People

The EMC is made up by historians from nine participating institutions.

Meet some members of the EMC Steering Committee below. Committee members are listed alphabetically by surname.

Marcus Collins

Senior Lecturer in Cultural History, Loughborough University

I research permissiveness, popular culture, national identity, gender, sexuality, historiography and the experience of modernity in twentieth-century Britain. I teach historiography and British and European history since 1750 at undergraduate level and supervise postgraduate students in my specialisms of cultural history and contemporary British history.

Andy Gritt

Head of History, Heritage and Global Cultures, Nottingham Trent University

Andy Gritt has been Head of History, Heritage and Global Cultures at Nottingham Trent University since 2016 following many years as Director of the Institute of Local and Family History at the University of Central Lancashire where he pioneered online history teaching to global audiences and developed significant experience of public engagement and external partnership working. Originally a modern British historian most of his teaching and scholarship is now focused on embedding employability, inclusive assessment, EDI and sustainability using a range of innovative pedagogies within history teaching. He was a member of the QAA Subject Benchmark review panel for history in 2021/22.

Sarah Holland

Assistant Professor, The University of Nottingham

My research and teaching are focused on British history during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a specific interest in the history of the countryside and rural health. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. My pedagogical interests are varied, but I am particularly interested in the development of alternative and creative assessments in history degrees and student engagement through public history and community engagement initiatives.

Joe Merton

Lecturer in Twentieth Century History, The University of Nottingham

I am a historian of the post-1945 United States, particularly interested in the politics of race and ethnicity in the US, crime and urban politics (with specific focus on New York City), and the wider political and historical legacy of the 1970s. I am deeply interested in pedagogy and how students learn, and sit on the steering committee for the East Midlands Centre for History Teaching & Learning.

Ruth Larsen

Senior Lecturer in History, University of Derby

I am the programme leader for the undergraduate history programmes at the University of Derby. I was the convenor of the centre between 2017 and 2019 when it was hosted by Derby. I am especially interested in supporting undergraduate students to develop their distinct voice as historians, in pedagogies of engagement, and championing students as co-creators.

Caroline Nielsen

Senior Lecturer in History, and Heritage, University of Northampton

I am Senior Lecturer in History and Heritage and the BA History Programme Leader at the University of Northampton. My research areas is the history of health and disability, and also student and staff engagement in employability and work-related learning. I am especially interested in raising awareness of access and inclusivity considerations in History teaching, especially within the history of medicine and health. I am the convener of the East Midlands Centre at Northampton (August 2022-24).

Jamie Wood

Associate Professor of History in the School of History and Heritage, University of Lincoln

He teaches and researches (mostly) on late antiquity and the early medieval period. Between completing his doctorate and taking up a postdoc he worked at an educational developer at the University of Sheffield, which ignited his passion for pedagogy, an interest that he’s kept up ever since, publishing and presenting at numerous conferences, and spending a semester on a fellowship at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. You can find out more about his interest in digital history teaching at his blog, Making Digital History or on Twitter @MakDigHist.