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Dr John Welshman

Formerly at Lancaster University

PhD supervision

Dr Welshman supervises several doctoral students, and he would welcome enquiries from students interested in any of his areas of research interest:
- the history of the debate over transmitted deprivation in the period 1972-82, and its links with current policy on child poverty and social exclusion
- the history of the concepts of unemployability and worklessness
-the history of tuberculosis, medical examination, and migration, in both the UK and Australia
-the history of care in the community since 1948, especially for people with learning disabilities

Current Teaching

In 2020-21, John was Deputy Head of Department; Director of Part 1; Exams and Assessment Officer; and Chair of the Departmetn's Education Committee.  He also taught his Special Subject:

HIST347: Private Lives and Public Policy: Evacuation, Memory, and the Second World War 

Research Interests

John Welshman's research interests are at the interface of contemporary history, social policy, and public health. He was a member of the Wellcome Trust's History of Medicine Funding Committee (2006-09), and his current work falls into five main areas: · the use of autobiographical material in the writing of history; the history of the debate over transmitted deprivation in the period 1972-82, and its links with current policy on child poverty and social exclusion; the history of the concepts of unemployability and worklessness; the history of tuberculosis, medical examination, and migration, in both the UK and Australia; and the history of care in the community since 1948, especially for people with learning disabilities.

Recent articles have been published in Children & Society (2008 and 2010); Contemporary British History (2009); Economic History Review (2006); the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (2006 and 2007); the Journal of Social Policy (2004); the Political Quarterly (2006); Social History of Medicine (2006 and 2012); and Twentieth Century British History (2005 and 2008).

His books include Underclass: A History of the Excluded, 1880-2000 (London and New York, Continuum, 2006), and a volume edited with Jan Walmsley, Community Care in Perspective: Care, Control, and Citizenship (London and New York, Palgrave, 2006). His history of the debate over transmitted deprivation in the 1970s has been published as From Transmitted Deprivation to Social Exclusion: Policy, Poverty, and Parenting (Bristol, Policy Press, 2007, paperback edition 2012). He has published a social history of the evacuation of schoolchildren during the Second World War, Churchill's Children: The Evacuee Experience in Wartime Britain (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010), and a second trade book, Titanic: The Last Night of a Small Town (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012).

His most recent book is a second edition of his 2006 Underclass book, Underclass: A History of the Excluded Since 1880 (London, Bloomsbury, 2013).

Research overview

John Welshman's research interests are at the interface of contemporary history, social policy, and public health. His current work falls into five main areas: · the use of autobiographical material in the writing of history; the history of the debate over transmitted deprivation in the period 1972-82, and its links with current policy on child poverty and social exclusion; the history of the concepts of unemployability and worklessness; the history of tuberculosis, medical examination, and migration, in both the UK and Australia; and the history of care in the community since 1948, especially for people with learning disabilities.

  • Published

    Charles Booth

    Welshman, A. J., 31/03/2021, SAGE Research Methods Foundations. Atkinson, P., Delamont, S., Cernat, A., Sakshaug, J. W. & Williams, R. (eds.). London: Sage

    Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNEntry for encyclopedia/dictionary

  • Published

    Urban Underclass

    Welshman, A. J., 15/10/2020, Oxford Bibliographies in Urban Studies. Dilworth, R. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press

    Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNChapter

  • Published

    The discourse of poverty: Structural and behavioural approaches in the UK since 1900

    Welshman, J., 11/10/2019, Routledge International Handbook of Poverty. Greve, B. (ed.). London: Routledge, p. 130-138 9 p. (Routledge International Handbooks).

    Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNChapter

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