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Dr Elin Jones

Lecturer in Maritime History

I am a social historian of the maritime world, c. 1750 - 1850. My research has examined shipboard society, and how built and natural environments shaped the lives of those who went to sea during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

My doctoral work focused on maritime labour, skill, work and masculinity on Royal Naval ships during this period, exploring how the ship was understood by its socially and culturally variegated population. I am currently preparing a monograph based on this research titled 'Naval Masculinity and Shipboard Society, 1756 - 1815'.

My new project explores the transition from sail to steam at sea, examining the changing relationship between technology, labour and understandings of the natural world during the first half of the nineteenth century. 

I am a member of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies at Exeter.

My office hours this term are:

  • Thursdays 12 midday - 1pm in person (Amory B370)
  • Fridays online on Microsoft Teams 11am - 12 midday by appointment (please e-mail e.f.jones@exeter.ac.uk to book a 20 minute slot)
  • On Wednesdays I have a pastoral office hour specifically for PGR students. This runs in person 10am - 11am every Wednesday in Amory B370

Research interests

My research interests lie within the fields of social, environmental and maritime history, as well as the histories of labour, technology and technological change. I am interested in how studying maritime history can elucidate connections as well as divisions, and in how modern identities were formed through imagined and physical relationships with the sea. 

 

 

External impact and engagement

My doctoral research was conducted in partnership with the National Maritime Museum. Since completing my PhD in 2016, I have worked across various forms of public history with heritage organisations and museums, as well as on arts and history television programming. I was employed at University of Edinburgh as the public history co-ordinator of a Heritage Lottery Funded project on geographies of social housing, and have worked in research and production for BBC 1 and BBC 2 arts and history programming.

I am currently working with History & Policy and Lloyd's Register, developing a series of reports which reflect on risk and techological change at sea.