Dr Hannah Smith
- Title
- Research Fellow at the David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas
- Location
- Chancellors Building, CBA2.050
- Contact me
- h.smith3@keele.ac.uk
Biography
Dr Hannah Smith is a Research Fellow at the David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas at Keele University, where she is producing a monograph investigating Wedgwood’s connections to race-based enslavement, and its legacies, in the United States. Hannah’s PhD, titled ‘Staffordshire and Enslavement: a county’s connections to a colonial past’, explored the ways in which an inland region of the United Kingdom was linked to race-based enslavement. This included the role of women, connections via the British government, relationships with the apprenticeship system in the British Caribbean, and the benefit Josiah Wedgwood I gained from enslavement. Her research now seeks to expand on Wedgwood’s (the Staffordshire based pottery company) relationship to enslavement in the United States through the commercial relationship between the company and enslavers, the way in which Wedgwood’s ware formed an element of enslaved peoples lived experiences, and the continued interaction between Wedgwood and the legacies of enslavement in the twentieth century.
Research and scholarship
Hannah's research currently entails the effect slavery has had on the heritage sector and previous trades within Staffordshire. In addition, her research addresses how slavery is remembered in the area, whether that be primarily through abolition or not at all.
Teaching
Hannah has undertaken teaching roles at Keele University on HIS 10046 The American Past and at the University of Liverpool on HIST116 Modern Britain: Democracy, War, and Modernity.
Supervision
Siobhan Talbott (primary supervisor), Mariangela Palladino, Laura Sandy (University of Liverpool).
Collaborations and grants awards
ESRC 1+3 funded MRes and PhD
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
CBA1.017
Chancellor’s Building
Keele University
Staffordshire
ST5 5AA
Tel: +44 (0) 1782 733109
Email: humss.office@keele.ac.uk
Head of School
Professor Siobhan Talbott
Room: CBA1.025
Tel: +44 (0) 1782 733464
Email: s.talbott@keele.ac.uk
School and college outreach
Tel: +44 (0) 1782 734009
Email: outreach@keele.ac.uk
