Historian wins large Research Grant from ESRC

The School of Arts and Humanities is delighted to announce that Dr Virginia Crossman, Senior Lecturer in History, has been awarded the sum of £454,965 by the ESRC towards the costs of her three-year research project, entitled 'Welfare Regimes under the Irish Poor Law 1850-1921'.

The project focuses on the history of poor relief in Ireland from the end of the Great Famine to the establishment of the Irish Free State. Using qualitative and quantitative data, the project will explore the character, organisation and operation of the poor law in Ireland and will trace national and regional patterns in the provision and distribution of relief. Irish experiences of the poor law system will be examined in relation to welfare provision within the United Kingdom as a whole. At the same time, the impact of factors such as religion, national identity and regional economics on the scope and character of welfare practices will be assessed. By analysing both general trends in relief policies and the micro-politics of relief, the project will provide a historical context for contemporary debates on the position of the poor and marginalised in Irish society, and will facilitate the integration of Ireland into the international history of European welfare.

Dr Crossman is one of a number of experts on the history of welfare provision based in the History Department at  Oxford Brookes, and her award confirms the growing importance of this area of research.  

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Filed Under #Research