Dr. Kate Gibson

Biography

Kate Gibson is a social historian focused on eighteenth-century Britain, particularly examining 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. Currently, she is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the John Rylands Research Institute, researching the history of fostering and adoption in Britain from 1700 to 1839. Gibson has extensively studied and written about family life, sexual behaviour, illegitimacy, fostering, adoption, childcare, gender, and religion over time. Her work has been published in significant academic journals like Historical Journal, Past & Present, and Cultural & Social History. She completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2018 with funding from the Wolfson Foundation. She has held fellowships at institutions such as the University of Edinburgh and the University of Birmingham, and has been involved in projects examining lay religion and urbanisation in Northern England. Kate enjoys engaging wider audiences with her research through various media, including BBC Radio 4, and has contributed to local historical projects and documentaries.

Research Interests

Experience