Professor Caitriona Beaumont

Now a Professor Emerita, I was appointed Professor of Social History in 2020. I joined LSBU in 1998 as Lecturer in History in the School of Law and Social Sciences (LSS). I was awarded a BA (Hons.) History and Politics Degree in 1988 and an MA Modern Irish History in 1990 from University College Dublin, followed by a PhD in Social History from the University of Warwick in 1997. From 2015 to 2022 I was Director of Research and REF Unit of Assessment 20 Lead (REF2021) for LSS. I contributed to teaching across History, Criminology, Politics, International Relations, Sociology and Film Studies Programmes.  I have supervised multiple PhDs and have six completions.  I am a fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHS) and served as an elected trustee/council member of the RHS 2022-2025. Currently I am a Visiting Full Professor at University College Dublin and a Visiting Researcher at the University of Turku, Finland. 

Research:
I am an expert on the history of female activism, female networks and women’s movements in Ireland and Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth century. My first book, Housewives and Citizens: Domesticity and the Women’s Movement in England 1928-1964 was published by MUP in 2013.
I am currently working on four research projects.

The first, Beyond Women's Liberation, is a study of intergenerational activism within the women's movement in late twentieth century Britain. This project for the first time investigates the interaction between traditional housewives’ associations and the Women’s Liberation Movement. The project will result in a number of outputs and includes an article published in 2024 in the international journal Women's History Review. 

My second project ‘The Expertise of Experience in Twentieth Century Britain’, is a collaborative project working with 14 academics across the UK. Our project has resulted in the publication of a co-edited collection (C. Beaumont, E. Colpus & R. Davidson) entitled Everyday Welfare in Modern British History: experience, expertise and activism (Palgrave, 2025). To support the completion of this publication I was awarded a Visiting Fellowship to the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences (HEX), University of Tampere, March-April 2023.

For my third project I am Principal Investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research network 'Agency and Advocacy: Locating Women's Grassroots Activism in England and Ireland, 1918 to the present' (August 2023-January 2025).

My final project is 'Afterlives: uncovering the life stories and contributions of activist women in the wake of revolution and civil war: Ireland, Finland and Germany, 1918-1980s'. This project is currently being developed into a larger international project working with colleagues across Ireland, the UK, Finland, Austria and Hungary. 

External Activities: 
I am a Visiting Full Professor at University College Dublin, Ireland, School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice (2023-2028).

I am a Visiting Researcher at the University of Turku, Finland (2026-2027).

I am a Visiting Fellow at University College Galway, Ireland, 7-11 September 2026. 

I sit on the editorial boards of a number of leading international journals, for example Modern British History and Contemporary British History.

I am a peer reviewer for a wide range of journals and publishers and have experience as a referee for national and international research-funding bodies.

In 2022 I was appointed to the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Peer Review College (2022-2027).

You can follow me on Bluesky @caitbeaumont.bsky.social

In 2018, I worked with Channel 4 News on a short film 'Suffragettes vs Suffragists: Did violent protest get women the vote? to mark the centenary of the partial extension of the parliamentary franchise to women in the UK', available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw0IAFIhVfA

Sociology, Politics, International Relations and Criminology