Alana Harris is a product of a liberal arts education – a combined Arts/Law degree from the University of Melbourne in which she pursued a major in Medieval and Renaissance History with minors in English Literature, European politics and the study of Italian.
She carried these experiences of interdisciplinarity, critical thinking and flexible learning into careers in law and the Australian civil service, before moving into academia and undertaking a doctorate in Modern British History at Wadham College, Oxford.
She taught modern British and European History for over eight years at the University of Oxford before moving to King’s in 2015. In her work within the Department of History, she received a King’s Award for Inclusive Education (2019), a joint King’s Award for Employee Engagement (2017) and was nominated for a Teaching Excellence Award (2016) and Student Support Award (2019).
She gained a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2018 and is a Fellow and Officer (2018-21) of the Royal Historical Society. She joined the Department of Liberal Arts as its Director in 2020.
Alana’s research interests reflect this interdisciplinary background, a cross-periodisation focus and a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. They centre on the shifts in social and cultural identities and subjectivities across the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries through the lens of gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality and religiosity.
She is particularly interested in the manifestations of these self-definitions and personal politics through ritual and performance, pilgrimage, material and visual cultures and spatial and narrative practices. Recent publications have explored understandings of ‘modern love’ and romance, contraception and politicised sexualities through the ‘long 1960s’.
Evolving research agendas carry these preoccupations into new territory unearthing alternative and unexpected ideological resources for anti-racism activism and the refashioning of medical ethics.
She always seeks dynamic ways to engage the public with her research – collaborating with artists (Somerset House), musicians (a collaborative composition released on Naxos) and creative practitioners (exhibitions at the London Science Gallery and Ushaw College).