Dr Alison Chand

Biography content

Biography

Alison Chand

I graduated with an undergraduate degree in Scottish History and English from the University of St Andrews in 2004, with a focus on depictions of landscape in Scottish literature, going on to spend time travelling and then working in a variety of organisations, including the Scottish Youth Hostels Association and The Ramblers, working on Scottish land access legislation. I returned to academia in 2009, completing an oral history-based PhD in 2012 from the University of Strathclyde. In 2012, I was awarded the Neil Rafeek oral history prize. Since then, I have taught on a range of history courses at Strathclyde, specialising in teaching oral history and modern British history.

My own research has focused on men who worked in reserved occupations in Britain during the Second World War, and I am now researching how parents with young children in Britain are experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. I have taught with the University of the Highlands and Islands since September 2017, and I continue to teach at the Scottish Oral History Centre at the University of Strathclyde. I also work as a trainer for the British Library/Oral History Society and undertake a range of work as a freelance oral historian.

Publications content

Publications

Publications

Books

Masculinities on Clydeside: Men in Reserved Occupations During the Second World War, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2016.

Articles

'You were on your own': Oral Testimonies of Pregnancy, Birth and Early Parenthood in Britain during the First Months of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Oral History, Autumn 2022)

'Same Interviewee, Different Interviewer: Researching Intersubjectivity in Studies of the Reserved Occupations in the Second World War', Oral History Review (February 2021).

'Belonging to Glasgow and Clydeside in the Second World War: Retrieving Regional Subjectivities Among Male Civilian Workers', Cultural and Social History (September 2020).

'Gendered Identities in British Regions in Wartime: Women in Reserved Occupations in Glasgow and Clydeside in the Second World War', Journal of Scottish Historical Studies (May 2020).

‘Glasgow’s War and Masculine Identities in the Reserved Occupations 1939–1945’, United Academics Journal (April 2011).

‘Conflicting Masculinities? Men in Reserved Occupations in Clydeside 1939–1945’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies (November 2014).

Book Reviews

‘Caroline Milligan (ed.), Stranraer and District Lives: Voices in Trust’, Scottish Archives (2017).

‘Julia Muir Watt (ed.), Whithorn: An Economy of People’, Scottish Archives (2018).

'Roger Leitch and Caroline Milligan (eds), Going to the Berries: Voices of Perthshire and Angus Seasonal Workers', Scottish Archives (2021)

'Elaine M. Edwards, Scotland’s Land Girls: Breeches, Bombers and Backaches', Scottish Archives (2022)

Online Writing

British Library, 'The effects of changing physical spaces during the pandemic' (2022)

Oral History projects content

Oral History projects

Oral History projects

I have worked on many oral history projects. Here is a selection from recent years:

NHS at 70/NHS Voices of Covid-19 - interviewing and administration

University of Roehampton/British Library - summarising and administration for Living Libraries project

Key2Learn Centre (Royal Mail) - delivery of oral history training programme to employees

Glasgow School of Art - transcription of pilot interviews on history of School of Art

History of Parliament Trust - interviewing and summarising for History of Parliament Oral History Project

University of Edinburgh - transcription for Pageants: The Redress of the Past project

University of Roehampton - summarising and administration for Memories of Fiction project

Glasgow Caledonian University - academic Adviser for Pits, Ponies, People and Stories project – conducting, summarising and transcribing oral history interviews and training volunteers in research skills

University of Stirling - summarising and administration for Kirkpatrick Fleming Oral History Project

Scottish Opera - interviewing and summarising for Theatre Royal Oral History Project

University of St Andrews - conducting interviews about dance halls in 20th century Britain as research assistant

Teaching content

Teaching

Teaching

I have taught on the following modules in the Centre for History:

  • What is History?
  • People, Protest and Power: Themes in Modern British History 1780-1918
  • Empire, Environment and Identity: Scotland 1600-2000
  • Scottish History 1603-20th Century
  • Land and People: the Scottish Highlands 1700-2000
  • Historians and History
  • Voices from the Past: Understanding and Using Oral History
  • British Identities
  • Primary Sources in History