About
Following a landmark series of Modern British Studies conferences hosted by the Centre for Modern British Studies at the University of Birmingham in the 2010s, MBSA (The Modern British Studies Association) was established in 2026. It sponsors an annual conference and other accessible events aimed to attract participants from across the globe. MBSA is oriented to the support of all scholars, with particular attention to early career researchers. It is committed to affordability, environmental sustainability and inclusion at its events.
MBSA aims to build the visibility of scholars in British Studies, and support innovation and exchange in the field. We believe that contributions from arts and humanities enrich public life and foster debate and imagination.
MBSA is committed to the support of scholarship inside and beyond the academy, and takes seriously the need to engage with teachers, policymakers, heritage professionals and community organisations. It has a close and supportive relationship with key journals, including Contemporary British History and Modern British History.
What is Modern British Studies?
The Modern British Studies Association defines the field of British Studies in broad terms in an effort to create conversations between a wide variety of scholars. The study of British history, politics and culture attracts researchers at all levels of career, and is a high-profile presence in public life in both Britain and beyond. It has witnessed growth and development in recent years, including an expansion of focus to ‘Britain and the world’, and sustained attention to ‘four nations’ and place-based scholarship. Vigorous debates in race, empire, gender, environment, disability and queer histories have infused the field with energy in the twenty-first century. They have generated an extraordinary range of research projects that address the emergence and legacies of colonialism, capitalism, enslavement and indenture, heritage and memory, political dealignment, deindustrialisation and neoliberalism, everyday life and identities. New kinds of sources and methods, including the built environment, material culture, audio-visual and digital media, reuse of social survey data, oral histories, the study of the senses and emotions have all contributed to innovation and intellectual vigour in the study of British lives and worlds.
MBSA does not define ‘modern’ as a period of time, but invites debate on the nature of ‘modernity’ as a topic of historical inquiry. Contributions to MBSA events range widely across the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, and also engage with scholarship relating to earlier time periods where different ideas, meanings and boundaries of ‘modern’ and ‘Britain’ were debated.
Trustees
Lucy Delap
Chair of Trustees
Lucy is a historian of twentieth century Britain, and has published widely on feminism, gender, labour and disability. She is Professor of Modern British and Gender History at the University of Cambridge.
Matthew Hilton
Matthew is Professor of Social History at Queen Mary University of London. He has written on the history of popular culture, social movements, political activism and humanitarianism, both in Britain and around the world.
Sadiah Qureshi
Sadiah is a writer and historian of science, race and empire and Professor of Modern British History at the University of Manchester.
Sarah Kenny
Sarah is an Assistant Professor of Modern British Studies at the University of Birmingham. She has published on youth, leisure, urban change, and popular culture in the twentieth century.
Julia Laite
Julia is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research interests include the history of settler colonialism, family history, migration, women and gender, crime and criminal justice, sex and sexual labour, narrative and creative history.
Claire Langhamer
Claire is Director of the Institute of Historical Research and Professor of Modern History at the University of London. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society and has published widely on modern British history.
Saima Nasar
Saima is a historian of gender, race and immigration. She is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Bristol.