Dr Alix Green

Biography

I embraced the academic field after a career in policy, strategy and government affairs. I did my PhD on using history in public policy development, having completed my BA and MPhil degrees in History at Clare College, Cambridge. I founded the Public History Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in London and I serve as a juror for the new national Public History prize. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and I am currently serving as one of the Society's two Honorary Directors of Communications. Joining the Essex History department represents my second return to my home town of Colchester. I blog about history, higher education and public life at www.thehistoricalimperative.com. I am a historian of contemporary Britain, with a focus on political culture and policymaking. I also have a long-standing interest in historical practice and the roles and responsibilities of historians in public life, taking contemporary politics, policymaking and business as underexplored contexts for historical work. My 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. My work aims to blur the boundaries between disciplines and to emphasise the complementarity of different forms of knowledge. I am currently working on a collaborative project with the John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre, looking at the Partnership's historical approach to pay and performance to inform how the business approaches these strategies in the future. As part of this, I am also working with business archivists to develop models of collaboration between historians and archivists that demonstrate the value of archival collections and historical research to parent organisations.

Qualifications

• PhD University of Hertfordshire,

• MPhil University of Cambridge,

• BA (Hons) University of Cambridge,