Emma Flanagan (MA (Hons), MLitt)

Thesis title: Spaces, Places, and Modes of Mobilisation: Tracing Pathways of Political Activism by Women across Post-War French North and West Africa

Biography

Background

I am a historian of Francophone Africa with a particular interest in social, gender, and transnational histories and the history of anticolonial politicisation. 

I graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2021 with a First Class Joint Honours degree in Geography and Modern History. I continued at the University of St Andrews for my Masters, graduating from the Transnational, Global and Spatial History MLitt with Distinction in 2022. During my Masters, I held both the St Andrews School of History MLitt Scholarship and the St Leonard’s-Santander Masters Scholarship. 

I began my doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh in September 2022. My research explores pathways to the political mobilisation of ordinary women across French North and West Africa in the immediate post-war period, with a particular focus on anticolonial, Communist-aligned organising. My research is kindly funded by the HCA Doctoral Scholarship.

Qualifications

MLitt Transnational, Global and Spatial History (Distinction), University of St Andrews (2021-2022)

MA (Hons) Geography and Modern History (First Class Joint Honours), University of St Andrews (2017-2021)

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • Co-Convenor for the Edinburgh Centre of Global History Graduate Workshop Series
  • Fellow of the Institute of Transnational & Spatial History (University of St Andrews)
  • Member of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF)
  • Postgraduate Member of the Royal Historical Society

Undergraduate teaching

I currently tutor on the following pre-honours modules:

  • Historian's Toolkit (HIST08032; Semester 1)
  • Britain, Ireland and Empire, c. 1800-2000 (HIST08040; Semester 2)

Research summary

Places: 

  • Africa
  • Francophone World

Themes:

  • Comparative & Global History
  • Imperialism
  • Anticolonialism
  • Gender
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Ideas
  • Politics

Periods:

  • Mid-Late Twentieth Century

Current research interests

My doctoral research examines questions of anticolonialism, politicisation, and collaboration across French North and West Africa after the Second World War. I am interested in building a comparative and transnational understanding of women’s pathways to political mobilisation in these regions. I focus particularly on women's organising under Communist-affiliated anticolonial organisations, detailing the varying forms mobilisation took with a view to the gendered specificities of women's action.

Past research interests

My Masters dissertation was titled, 'Locating the Citizen: Uncovering Colonial-Anticolonial Perceptions of Citizenship, Identity, and Belonging by Women of the French Empire'. The research focussed on contributions by women of the French Empire to anticolonial and Pan-African journals in the mid-twentieth century, uncovering colonised women's own understandings of citizenship in colonial space.

Papers delivered

  • Upcoming: Edinburgh Centre of Global History Graduate Workshop, Nov. 2023 - '‘And they did not rest’: A Women’s History of Anticolonial Marches, Boycotts, and Communist Activity in Côte d’Ivoire, 1946-1958'
  • Institute of Transnational and Spatial History (University of St Andrews), Annual 'Lightning Talks' (Oct.) 2023, 'Spaces, Places, and Modes of Mobilisation: Tracing Pathways of Political Activism by Women across Post-War French North and West Africa'
  • Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, Annual Conference (Sept.) 2023 - 'Analysing the Recruitment of Algerian Women into the Union des femmes d’Algérie (Union of Algerian Women), 1946-1956'
This article was published on