Professor Alison Fell

Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences

Professor Alison Fell has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences since October 2025. From 2021-25 she was Dean of the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures. Previously, she had a series of research leadership roles at the University of Leeds, and lectureships at the Universities of Oxford and Lancaster.

She is a strategic reviewer for the AHRC, a panellist and mentor for UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships, a panellist for the Polish National Science Centre, and an expert advisor for the Irish Research Council and HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area).

Her research has focused on French and British women’s history and on the culture and history of the First World War. From 2012-20 she led several UKRI-funded projects that worked with cultural and heritage partners to mark the war’s centenary, and authored an Impact Case Study based on this work. 

She has published widely on women and war, including her most recent books Women as Veterans in Britain and France after the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and Warrior Women: The Cultural Politics of Armed Women c.1850-1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

She is currently co-editing a book with Dr Matilda Greig (National Army Museum) on war and gender in modern Europe, and is co-supervising a Collaborative Doctoral Award with the Imperial War Museum in London.