Dr Valerie Wright

Valerie is currently Research Fellow on the ESRC funded project 'Reimagining the Future in Older Age' based in Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stirling.

Previous experience:

• Research Associate - 'Employment, politics and culture in Scotland, 1955-2015', Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow (Leverhulme Trust).
• Lecturer - Modern Scottish History, Scottish History, University of Glasgow.
• Research Associate - 'Housing, Everyday Life and Wellbeing over the long term: Glasgow 1950-1975' see this link, Urban Studies and History at the University of Glasgow (Leverhulme Trust).
• Editorial Administrator - Gender & History see this link.
• Post-Doctoral Research Assistant - 'Jute & Dundee: The Management of Industrial Decline', Economics and History at the University of Dundee on a project entitled (Leverhulme Trust).

She completed her PhD in the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow see this link.

Valerie's background is as a historian of modern Britain with particular expertise in gender, social and political history.

Additional information

Valerie has appeared as an interviewee on a variety of documentaries:

• 'Growing Up in Scotland: A Century of Scottish Childhood', Episode 2 'Home', BBC TWO Scotland see this link.
• 'The Town that Thread Built', TVI Vision for BBC Scotland, BBC TWO Scotland (later shown on BBC4, BBC Scotland) see this link.
• 'Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle' , Velvet Joy productions and directed by Paul Sng (an edited version was later shown on Channel 5) see this link.
• 'Steelmen', Margot McCuaig (producer, writer and director), BBC Alba see this link
• 'Time Travels', Louise Yeoman (producer), BBC Radio Scotland see this link.
• 'The Singer Story: Made in Clydebank', TVI Vision for BBC Scotland, BBC TWO Scotland (later shown on BBC4, BBC Scotland) see this link.

Valerie currently serves on the steering committees of Women’s History Scotland (website coordinator), Scottish Labour History Society, the steering group of Scottish Critical Heritage and is an associate member of the Centre for Gender History at the University of Glasgow

Valerie has also participated in a School of Humanities project at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Education Scotland to create ‘Broad General Education’ learning resources to be used as part of the Curriculum for Excellence in Scottish schools. The resource ‘Homes in high places: Urban life in 20th century Glasgow’ is available here see this link.

Valerie's current research focuses on exploring older adult's perceptions of future time and hopes and desires for the future.

Other research interests include:

• The effects and legacy of the processes of deindustrialisation on communities and individuals in post-war Scotland
• The changing structure of women’s employment in Britain in the post-war years
• Women’s engagement in politics (broadly defined) and role in political change in twentieth century Britain
• The long-term impact of the residualisation of council housing on the lack of affordable housing in the present day
• Children’s use of urban space and the ways in which this was altered by urban planning in the post war years, especially with regards to play

Valerie has a wide and varied range of teaching experience from her previous roles including course coordination at undergraduate honours level and course contribution at postgraduate level. She also has experience of supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations in History and Urban Studies.

Recent experience from the University of Glasgow includes:

Course co-ordination:

• HIST4185 – Devolving the Nation: Scotland 1945-2004 (Honours Module – Scottish History)
• HIST4173 – Victorian and Edwardian Glasgow (Honours Module – Scottish History)

Course contribution:

• HIST5008 – Gender, Politics And Power (MSc in Gender History)
• HIST4089 – Life Histories: Personal Testimony And Memory (Honours Module – Modern History)
• HIST1008 – History 1A: Scotland’s Millennium: Kingdom, Union and Nation, c.1000-2014
• SPS3003 – Researching the City: Developing an Urban Profile (Urban Studies - Visiting Students from University of Nankai)