of Adelaide Australia
    2012 - 2013 Member History Discipline Research Committee University of Adelaide Australia
    2011 - ongoing Representative Economic and Social History Society for Scotland - United Kingdom
    2010 - ongoing Member ESHSS Annual Postgraduate Essay Prize Economic and Social History Society of Scotland -
    2009 - 2011 Board Member Women's History Network Women's History Network United Kingdom
    2007 - 2011 Secretary Economic and Social History Society for Scotland - United Kingdom
    2006 - 2008 Board Member Historical Perspectives Postgraduate Society - United Kingdom
    2004 - 2007 Member Economic and Social History Society for Scotland - United Kingdom
    2004 - 2006 Treasurer Historical Perspectives Postgraduate Society - United Kingdom

  • Memberships
    Date Role Membership Country
    2011 - ongoing Member Australian Women's History Network Australia
    2011 - ongoing Member Gender in European Towns Network Denmark
    2008 - ongoing Member Women's History Scotland United Kingdom
    2007 - 2010 Member Centre for Gender History, University of Glasgow United Kingdom
    2004 - ongoing Member Women's History Network United Kingdom

  • Editorial Boards
    Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
    2016 - ongoing Editor Emotions: History, Culture, Society - Australia
    2011 - 2015 Editor-In-chief Women's History Women's History Network United Kingdom
  • Position: Professor
  • Phone: 83135916
  • Email: katie.barclay@adelaide.edu.au
  • Fax: 83134341
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Napier, floor 3
  • Org Unit: School of Humanities
Connect With Me
External Profiles