Dr. Laura Schwartz

Biography

Laura Schwartz is a historian specializing in modern British history, particularly focusing on feminism and labor movements during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her academic journey has involved examining the intellectual and political formations that drove successive feminist movements in Britain, as well as the 'lived' experiences of these ideas. Throughout her career, she has explored how feminism influenced the emergence of secularism, reforms in higher education, and working-class politics. Schwartz's research critically investigates the political limitations and contradictions within British feminism, especially in relation to class and imperialism. She is currently involved in a network titled 'Writing Labour History Brexit Britain,' which seeks to challenge contemporary interpretations of 'the British working class.' She was recently awarded the Leverhulme Research Fellowship for 2024-2025 to work on a new book project entitled 'Queer Folk: Proletarian Countercultures in Britain, 1780-1939.' Schwartz welcomes applications from prospective postgraduate students interested in nineteenth and twentieth-century feminism and labor movements, as well as the history of gender and class more generally.

Research Interests

Experience