Goldsmiths - University of London

Dr Emily Robinson

Degrees:

• PhD in Politics, Goldsmiths, University of London;
• MA (Hons) in History, Christ's College, Cambridge

Courses taught at Goldsmiths:

• UK and European Comparative Governance and Politics
• Themes and Issues in British Politics since 1945

Research interests

I specialise in modern British history, with particular interests in party political identities and attitudes towards history, heritage and memory. My doctoral thesis looked at the temporal positioning of British political parties and argued that this has changed since the late 1970s, bringing the parties much closer together in their imaginings of past and future. I explored the ways in which the parties have attempted to order and preserve their institutional pasts and also looked at the ways in which certain historical narratives have been used to orient political positions in the present and to project visions of the future. I am particularly interested in the politics of nostalgia and in the ways in which current affairs are constructed as ‘historic’. I am also concerned with the appeal of the past more widely and have published work examining historians’ relationships with ‘pastness’, especially in relation to the affective nature of archival research.

Selected publications

• ‘Authenticity in the Archive: Historical Encounters with “Pastness”’, in Desperately Seeking Authenticity: Interdisciplinary Approaches, ed. Rune Graulund (Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2010), pp. 13-28
• ‘Touching the Void: Affective History and the Impossible’, Rethinking History, 14:4 (forthcoming, 2010/11)

Selected think tank publications

• Series Editor, New Politics, (London: Unlock Democracy, 2005-07)
• British Citizens and the European Union: Findings from a Deliberative Process (London: Unlock Democracy, 2008)
• (with Patrick Casey) My Election: A Voters' Eye View of the 2007 Scottish Elections, (London: Unlock Democracy, 2008)
• Editor, The Future of Political Parties (London: Unlock Democracy, 2007)
• Editor, Women in the Chamber: Barriers to Female Representation in Local Politics (London: New Politics Network, 2006)
• (with Justin Fisher) General Election 2005: What the Voters Saw (London: New Politics Network, 2005)
• Living with Regions: Making Multi-level Governance Work (London: NLGN 2004)
• (with Ben Rogers) The Benefits of Community Engagement: A Review of the Evidence (London: (Home Office Active Citizenship Centre, 2004)
• Other publications include work on labour migration, e-democracy, new localism, public places, party membership and police recruitment

Conference Papers

• ‘‘With Bitter Regret and Anguish of Mind’. Negotiations with Personal and Political Identity at Times of Crisis’ at ‘New Approaches to Political History: Writing British and German Contemporary History’, German Historical Institute London, 7-12 September 2009
• ‘Political Perceptions of the Past: History, Myth and Nostalgia’ at ‘Perceptions of the Past: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Representation’, University of Nottingham, 20 May 2009
• ‘Historians and the Archive’ at ‘Desperately Seeking Authenticity’, European Doctoral Seminar in Culture, Criticism & Creativity, Goldsmiths College, 5-7 March 2009
• ‘The Political Past: History, Myth and Nostalgia in British Political Parties’ at Aberystwyth Postgraduate History Forum, 13 & 14 January 2009
• (with Peter Facey), ‘My Election: a voters’ eye view of the 2007 Scottish Elections’ at ESRC Conference: ‘The 2007 Election: Earthquake, Misfortune and Revolution?’, Scottish Parliament, 31 October 2007.