Contact
Biography
I am a historian of 19th and 20th century Britain, specialising in health histories and histories of the countryside.
As co-convenor of History UK, I lead a major new project on Disability and History. I also lead working groups on assessment, the value of history and collaborations between universities and schools.
At UoN, I am Deputy APVC for Education and Student Experience, Faculty of Arts.
I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Lord Dearing recipient and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of my varied contributions to the discipline and teaching and learning.
Expertise Summary
My expertise is in British history (19th and 20th century), with particular emphasis on rural health histories, rural communities, agricultural workers, the relationship between town and country, and knowledge networks. I undertake and publish pedagogical research and am Co-Convenor of History UK.
Teaching Summary
My teaching is research led, in terms of content and/or pedagogy.
I have undertaken pedagogical research that informs my practice including work on student engagement, creative assessment, collaborative community engagement projects, employability, widening participation, and mental health and wellbeing. I received the Lord Dearing Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2023. I have also been awarded the PGCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. As Co-Convenor of History UK, a national body representing and promoting History in UK Higher Education, I lead a number of national pedagogical research projects.
I have previously convened Themes in Early Modern Europe (year one survey module), Consumers and Citizens: Society and Culture in Eighteenth Century England (year two option), The Many Faces of Reform: British Politics 1790-1850 (year three option) and Rural Life in Victorian England (year three special subject) and Exploring English Identity (MA module). I usually teach the final year special subject, HIST 3091: A Green and (Un) Pleasant Land? Society, Culture and the Evolution of the British Society, contribute to HIST 1001 Learning History .
In 2024-25, I will be convening and teaching on HIST 2046 - Poverty, Disease and Disability: Britain, 1790-1930 (year two option). I will also supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations.
Supervising PhD research I am able to supervise students in aspects of health and disability histories, patient narratives of mental illness and psychiatric institutions, histories of the countryside, histories of poverty.
Research Summary
My principal research interests are focused on 19th to 20th century British history, including rural health histories and histories of the countryside, and on pedagogical practice and student… read more
Recent Publications
SARAH HOLLAND, 2023. "Wizards of the Soil": constructing and challenging the institutional rhetoric of an asylum farm, Lincolnshire County Asylum, 1852-1902 Lincolnshire History and Archeology.
HOLLAND. S., 2022. 'Promoting and Accelerating the Progress of Agriculture': A Case Study of Agricultural Societies in the Doncaster District, South Yorkshire, England. In: YVES SEGERS AND LEEN VAN MOLLE, ed., Agricultural Knowledge Networks in Rural Europe, 1700-2000 Boydell and Brewer.
HOLLAND, S, 2021. Narrating and navigating patient experiences of farm work in English psychiatric institutions, 1845–1914. In: A. HANLEY AND J. MEYER, ed., Patient Voices in Britain, 1840–1948
Current Research
My principal research interests are focused on 19th to 20th century British history, including rural health histories and histories of the countryside, and on pedagogical practice and student experience.
I am currently working on rural health histories and asylum and hospital farms. This research forms the basis of my second monograph, Farming, Psychiatry and Rural Society: Asylum and Hospital Farms, England 1845-1955 (under contract with Routledge), and explores the historic inter-relationship between farming, rural communities and mental health. The role of patient narratives and extracting these from 'official' institutional narratives is the subject of my article 'Wizards of the Soil', Lincolnshire History and Archaeology Journal (2023) and book chapter: 'Narrating and Navigating Patient Experiences of Farm Work in English Psychiatric Institutions, 1845-1914' in A. Hanley and J. Meyer (eds), Patient Voices in Britain, 1840-1948 (Manchester University Press, 2021).
I am currently leading pedagogy projects on assessment, disability and history, collaborations between universities and schools, the value of history, teaching histories of the countryside and the role of place and space in education and of history in the community, and collaborating on a national project about student engagement. This includes an article on 'Rethinking Assessment: the potential of 'innovative' or 'creative' assessments in history in History Education Research Journal (2024). I am co-curating a new and exciting exhibition in conjunction with Manuscripts and Special Collections at the Weston Gallery for Spring/Summer 2025.
My first monograph, Communities in Contrast explores how and why rural communities developed in the mid nineteenth century, and demonstrates what a northern market town and its rural hinterland can tell us about village differentiation, exploring how and why rural communities developed in what was chiefly an industrial region and how the relationship between town and country affected rural communities.
Other historical research and publications examine the contrasting experience of agricultural workers including agricultural labourers and farm servants, the role of the hiring fair, housing conditions and wages, unrest and protest; the relationship between town and countryside; and knowledge networks.
I have also undertaken research exploring the relationship between cultural stimuli (including history, the arts and culture) and mental health and wellbeing, and between place and memory and learning experiences, which identified links between community history projects and positive mental health and well being, and the role of place and memory in education. I have explored opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations through the Health Humanities Curriculum Development Group and with colleagues in the Schools of English and of Medicine (via successful Impact Accelerator Award funding for 'Performing CP: Ageing, Access and Healthcare' - Co-I). I co-curated the Life on the Land exhibition in 2016 and founded the University's History Festival in 2017 (which I have continued to organise). I was previously the Impact and Knowledge Exchange Lead and the WP and Outreach Lead for the Department of History.