Dr Cathy Smith

My first degree in History was completed at Loughborough University and I then moved to Nottingham University for my PhD. After completing my Phd I worked as  post doctoral researcher on a Leverhulme project based on Queen Mary's University. I then became a lecturer in history at the the University of Northampton. Having led the BA History and MA History degree programmes I became Head of History. In 2016 I was appointed as Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Education and Humanities in 2020 I became Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange.

In terms of wider responsibilities I was co-editor of the journal Family and Community History from 2013-2018. I chaired the Inclusive Student Experience Group from 2016-2019 where there was a clear focus on the attainment gap and I led the University on an Advance HE Raising Attainment project with nine other universities.  From 2019 to March 2021 my key focus was on UON's REF2021 submission.

Originally my research interests focussed on urban history in the long eighteenth century. My PhD was titled The Renaissance of the English Market Town: A Study of Six Nottinghamshire Market Towns 1680-1840 and focused on the economic, social and cultural development of small market towns in the long eighteenth century. This was published in 2007. My current research interests lie within the history of medicine and more specifically mental health and asylums in the nineteenth century. The areas I have published on include the politics behind the development of nineteenth-century lunatic asylums, decision-making in asylum admissions, the violently insane and the impact of insanity on family and friends. I am also interested in the medicalisation of poverty in nineteenth-century, nosologies of madness, death and insanity and the links between insanity and poverty. My most recent article has focused on insanity, poverty and the middle classes.  

Other research interests have included a strong interest in the experience of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Groups who enter University and I was the University lead on an Advance HE project looking at closing the awarding gap for our GEM students.

I have always retained an interest in the history of witchcraft and also developed an interest in the very early history (13th century) of the University of Northampton.

My teaching experience and interests lie in Early Modern European History c1480-1700, Eighteenth-century British History and my third year module focuses on Heresy and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. At MA Level I teach on a history of medicine module.