Dr Laura Harrison

Historian | Researcher | Lecturer | Consultant

Teaching is an essential and invigorating part of my academic career. I have been teaching at the University of the West of England, Bristol, since 2016. Before this, I taught at Westminster College, Missouri, USA (2015-16), and at the University of Leeds (2012-2015). I am committed to engaging and inclusive research-led teaching, educating students at the cutting edge of current scholarship and developing collaboration with external partners. As the first person in my family to go to university, I am particularly passionate about breaking down barriers to learning, and opening up access and opportunities across communities. Throughout my career, I have worked to foster an inclusive learning experience, drawing on my time as a Fulbright Scholar and the considerable independence of course design and curriculum development afforded by the American Liberal Arts system.

The columns at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri.

I currently teach across all three years of the History undergraduate degree at UWE Bristol. My research and collaborative work informs all of my teaching, including the specialist modules I lead on histories of youth & youth culture, and of gender & sexuality. I contribute to taught postgraduate teaching, and have successfully supervised postgraduate research students.

I want my students to discover the excitement that can be found in original historical research, and in how this research can be used to make a difference in and with our communities. Most of the students sitting in my classroom will not become professional historians, but I believe that they, and the communities they live and work in, will be best-served if I can help them to think like historians; developing a sense of critical enquiry and curiosity about the world that they can apply to the past, present, and future.

I also have an interest in creative practice and its application in the History HE classroom, and have written about the second-year module I developed, ‘Sex and the Social Order: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Britain’, and the use of the creative ‘unessay’ assignment in this class.

You can also read more about my 2023-24 Jinty-Nelson Teaching Fellowship project, a collaboration between historians and colleagues working in sustainable IT, on the Royal Historical Society website.

I have been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2018, and in 2022 was awarded Senior Fellowship status.