Emma Flanagan (MA (Hons), MLitt)

Thesis title: Mothers, Muslims, Communists: Women and the Communist Movement in Post-War French North Africa, 1945-1954

Biography

Background

I am a historian of post-war Francophone North Africa, with a particular interest in the history of women's communist organising in the region.

I graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2021 with a First Class Joint Honours degree in Geography and Modern History. I continued at the University of St Andrews for my Masters, graduating from the Transnational, Global and Spatial History MLitt with Distinction in 2022. During my Masters, I held both the St Andrews School of History MLitt Scholarship and the St Leonard’s-Santander Masters Scholarship. 

I began my doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh in September 2022. Through the lens of the communist-aligned Unions of Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian Women, I study how communism intersected – sometimes paradoxically, sometimes contentiously, yet quite often pragmatically – with Islam and aspirations of national independence. My research is kindly funded by the HCA Doctoral Scholarship.

Qualifications

MLitt Transnational, Global and Spatial History (Distinction), University of St Andrews (2021-2022)

MA (Hons) Geography and Modern History (First Class Joint Honours), University of St Andrews (2017-2021)

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • Fellow of the Institute of Transnational & Spatial History (University of St Andrews)
  • Former Co-Convenor for the Edinburgh Centre of Global History Graduate Workshop Series (2023-2024)
  • Member of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF)
  • Postgraduate Member of the Royal Historical Society

Undergraduate teaching

I currently tutor on the following pre-honours modules:

  • Historian's Toolkit (HIST08032; Semester 1)
  • Britain, Ireland and Empire, c. 1800-2000 (HIST08040; Semester 2)

Research summary

Places: 

  • French North Africa
  • Francophone World

Themes:

  • International Communism
  • Anticolonialism
  • Gender
  • Religion
  • Ideas
  • Politics
  • Race and Ethnicity

Periods:

  • Mid-Late Twentieth Century

Current research interests

My doctoral research traces the political trajectories of three communist, multi-ethnic women's organisations (the Unions of Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian Women) between two geopolitical ruptures in the Francophone world: the end of the Second World War and the start of the Algerian War of Independence. Accounting for their transformations from European-dominated organisations to collaborators in their nation’s respective independence movements, my research uncovers the mobilising devices their European founders deployed in an attempt to engage Muslim women in communist politics. Exploring the respective engagement of the UFA, UFM, and UFT with national and international communism, Islam, and anticolonialism, these organisations offer invaluable insight into the functioning and dynamics of multi-ethnic, European-origin parties in colonial space. My project is kindly funded by the HCA Doctoral Scholarship. My archival research has been generously supported by the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF) and the Society for the Study of French History (SSFH).

Past research interests

My Masters dissertation was titled, 'Locating the Citizen: Uncovering Colonial-Anticolonial Perceptions of Citizenship, Identity, and Belonging by Women of the French Empire'. The research focussed on contributions by women of the French Empire to anticolonial and Pan-African journals in the mid-twentieth century, uncovering colonised women's own understandings of citizenship in colonial space.

Papers delivered

  • Conference on Left Wing Women’s Organising in the Twentieth Century, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, February 2025 – ‘Mothers, Muslims, Communists: North African Women and the ‘French’ Communist Movement in Post-War Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (1945–54)’.

  • Franco-Scottish Research Network in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Annual Interdisciplinary Seminar, Institute français Écosse (Edinburgh), November 2024 – ‘Cross-Cultural Encounters and Women’s Communist Activism in Post-War French North Africa, 1945-54’.

  • Social History Society, Annual Conference, Durham, July 2024 - 'Constructing a (Communist) Political Community: A Cultural and Spatial Analysis of the Recruitment of Algerian Women into the Union des femmes d’Algérie, 1946-1956'
  • Edinburgh Centre of Global History Graduate Workshop, University of Edinburgh, November 2023 - '‘And they did not rest’: A Women’s History of Anticolonial Marches, Boycotts, and Communist Activity in Côte d’Ivoire, 1946-1958'
  • Institute of Transnational and Spatial History (University of St Andrews), Annual 'Lightning Talks', October 2023, 'Spaces, Places, and Modes of Mobilisation: Tracing Pathways of Political Activism by Women across Post-War French North and West Africa'
  • Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, Annual Conference, London, September 2023 - 'Analysing the Recruitment of Algerian Women into the Union des femmes d’Algérie (Union of Algerian Women), 1946-1956'
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