About
A brief description of who you are and what you do.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Your current research, published research topics, projects and groups.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
A list of your current and past PhD students.
This section will only display on your public profile if content has been added.
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
A short description of your teaching interests and responsibilities.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
These are the public-facing activities you’d like people to know about.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
Originally a newspaper historian (funded projects at the University of Kent on the Daily Herald, the cartoonist David Low, and The New Statesman Portrait of a Political Weekly 1913-31), in due course my research shifted to a focus on civil-military relations, and on the impact of ‘industrial war’ on twentieth-century British society. There followed a management study of defence decision-making in Whitehall from Churchill to Thatcher (1996), and later a two volume biography of Admiral Lord Mountbatten: Mountbatten Apprentice War Lord (2010) and Mountbatten, Cold War and Empire, 1945-79 (2022).
My two other biographies focus upon scientific and technological change in time of war and peace, with specific reference to the British aircraft industry: Mick Mannock, Fight Pilot: Myth, Life and Politics (2000), and The Man Who Built The Swordfish The Life of Sir Richard Fairey (2018). Both books challenge the ‘declinist’ view of British industry in the last century, as did my award-winning article on the making of David Lean’s The Sound Barrier (HJFRT, 2010)
An interest in popular culture is reflected in a collection of essays The City of Coventry A Twentieth Century Icon (2006), and a 2020 book and podcast on music and progressive politics in the United States: Slouching Towards Big Pink Essays on Bob Dylan and The Band, Woody Guthrie, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 2023 there followed a short book on folk music in Britain across the past half century, and the genre's most enduring songwriter: Flying Solo: Richard Thompson and the Making of Henry The Human Fly. My work as a sport historian has included two co-edited books – Amateurs and Professionals in Post-War British Sport (2000) and Sport and National Identity in the Post-war World (2004) – and numerous essays and articles on rugby union in both the northern and the southern hemispheres.
In addition, I write for the New Statesman, Progressive Review, and specialist magazines such as History Today and The Historian.
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.