I’m a historian of modern Europe with particular interests in the cultural politics of Britain and its empire. My research focuses on liberal imperial governance, nationalism, and the transnational history of ideas.

My current project, Instituting Nation and Empire in the Modern British World, explores the dilemmas British subjects faced in their efforts to universalize “British” institutions across their multinational empire during the long nineteenth century. It analyzes three British institutions that contemporaries imagined would unite Britain’s global populace: universities, local parliaments, and the monarchy. I show how struggles to make these institutions representative of Britain’s diverse subjects hardened racial hierarchies and intensified fault lines between “nation” and “empire” across the British world.

Alison Hight

alison.hight@rutgers.edu

Education

Expected 2024        Ph.D., History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Fields of study: Modern European History; Global/Comparative History Dissertation: “Instituting Nation and Empire in the Modern British World”

Committee: Seth Koven (chair), Judith Surkis, Julia Stephens, Belinda Davis, Mark Doyle (outside reader)

2014                        M.A., History, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA Graduate Certificate in Public History

2012                       B.A., History & Classical Studies, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Magna Cum Laude, Concentration in Social, Cultural, and Economic History Minor in Medieval & Early Modern Studies

Publications

“‘A ceremony of national and representative character’: the Four-Nations Politics of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee,” Journal of British Studies, January 2024. open-access link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/ceremony-of-national-and-representative-character-the-fournations-politics-of-queen-victorias-golden-jubilee/E5BC9293ACFD9439BF53D28E8975E44E

“Queen Victoria and (Multi)National Identity,” in Arianne Chernock ed., Cambridge Companion to Queen Victoria (commissioned, under contract with Cambridge University Press, expected 2025).

Works in Progress

“Pocock’s Pluralist ‘Plea’ at 50: Mingling National and Imperial Methods in British and Irish History,” (preparing manuscript for submission to Past & Present or Journal of Modern History)

Fellowships, Grants, & Awards

External

2023        Postgraduate Bursary, Scottish Historical Review Trust

2022        Larkin Research Fellowship, American Conference for Irish Studies

2022        Donald E. Stokes Dissertation Research Fellowship, British Politics Group

2021        Dissertation Fellowship, North American Conference on British Studies

2020        Global Wales Visiting Student Researcher Award, US-UK Fulbright Commission

Inaugural recipient; Postponed to 2021-22 due to Covid-19 pandemic

2019        Gaeltacht Summer Award, Ireland-United States Commission for Educational Exchange

2019        Finalist: Open Study/Research Award, Ireland-US Fulbright Commission

2019        Graduate Student Research Travel Award, Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies

2018        Gaeltacht Summer Award, Ireland-United States Commission for Educational Exchange

Internal: Rutgers

Internal: Virginia Tech

Academic Conference & Workshop Presentations

2024        “Home Rule as a Reparative Discourse in Global British Politics,” Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, New Brunswick, NJ, February 27

2023        “Dominion Magna Carta: Canada, Jamaica, and the Invention of White Settler Constitutionalism,” North American Conference on British Studies, Baltimore, MD, November 10-13

2023        “Four-Nations and Imperial Politics in the 1876 Royal Titles Act,” Britain and the World Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, April 20-22

2023        “Responsible Government and Constitutional Reform in mid-19th c. British Empire,” Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, New Brunswick, NJ, February 7

2022        “‘Responsible Government,’ ‘Home Rule,’ and the Language of Local Autonomy in the British World,” North American Conference on British Studies, Chicago, IL, Nov 10-13

2022        “‘A Quixotic expedition’: The Welsh Colony at Patagonia as a Four-Nations Approach to Empire,” Britain and the World Conference, Plymouth, UK, June 15-17

2022        “The Semantics of Colonial Governance in Jamaica’s 1860 Constitutional Crisis,” Constitutions and Crises Conference, University of Cambridge, March 10-11

2021        “‘The best kind of Empire:’ Imagining National Universities in Britain’s Imperial World,” North American Conference on British Studies, Atlanta, GA, November 11-14

2021        “‘A University for Wales’: Higher Education and Nationhood in Multi-national Britain,” Delaware Valley British Studies Seminar, Philadelphia, PA, November 7

2021        “The Legal, Moral, and Political Discourse of Self-Government in the British Empire, 1840-1950,” American Society for Legal History Summer Research Workshop, August 11

2020        “Particularity, Uniformity, and the Expansion of Higher Education in Four Nations Britain and its Empire,” Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, April 18-19 [*conference cancelled due to COVID-19*]

2019        “‘Loyalist, but no Subscriber:’ A Four-Nations Approach to Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee,” Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, April 6-7

2014        “Memory, Nationalism, and the Popularization of Fairies in Victorian Scotland,”

Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies, Lehman College, New York, NY, April 5-6

Organized/Chaired Panels & Roundtables

2023        “A Conversation with Deborah Cohen about Writing History,” Nation & Empire Graduate Working Group, Rutgers University, February 27

2021        Fall NACBS Graduate Caucus Virtual Professional Development Series:

October 30: “Research with Digitized Sources”

November 12: “Navigating the Archive” (in-person at NACBS conference) December 3: “Careers Beyond the Professoriate”

2021        Spring NACBS Graduate Caucus Virtual Professional Development Series:

March 26: “Publishing Your First Article” April 14: “Teaching Your First/a New Course”

May 7: “How to Write a Winning Grant Proposal”

May 28: “Cover Letters, CVs, and the Academic Job Search”

2019        “A Discussion on Themes of Nation and Empire,” Roundtable, Nation & Empire Graduate Working Group, Rutgers University, April 10

2019        “Careers for PhDs in British Studies,” Roundtable, North American Conference on British Studies, Vancouver, Canada, November 15-17

2018        “A Public Conversation with Pieter Judson,” Distinguished Speakers in European History, Rutgers University, September 5

Teaching

Instructor of Record

Rutgers University, Department of History

Summer 2021-23    History and the News (online synchronous)

Virginia Tech, Department of History

Summer 2020-23    Intro to European Civ. I (online asynchronous)

Summer 2018         Intro to European Civ. II (online asynchronous)

Spring 2016            Tudor-Stuart Britain

Intro to European Civ. II

Fall 2015                The Renaissance

Intro to European Civ. I

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Rutgers University, Department of History

Spring 2021            History of Islam in South Asia (online synchronous; Rutgers section of University of Michigan course through Big Ten Academic Alliance)

Spring 2018            Modern Britain since 1815

Ancient and Medieval Europe

Fall 2017                Looking at 21st c. Global Issues in Historical Perspective (online asynch.)

Virginia Tech, Department of History Spring 2014 History of China

History of Japan

Fall 2013                History of Modern Africa

Pedagogy Training

Spring 2024    “Teaching of History,” Rutgers Department of History

Spring 2021    “Introduction to Online & Hybrid Teaching,” Rutgers School of Graduate Studies TA Project

Fall 2020         “Designing Your Own Course,” Rutgers School of Graduate Studies TA Project

2015-16           Teaching Group member, Virginia Tech Departments of History

Service, Leadership, & Programming

Professional

University/Departmental

Professional Organization Membership

American Historical Association American Conference on Irish Studies

North American Conference on British Studies Royal Historical Society (Postgraduate Member) British Politics Group

Language Skills

French: intermediate reading proficiency Irish: intermediate reading proficiency Latin: basic reading proficiency