Emma Flanagan (MA (Hons), MLitt)

Thesis title: Spaces, Places, and Modes of Mobilisation: Tracing Pathways of Political Activism by Women across Post-War French North Africa

Biography

Background

I am a historian of Francophone North Africa with a particular interest in social, gender, and transnational histories and the history of anticolonial politicisation. 

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. My research explores pathways to the political mobilisation of ordinary women across French North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) in the immediate post-war period, with a particular focus on anticolonial, Communist-aligned organising. 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: 

  • Africa
  • Francophone World

Themes:

  • Global and Transnational History
  • Imperialism
  • Anticolonialism
  • Gender
  • International Communism
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Ideas
  • Politics

Periods:

  • Mid-Late Twentieth Century

Current research interests

My doctoral research broadly examines questions of women's anticolonialism, politicisation, and collaboration across French North Africa between the end of the Second World War and the start of the Algerian War of Independence. I focus on women's organising under three Communist-affiliated organisations – the Union des femmes d’Algérie (UFA), the Union des femmes du Maroc (UFM), and the Union des femmes de Tunisie (UFT) – uncovering the practices their European founders deployed in an attempt to engage Muslim women in Communist politics and analysing their relative success. Exploring the respective engagement of the UFA, UFM, and UFT with national and international Communism, these organisations offer 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

  • Social History Society, Annual Conference (Jul.) 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, Nov. 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' (Oct.) 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 (Sept.) 2023 - 'Analysing the Recruitment of Algerian Women into the Union des femmes d’Algérie (Union of Algerian Women), 1946-1956'
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