15 Jun Business Bites: Research Using Business Archives (May 2023)
May saw the first official joint BACS/BAC ‘Business Bites’ event on the topic of Research Using Business Archives. It was held on the 31st May via Zoom.
Speakers Dr Alix Green and Dr David Churchill joined us to talk about the research they are currently undertaking using business archives. This event was of interest to those who are currently or considering using business archives as part of their academic research, but also to archivists and record keepers who are interested in opening their collections to an academic audience.
Alix Green moved into academia after a career in policy, strategy and government affairs. Her PhD focused on using history in public policy development, after completing BA and MPhil degrees in History. Alix is a historian of contemporary Britain and teaches a range of topics in 20th/21st-century British history and public history. Her research focuses on political culture, government and policymaking. Her recent book, ‘History, Policy and Public Purpose: Historians and Historical Thinking in Government’ draws on notions of public scholarship, expertise and the nature of historical thinking.
David Churchill is Associate Professor in Criminal Justice in the School of Law, University of Leeds. An historian by background, his research focuses on policing, security and crime control in modern Britain, and on the uses and significance of historical approaches to criminology and criminal justice studies. He has worked for some years on the history of security technologies and the security industry, primarily from research on the Chubb & Son collection at the London Metropolitan Archives. He is currently in the early stages of work on a book that will address the commodification of security and its social consequences from the 1780s to the 1990s.