Dr. Kate Gibson

Biography

Kate Gibson is a social historian specializing in eighteenth-century Britain, focusing on reproduction, inequality, and family relationships. Her book, 'Illegitimacy, Family Stigma in England, 1660-1834', published by Oxford University Press in 2022, won the Women's History Network Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society Whitfield Prize. She is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the John Rylands Research Institute, researching the history of fostering and adoption in Britain from 1700 to 1839. Her extensive research covers various aspects of family life, sexual behavior, illegitimacy, fostering, adoption, childcare, care work, gender, and religion during this historical period. Kate completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2018, funded by the Wolfson Foundation, and has held fellowships at several prestigious institutions including the University of Edinburgh and the University of Birmingham. She joined the University of Manchester in 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher on the AHRC-funded project 'Faith Town: Lay Religion, Urbanisation and Industrialisation in England, 1740-1830'. Kate actively shares her research with wider audiences, contributing to BBC Radio 4 and working as a consultant for various projects, including television documentaries. Her blog explores aspects of daily life in eighteenth-century Northern England.

Research Interests

Experience