I regularly present papers at academic workshops and conferences on the history of tanning culture and maternal/paternal mental illness narratives in Britain. Most are listed below. In addition, I am often invited to speak about my university and postdoctoral experiences (advisable Do’s & Don’ts), and also public engagement and policy work to help others in sixth form/colleges, higher education, and beyond. I believe strongly in ‘paying it forward’; I am keen to support others, especially first-generation university students like myself.

Invited Papers/Talks

  • ‘Auto-fictional Infanticide Narratives and Community Support in Britain’. Health Humanities Seminar Series, University College London, forthcoming 2025.

  • ‘Paternal Postnatal Depression Activism in Britain, 1995 - 2018’. Women, Reproduction and Agency in Modern Europe workshop, University of Warwick and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Eutopia collaboration), Venice, forthcoming 2025.

  • ‘The Rise and Fall of Sunbeds’. Light in Our Lives – The Role of Light in Science, Technology and Culture Symposium (with scientists), University of Warwick, 2024.

  • Speaker on the ‘Networking and Leadership’ panel. Women in Academia: Breaking Barriers, Creating Opportunities, Sociology Department, PAIS, Law, and the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick, 2023.

  • ‘Baby Blues on BBC Television in 1970s Britain’. Generation to Reproduction Group, University of Cambridge, 2023.

  • ‘Dr Fabiola Creed and Turning Women’s History into Policy’. ‘Broadly Conceived’ Reproductive Network and Reading Group, Birkbeck, University of London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2023.

  • ‘Maternal Mental Illness in the BBC’s Play for Today, 1970-1990’. BBC Viewing/Reading Group, organised by television academics and former BBC employees, 2023.

  • ‘‘Sensitive’ Histories: Roundtable Discussion’. Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick, 2022.

  • ‘Nicorette gum advertisements from the 1980s to 2000s in Britain’. Centre for History in Public Health Series, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2021.

  • ‘Chewing Industry: Gum as an Alternative for Oral Health Care, Medicine and Smoking in Britain, 1950 – 2000’. Medical Humanities China UK Consortium, Shanghai University, 2021.

  • ‘Tanning Boosters and Injections: “Safer” Substitute Technologies to Prevent Skin Cancer? Or a Revival of Tanning Culture?’. Medical Humanities China UK Roundtable Discussion, Centre for the Social History of Health & Healthcare (CSHHH) Seminar Series, University of Strathclyde, 2021.

  • ‘Secondment Fellowships – Perspectives from a POST Fellow’. Research Skills and Career-Building Conference, Wellcome Trust. I advised how to successfully gain and undertake science policy research, 2019.

  • ‘Sunbed Consumers and Affluence in Liverpool, 1978 - 1980’. PhD WiP Seminar, CHSTM, University of Manchester, 2019.

  • ‘A Gendered Addiction: The Framing of ‘Tanorexia’ by the British Media and Medical Authorities, 1978 - 2010’ Contemporary Applications of Historical Research Conference, University of Nottingham, 2017.

  • ‘Advertising Sunbeds in British Newspapers, 1978-88’. Cambridge Body and Food Histories, University of Cambridge, 2017.

Academic Papers

  • ‘‘For Heaven’s sake, stop chewing in public’: Spreading Chewing Gum Consumerism through Britain, 1960-2000’. "Bad Habits" in Historical Perspective 1750-2000 Workshop, University College Dublin, 2024.

  • ‘‘Sad Dad’ or ‘Bad Dad’: Paternal Postnatal Depression Emergence and Resistance in Britain, 1980-2010’. Resistance, Society for the Social History of Medicine, University of Strathclyde, 2024.

  • ‘‘Streaky yellow, orange or red': the invention and evolution of DHA fake tan, 1950-99’. Selling Health, Hygiene and Beauty in the Long Twentieth Century Workshop, University of Nottingham, 2024

  • ‘Postnatal Depression on Woman’s Hour Radio in Post-World War Two Britain: Airing Narratives, Treatments and Reception’. American Association for the History of Medicine Conference, Kansas City, North America, 2024.

  • (with Hilary Marland) ‘Exploring Postnatal Mental Illness and its History through Audio Plays’. Museums and Beyond: Public Histories of Mental Illness in the 21st Century Conference, University of Huddersfield/Mental Health Museum, 2024.

    ‘‘Drama out of Crisis’: Lethbridge’s Play Baby Blues’. Crisis in Health and Medicine, Europe Association for the History of Medicine and Health, University of Oslo, 2024.

  • ‘‘Sticky Issues’: The Chewing Gum Industry and Consumers in Britain’. Midlands Hub: Misconduct, Misbehaviour Conference, British Academy ECR Network, University of Birmingham, 2023.

  • ‘“Dropp[ing] in and out”: Mental Health, Marriage, Motherhood and Education, c.1960-1975’. Women and Mental Illness in Post-war Britain Workshop, University of Warwick, 2023.

  • ‘Autobiographical Fiction as Mental Health Narratives’. Ethics, Accountability, and Responsibility for Researchers Working with Health Narratives Workshop, Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing, University of London, 2022.

  • ‘The Fake Tan and the Sunbed Industry in a War against Skin Cancer in 1990s Britain’. Technology and the Patient Consumer Workshop, McGill University, 2021.

  • ‘“Bimbos”, “Gold Diggers” and “Escorts”: Sunbed Consumers Before the Sex and The City Era’. Negotiating Aesthetic Presentations of the Body, Interdisciplinary Seminar Series, Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick.

  • ‘The ‘Grilling’ of ‘Tanorexic’ Mothers on British Television’ from our accepted panel ‘The ‘Beautiful’ Female Body as a Site of Health, Pleasure and Harm in Modern Britain’ (with Dr Peder Clark and Dr Katrina Louise Moseley). Gender, Subjectivity, and ‘Everyday Health’ Conference, University of Essex, 2021.

  • ‘A “Healthy Investment” for Sensible Consumers: The Rise of the Health, Fitness and Sunbed Industry, 1980 - 1982’ from our accepted panel ‘Publicity, Health Rhetoric and Consumer Knowledge in the Medical Marketplace’ (with Dr Jessica Borge and Dr Cynthia Tang). Sense and Nonsense Conference, Europe Association for the History of Medicine and Health, University of Birmingham, 2019.

  • ‘“SUNBEDS FOR YOUR HEALTH & SAFETY”: Sunbed advertisements in the Mersey Yellow Pages, 1978 – 2002’. Conformity, Resistance, Dialogue and Deviance in Health and Medicine Conference, Society for the Social History of Medicine, University of Liverpool, 2018

  • ‘From "overuse" to "addiction": Translating medical sunbed health advice to national television in 1990s England’. American Association for the History of Medicine Conference, UCLA, North America, 2018.

  • ‘“A visual feast [of] muscle builders”: Men, Sunbeds and Television in Thatcher’s England’. Broadcasting health and disease, 1950s -1980s Conference, Wellcome Trust, 2018.

  • ‘The Emergence and Persistence of Sunbed Addiction, 1978 - 2010’. Society for the Study of Addiction Conference. 2017.

  • ‘From “Healthy Golden” to “Tanorexics Dying for a Tan”: Sunbed Visual Culture in British Media, 1978 – 2013’. Postgraduate Medical Humanities Conference, Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter, 2017.

  • ‘Medical Authorities and the Sunscreen Industry in the 1960s’. Contested History Conference, University of Warwick, 2016.