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| Laura Gowing | |
|---|---|
| Name | Laura Gowing |
| Birth place | London, England |
| Occupation | Historian, Professor |
| Employer | King's College London |
| Known for | Early modern British social history, gender history |
Laura Gowing is a British historian specializing in early modern England, notable for her work on gender, sexuality, crime, and urban life in the seventeenth century. She is a professor at King's College London and a Fellow of the British Academy, whose scholarship has influenced studies of women, violence, and social relations in London and beyond. Her research bridges archival methods with theoretical debates in gender history, social history, and the history of crime.
Gowing was born in London and educated at schools in the United Kingdom before undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate study at University of Oxford and University College London. She completed a doctorate drawing on records from London archives, assize courts, and parish registers, engaging with scholars at Institute of Historical Research, Wolfson College, Oxford, and colleagues connected to the Economic History Society and the Royal Historical Society. Her training included work with catalogues at the National Archives (United Kingdom), manuscripts at the British Library, and local collections in Surrey and Essex.
Gowing's academic appointments have included posts at Queen Mary University of London and King's College London, where she has held a chair in early modern history. She has served on committees for the Economic History Society, the Social History Society, and the editorial boards of journals such as the English Historical Review and Past & Present. She has supervised doctoral candidates funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and collaborated on projects with the Wellcome Trust, the Leverhulme Trust, and the British Academy. Gowing has taught courses linked to degrees at University of Cambridge, summer schools at the School of Advanced Study, and international workshops at institutions including Yale University and Princeton University.
Gowing's research focuses on seventeenth-century London social life, gendered violence, sexual conduct, and the regulation of bodies in public and private spaces. She has used courtroom records from the Old Bailey, parish examinations from St Martin-in-the-Fields, and pamphlets printed by John Bell and other early modern printers to reconstruct everyday experiences of women and men. Her work engages with theories from scholars such as Michel Foucault, Joan Scott, and Caroline Walker Bynum, while conversing with research by Olwen Hufton, Keith Wrightson, E.P. Thompson, Natalie Zemon Davis, and Londa Schiebinger. Gowing has challenged narratives derived from macroeconomic models by drawing on microhistory approaches practiced by Carlo Ginzburg and comparative urban studies by Peter Clark.
Her analyses reveal how practices of accusation, assault, and marital dispute in seventeenth-century England were shaped by local patronage networks, parish oversight, and emerging bureaucracies like the Commission of the Peace and the Court of Star Chamber. Gowing has contributed to debates about the history of prostitution discussed alongside work by Judith Walkowitz and Margaret R. Hunt, and about masculinity in conversation with R. W. Connell and John Tosh. She has mapped intersections between medical texts from Thomas Sydenham and legal commentary by figures such as Edward Coke to show how bodies were construed legally, medically, and morally.
- The first major monograph explored gender, sex, and urban experience in London using sources from the British Library and local archives. - A book-length study examined violence, victimhood, and legal responses in seventeenth-century England, drawing on Old Bailey proceedings and parish depositions. - Edited volumes include collections on women’s history, early modern urban life, and methodologies for researching crime and sexuality in historical sources, co-edited with scholars from University of Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, and University College London. - Peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the Economic History Review, the English Historical Review, and Gender & History address topics ranging from street harassment to domestic conflict in early modern urban contexts.
Gowing has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy and received research grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the Leverhulme Trust. Her publications have been shortlisted for prizes awarded by the Royal Historical Society and recognized by the Social History Society. She has been invited to give named lectures at institutions including Cambridge University, Oxford University, Yale University, and the London School of Economics.
Gowing has contributed to radio and television programmes on BBC Radio 4, BBC Two, and documentary series about early modern London and crime history. She has written articles for public outlets collaborating with editors at The Guardian and specialist history magazines, delivered public lectures at Museum of London and the National Maritime Museum, and participated in podcasts produced by HistoryHit and the Institute of Historical Research.
Category:British historians Category:Fellows of the British Academy