Dr Rosemary Elliot
- Senior Lecturer (Political & International Studies)
- Associate (School of Health & Wellbeing)
telephone:
01413308424
email:
Rosemary.Elliot@glasgow.ac.uk
Economic and Social History, Room 630, Gilbert Scott Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1808-8234Biography
I am a Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History. My PhD and post-doctoral work was on smoking and health in Britain and Germany; and since then I have worked on projects related to the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths, reproductive loss, and marriage and the family in Scotland.
Being a long-term single parent means that maintaining a research career has been somewhat challenging as I have had to adapt to circumstances and more limited opportunities. The common thread in my work is an interest in the interaction of legal and policy history within social and medical contexts, and, increasingly, the experiences of individuals as they navigate family-related life events.
Research interests
I am currently working on the history of divorce in Scotland and its diaspora since 1830 (when divorce came under the jurisdiction of the Court of Session in Scotland, and not the Commissary Courts) to the late twentieth century. My expertise and interest in divorce developed from my role as co-investigator in an AHRC-funded project on working-class marriage in Scotland, 1855 – 1976, which in turn drew on my experience researching civil registration in Scotland. I am particularly interested in the development of the law in and beyond Scotland, particularly in areas where Scots migrated to, and the experiences of people who were or sought to be divorced. My research draws on civil, legal and policy records, newspapers, journals and periodicals, court records, and personal testimonies as well as genealogy.
Research groups
Grants
A pilot study on the history of Miscarriage in Britain funded by the Economic History Society, 2018.
A History of Working Class Marriage, 1855-1976, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Co-Investigator (2012 - 2017)
This research project explored the history of marriage and the family from the onset of civil registration through to the reform of divorce laws in the 1970s. There were four main research themes:
- Love and courtship
- Experiences of marriage and cohabitation
- Marriage breakdown
- Families (multiple family forms, parenting and childhood)
Smoking and Health in Germany from Occupation and Re-unification (1945-1995), Wellcome Trust University Award, 2004-10
This research explored the relatively liberal attitude of both former West German society and West German governments towards smoking, in the face of international research which caused attitudes to harden in other western countries. The project also explored, compared and contrasted the situation in former East Germany with the former West Germany, looking particularly at the impact of the occupation years, the attitude of the medical profession, the role of the tobacco industry, foreign and domestic cultural influences, and the relationship between national and local smoking policy during the years of partition and reunification.
Supervision
I would welcome enquiries from students interested in the history of the family, legal history and the history of childhood from around 1800 onwards focusing mainly on Britain. Current PhD students include:
- Sanchez Hervas, Ivana
Corrected Registry Entries and the Diagnosis of Sex at Birth
I have supervised PhD projects in Economic and Social History to completion on topics including homosexual rights; the history of understandings and approaches to overweight; medical understandings of alcoholism; medical legal and social understandings of stillbirth; experiences of children growing up in different family forms; the cultural meanings of weddings; and the experiences of couples experiencing childlessness.
Teaching
My teaching has covered every level of the MA SocSci programme in Economic and Social History; postgraduate teaching including dissertation supervision on the MSc Global Economy; and on the MSc Gender History.
My Honours option is currently ESH 4048 Families, society and the state in Britain, c. 1759 -1914.
Additional information
I have substantial editing experienced through my role on the editorial board of Gender & History between 2015 and 2018 and leadership experience through my role as head of subject in Economic and Social History between April 2021 and December 2024.
