Staff profiles

Dr Wendy Ugolini
BA (Hons), MA Cantab, PhD, FRHistS
Senior Lecturer; History
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 3766
- Email: wendy.ugolini@ed.ac.uk
- Room 1.29, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place
Office hours
Roles
- 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
Affiliated research centres
Biography
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 appointments
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)
Useful Links
http://edinburgh.academia.edu/WendyUgolini
Research in a Nutshell video: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/1_c44qxlch
Summary of research interests
Places:- Britain & Ireland
- Europe
- Scotland
- Culture
- Gender
- Society
- Twentieth Century & After
Research interests
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
Current research activities
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).
I am the co-founder of the RSE-funded Second World War Network (Scotland) which will formally launch in 2021. More information here:
Research projects
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.
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/
Undergraduate teaching
- 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
Postgraduate teaching
- 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)
Current Students:
Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Link |
---|---|---|---|---|
Doughty, Roseanna | PhD | British Media Representations of the (P)IRA and its impact on the Irish Community, 1969-1997 | Joint | link |
Klinger, Anita | PhD | Negotiating Violence. Defining the Legitimacy of Political Violence in Interwar Britain and Germany (c.1918-1938) | Secondary | link |
McCullough, Aimee | PhD | Working-class Fatherhood and Masculinity in west-central Scotland, c.1970-1995 | Secondary |
Currently accepting research student applications : Yes
Areas accepting Research Students in:
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.
Books - Authored
Ugolini, W. and Pattinson, J. (2015) Fighting for Britain?: Negotiating Identities in Britain During the Second World War. New York: Peter LangDOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0353-0704-7
Ugolini, W. (2011) Experiencing War as the 'enemy other': Italian Scottish Experience in World War II. Manchester University Press
Books - Edited
Forsyth, D. and Ugolini, W. (eds.) (2016) A Global Force: War, Identities and Scotland's Diaspora. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Articles
Ugolini, W. (2019) The ‘Welsh’ Pimpernel: Richard Llewellyn and the search for authenticity in Second World War Britain. Cultural and Social History, 16(2), pp. 185-203DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2019.1585315
Ugolini, W. (2015) Untold stories of loss: Mourning the ‘enemy’ in Second World War Britain. Journal of War and Culture Studies, 8(1), pp. 86-102DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/1752628014Y.0000000019
Ugolini, W. (2014) Italian Scottish women on the Home Front in World War Two. History Scotland Magazine, Expert History Forum
Pattinson, J., Noakes, L. and Ugolini, W. (2014) Incarcerated masculinities: Male POWs and the Second World War. Journal of War and Culture Studies, 7(3), pp. 179-190DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/1752627214Z.00000000042
Ugolini, W. (2013) 'The Sins of the Fathers': The Contested Recruitment of Second-Generation Italians in the British Forces 1936-43. Twentieth Century British History, 24(3), pp. 376-397DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hws026
Ugolini, W. (2013) ‘Spaghetti Lengths in a Bowl’? Recovering Narratives of Not ‘Belonging’ Amongst the Italian Scots. Immigrants and Minorities, 31(2), pp. 214-234DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02619288.2013.781749
Ugolini, W. (2012) The embodiment of British Italian war memory? The curious marginalization of Dennis Donnini, VC. Patterns of Prejudice, 46(3-4), pp. 397-415DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2012.701814
Ugolini, W. (2008) “The space in between”: Exploring the challenges of working with archives and personal testimonies. Scottish Archives, 14, pp. 1-9
Ugolini, W. (2006) Memory, war and the Italians in Edinburgh: The role of communal myth. National Identities, 8(4), pp. 421-436DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14608940601053600
Ugolini, W. (2004) The internal enemy 'other': Recovering the World War Two narratives of Italian Scottish women. Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 24(2), pp. 137-158DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/jshs.2004.24.2.137
Ugolini, W. (1998) Reinforcing otherness? Edinburgh’s Italian community and the impact of the Second World War. Family and Community History, 1(1), pp. 57–69DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/fch.1998.1.1.005
Chapters
Ugolini, W. and Forsyth, D. (2016) Introduction: A Global Force: War, Identities and Scotland’s Diaspora. In: A Global Force: War, Identities and Scotland's Diaspora. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 1-9
Forsyth, D. and Ugolini, W. (2016) Introduction: A Global Force: War, Identities and Scotland’s Diaspora. In: Forsyth, D. and Ugolini, W. (eds.) A Global Force: War, Identities and Scotland's Diaspora. Edinburgh University Press
Ugolini, W. and Pattinson, J. (2015) Negotiating Identities in multinational Britain during the Second World War. In: Ugolini, W. and Pattinson, J. (eds.) Fighting for Britain?: Negotiating Identities in Britain during the Second World War. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 1-24
Ugolini, W. (2013) Ethnological Fieldwork. In: Mackay, M. and Fenton, A. (eds.) Scottish Life and Society: Compendium of Scottish Ethnology 1: An Introduction to Scottish Ethnology. Edinburgh: John Donald, pp. 71-92
Ugolini, W. (2013) "When are you going back?": Memory, ethnicity and the British home front. In: Noakes, L. and Pattinson, J. (eds.) British Cultural Memory and the Second World War. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Ugolini, W. (2012) Scottish Commonwealth Regiments. In: Spiers, E., Crang, J. and Strickland, M. (eds.) A Military History of Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Ugolini, W. (2008) Victims or Enemies? Italians and refugee Jews and the re-working of internment narratives in post-war Britain. In: Riera, M. and Schaffer, G. (eds.) The Lasting War: Society and Identity in Britain, France and Germany after 1945. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 207-225
Ugolini, W. (2005) The Italian community in Scotland. In: Beech, J., Hand, O., Mulhern, M. and Weston, J. (eds.) Scottish Life and Society: A Compendium of Scottish Life: The Individual and Community Life. Edinburgh: John Donald, pp. 535-54
Ugolini, W. (2004) Communal myth and silenced memories: The unremembered experience of Italians in Scotland during the Second World War. In: Kidd, W. and Murdoch, B. (eds.) Memory and Memorials: The Commemorative Century. Ashgate Publishing, pp. 151-166