Academic Staff

Dr Rachel Duffett

Position in department	Part-time teacher
E-mail	rduffe (non Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk)
Room	5NW.8.3
Biography	Rachel Duffett completed her doctorate in history at the University of Essex in 2009. Her thesis was an exploration of the significance of food in the lives of the soldiers of the First World War, both as a physiological necessity and a source of psychological comfort; her monograph The Stomach for Fighting was published by Manchester University Press in 2012 and she has recently jointly edited a book for Ashgate Publishing on the outcomes of the most recent symposium of the International Commission for Research into European Food History held in Paris.
Research interests	The military, social and cultural impact of warfare in the twentieth century, particularly the way in which affective experience has been captured in personal narratives. The history, anthropology and sociology of food. The social and cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth century Britain; my undergraduate degree in English Literature has led to an interest in the use of literature, especially the nineteenth century novel, as an historical source. I am currently working with Professor Mike Roper on a project exploring the role of the First World War in the lives of the children of the interwar years.
Teaching responsibilities	HR121 - From Disunity to Unity? HR151 - Reform and Revolution in Russia HR211 - Making Histories HR225 - The Great War and the British People
Publications	Authored Book The Stomach for Fighting: Food and the Soldiers of The Great War (MUP, 2012) Edited Book Food and War in Twentieth Century Europe (Ashgate, 2011), with Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska Academic Journal Articles Twentieth Century British History, 'Beyond the Ration: Sharing and Scrounging on the Western Front' (Volume 22, 4, 2011) Cultural and Social History, 'A Taste of Army Life: Food, Identity and the Rankers of the First World War' (Volume 9, 2, 2012) Chapters in Edited Collections 'Alternatives to the Ration for British Soldiers on the Western Front 1914-18' in Paul Collinson and Helen Macbeth eds, Food in Zones of Conflict (Berghahn, forthcoming) 'British Army Provisioning on the Western Front' in Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska and Rachel Duffett eds, Food and War in the Twentieth Century (Ashgate, 2011) 'A War Unimagined: Food and the Rank and File Soldiers of the First World War' in J. Meyer ed., British Popular Culture and the First World War (Brill, 2008) Other Publications Local History News, '"Hoping you are in the pink as it leaves me": Soldiers' Letters and the Great War" (forthcoming) Western Front Association Bulletin, 'The Stophers of Suffolk and the Great War' (forthcoming, 2012) Family History Magazine, 'The Stomach for Fighting' (December, 2011) Essex and Suffolk Military Herald, 'Rations Past and Present' (April, 2011) BBC History Magazine, 'What do We Want With Eggs and Ham?' (December, 2009) 'The stomach for fighting: Food on the Western Front', BBC Essex website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/articles/2008/11/04/food_western_front_feature.shtml Conference Papers and Knowledge Transfer Events (selected): forthcoming 'Playing Soldiers? British Children and their Toys in the aftermath of the Great War', Approaching War Conference, Newcastle, March 2013 'From Sweffling to the Somme', The Great War: Localities and Regional Identities Conference, Manchester, June 2012 'The Stophers of Suffolk and the Great War', Social History Society Conference, Brighton, April 2012 Invited speaker, 'The Stophers of Suffolk and the Great War', Suffolk Historical Review AGM, November, 2011 Invited speaker, The First World War Reappraised, seminar at IWM London, October, 2011 'Sharing Strategies on the Western Front', International Commission on the Anthropology of Food Conference, Leiden, August, 2011 'Of Meat and Men: Beef and the British Soldier', Food and Identities Conference at the University of Lancashire, June 2011 Guest speaker at Royal Logistics Corps Museum, Camberley, May 2011 Guest lecturer on First World War Education Day at IWM Duxford, November 2010 Invited speaker at The Local Population Studies Society Annual Conference on 'Famine, Diet and Nutrition', April 2010. Food and the Soldier; for The Friends of the National Army Museum, February 2010 'Home Fires Burning: Supporting the Soldiers of The Great War', joint talk with Professor Michael Roper in conjunction with Arts on 5's exhibition of Steve McQueen's 'Queen and Country', November 2009 'British Army Provisioning on the Western Front', at the 11th Symposium of the International Commission for Research into European Food History, Paris, September 2009 '100 Years of Army Rations', University sponsored exhibit at Colchester Military Festival, July 2009 'Food and Identity in the British Army', Social History Society Conference, Warwick, April 2009 'Food on the Western Front', Imperial War Museum Staff History Group, April 2009 A Taste of Home: Parcels on the Western Front', Essex Book Festival, March 2009 'Food on the Western Front and the Stopher Family of Sweffling', Suffolk Records Office - Armistice and Commemoration, November 2008 'Feeding and Eating on the Western Front', County Hall, Chelmsford - Armistice and Commemoration, November 2008 'A War Unimagined: Food and the Rank and File Soldier of the First World War', The First World War and Popular Culture Conference, Newcastle University, April 2006 Other Media: Selected to participate in the AHRC/BBC workshop on the coverage of the centenary of the First World War BBC4, interviewed on Great War rations for Bullets, Boots and Bandages, shown February 2012. BBC History Magazine, podcast December 2009. Feature in East Anglian Daily Times on my research, February 2009. BBC Radio Essex, interview on rankers' food on the Western Front, November 2008. Feature in Colchester Gazette on my research, November 2008.

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Last modified on: 13 October 2011