Dr Drew Gray
Telephone: 01604 892576
Email: drew.gray@northampton.ac.uk
I was awarded my PhD thesis, entitled Summary Proceedings and Social Relations in the City of London, c.1750-1800, in January 2007 and am currently working on a number of themes arising from my doctoral project. I was born in north London and have been a resident of Northamptonshire since 1990 and have taught history at the University of Northampton since 2002. I have also taught for the WEA and to local groups both on my research areas and on wider themes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history.
Research interests
I have research interests in a number of fields relating to the history of crime and justice including the summary courts and the role of the magistracy and changing attitudes to violence. More broadly I am interested in the social history of London in the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I am currently working on the suppression of Bull-Running in late eighteenth-century London and its relationship to tighter control of public space. I will be contributing a joint chapter to a new volume on the pardoning archives which is being published by the National Archives at Kew. In addition this summer I will be writing up an analysis of the work of a Northamptonshire Justice of the Peace operating in Oundle in the 1700s.
Recent publications
'The Regulation of Violence in the Metropolis: The Prosecution of Assault in the Summary Courts, c.1780-1820', The London Journal, 31, 2 (2007)
'Settling their Differences: The Nature of Assault and its Prosecution in the City of London in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries', in K.D. Watson (ed.), Assaulting the Past: Violence and Civilization in Historical Context, (Scholars, forthcoming 2007).
Teaching
I currently teach on a number of history modules with the undergraduate and post graduate curriculum, as well as contributing to the criminology programme at Northampton.
At masters level I offer two courses, one on violence and the law and the other on gender and crime - both covering the period 1650-1900. At third year level I run a module entitled Crime and Popular Culture in the Late Victorian City which uses the Whitechapel Murders of Jack the Ripper to explore a number of themes including policing, sensationalism, poverty and attitudes towards violence. I am module coordinator for HIS2007 Policing, Punishment, Crime and Social Discipline which covers a wide range of themes relating to crime in the period from 1650-1900. I also teach on the Heritage and Women's history modules at first year level and have supervised a number of successful undergraduate and post graduate dissertations in the area of crime and social protest.
PhD supervision
I am keen to work with prospective doctoral students in the future, particularly those with an interest in the summary legal process and the development of the criminal justice system.
