Education & Professional History
Carleton College, BA; Brown University, MA, PhD
At Carleton since 1998.
Highlights & Recent Activity
Recent Publications
“Reconsidering Poor Law Institutions by Virtually Constructing and Re-Viewing an Eighteenth-Century Workhouse,” with Austin Mason, The Historical Journal, 64(3), 557-582.
“A very Bad Presidente in the House”: Workhouse Masters, Care and Discipline in the
Eighteenth-Century Workhouse, forthcoming in Journal of Social History (2020).
Recent Grants/Initiatives
Faculty co-director, with Kelly Connole, 4-year, Mellon-funded initiative – Public Works: Arts and Humanities, Connecting Communities
NEH Digital Humanities Advancement grant – contributor to the project “Castle to Classrooms: Developing an Irish Castle in Virtual Reality.”
Organizations & Scholarly Affiliations
North American Conference on British Studies.
American Historical Association.
American Friends of the Institute for Historical Research.
Social Science History Association.
Current Courses
-
Fall 2023
HIST 100:
Food and Public Health: Why the Brits Embraced White Bread
-
HIST 335:
Finding Ireland's Past
-
Winter 2024
HIST 139:
Foundations of Modern Europe
-
HIST 200:
Historians for Hire
-
Spring 2024
HIST 200:
Historians for Hire
-
HIST 243:
The Peasants are Revolting! Society and Politics in the Making of Modern France
Professor Ottaway’s publications span a number of topics in early modern and eighteenth-century history. Her work on the history of old age has appeared in her monograph published by Cambridge University Press, The Decline of Life: Old Age in Eighteenth-Century England; an eight-volume co-edited source reader on Old Age in England 1500-1800, a forthcoming co-edited volume on the Cultural History of Old Age (under contract with Bloomsbury), a forthcoming co-edited volume on Old Age in Nineteenth-Century Britain, and several articles and book chapters. She has published essays on women’s work and household structures, and, together with Philosophy Professor Anna Moltchanova, on rights and reciprocity in the political and philosophical work of John Locke. Her recent research has focused on the history of social welfare and has resulted in publications in The Journal of Social History, The Historical Journal, and a chapter in The Workhouse and Medicine.
Recent Courses Taught:
History 100: Soot, Smog and Satanic Mills in Industrializing Britain
History 139: Foundations of Modern Europe
History 200: Historians for Hire
History 217: Engaging Youth in History (Academic Civic Engagement Course)
History 235: Bringing the English Past to Virtual Life (with Austin Mason, DH postdoc)
History 237: The Enlightenment
History 243: The Peasants Are Revolting: The Social and Political History of Early Modern France
History 245: Ireland: Land, Conflict and Memory
History 298: Junior Colloquium
History 395: The History of Poverty and Social Welfare
History 398: Advanced Historical Writing
Current Courses
-
Fall 2023
HIST 100:
Food and Public Health: Why the Brits Embraced White Bread
-
HIST 335:
Finding Ireland's Past
-
Winter 2024
HIST 139:
Foundations of Modern Europe
-
HIST 200:
Historians for Hire
-
Spring 2024
HIST 200:
Historians for Hire
-
HIST 243:
The Peasants are Revolting! Society and Politics in the Making of Modern France
Selected Publications:
Books
History of Old Age in England, 1600-1800, 8 volumes. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2008, and 2009. General Editor, with Lynn Botelho, Anne Kugler and Ingrid Tague.
The ‘Decline of Life’: Old Age in Eighteenth-Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Power and Poverty: Old Age in the Pre-Industrial Past. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.Editor, with Lynn Botelho and Katharine Kittredge
Articles and Chapters
“Reconsidering Poor Law Institutions by Virtually Constructing and Re-Viewing an Eighteenth-Century Workhouse,” with Austin Mason, The Historical Journal, 64(3), (2021): 557-582.
“A very Bad Presidente in the House”: Workhouse Masters, Care and Discipline in the Eighteenth-Century Workhouse, forthcoming in Journal of Social History (2020).
“Women, Households, and Independence under the Old English Poor Laws,” in Beatrice Moring, ed., Poor Women’s Economic Strategies (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2012).