Staff profiles

• Co-Founder, Second World War Studies Network (Scotland)
• https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/history/news-events/new-grant-establishes-wwii-studies-network

After reading history at Newnham College, Cambridge, I worked at the BBC and in the voluntary sector for a number of years before returning to higher education. After gaining a doctorate at the University of Edinburgh, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars (now the Centre for Modern & Contemporary History). I was appointed to a British History lectureship at the University of Edinburgh in 2010. My Ph.D. was awarded the Ratcliff Prize and, in 2012, my first monograph, Experiencing War as the 'Enemy Other', was awarded the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize. In 2016, I was promoted to Senior Lecturer. My forthcoming book, Wales in England 1914-1945. A Social, Cultural, and Military History of the Two World Wars will be published with OUP in 2021.

I would be delighted to hear from students interested in undertaking PhD research in the social and cultural history of Second World War Britain; migrant identities in Britain during the two world wars; gender identities in Britain during the two world wars.

External Examiner, Liverpool John Moores University (2014 - 2018 )

Advisory Board, ‘Mixing It’ AHRC project in collaboration with Imperial War Museum North (2015 - 2016)

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Executive committee member of the UK Oral History Society (2010-2014)

Executive committee member of the Social History Society (2010-2013)

http://edinburgh.academia.edu/WendyUgolini

Research in a Nutshell video: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/1_c44qxlch

Summary of research interests

• Britain & Ireland
• Europe
• Scotland

• Culture
• Gender
• Society

• Twentieth Century & After

My research interests focus on the relationship between war and identities in twentieth century Britain. My book, Experiencing War as the ‘Enemy Other’: Italian Scottish Experience in World War II, reflects my ongoing interest in migrant identities during the Second World War, in particular notions of hybridity, belonging and Britishness.

My current research looks at social, cultural, military and political expressions of Welshness in England during the two world wars. As part of my interest in the interconnections between English and Welsh identities, I am also investigating the life of the twentieth century novelist, Richard Llewellyn.

Watch a short video of Dr Ugolini speaking about her research interests - Media Hopper

The London Welsh Territorials, c.1939.  Source:  IWM `On Active Service´   Henry Kassman´s War Letters 1939-1945 © Jenny Kassman

Overall, I am interested in constructions of pluralistic Britishness and hybrid identities in wartime and in 2012, I co-organised a  conference addressing these themes. With Juliette Pattinson (Kent), I co-edited Fighting for Britain? Negotiating Identities in Britain during the Second World War which has been published by Peter Lang as part of their British Identities Since 1707 series.

My wider interest in war and society is reflected in my recent co-editing of two special issues of the Journal of War & Culture Studies. With Corinna Peniston-Bird (Lancaster) I co-edited a special issue on 'Silenced Mourning' (2015). With Juliette Pattinson (Kent) and Lucy Noakes (Brighton) I co-edited a special issue on 'Incarceration in the Second World War' (2014).

In partnership with David Forsyth of National Museums Scotland (NMS), I  received funding from The Royal Society of Edinburgh to undertake a joint project on Scottish diasporic military identities from 1880 to the present day.

http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections-research/our-research/highlights-of-previous-projects/wha-bears-a-blade-for-scotland/

This collaboration culminated with the publication of an edited collection, A Global Force: War, Identities and Scotland's Diaspora (EUP, 2016), which forms part of the National Museum of Scotland's First World War Centenary Programme:

http://www.nms.ac.uk/connections/our-national-work/first-world-war-centenary/

• Gender Identities in Britain during the Two World Wars
• War and Memory in the Twentieth Century
• Immigration and Ethnicity in Modern Britain, 1850-1970
• Britain, Ireland and Empire
• History in Practice
• History in Theory

• MSc War and Identities in Twentieth Century Britain and Ireland
• MSc Historical Research: Skills and Sources (Oral History)
• MSc in Contemporary History (contributor)
• MSc in History (online)

I would be delighted to hear from students interested in undertaking PhD research in the social and cultural history of Second World War Britain; migrant identities in Britain during the two world wars; gender identities in Britain during the two world wars.