Bios

Gavin Rand is the convenor of the History Research Group. He studied Politics and Modern History as an undergraduate at the University of Manchester and remained in Manchester for his postgraduate work, completing first an MA in Cultural History and then a doctorate, funded by the ESRC, awarded in 2004. After completing his thesis, Gavin taught for a year in the Department of History at Lancaster University, arriving at the University of Greenwich in 2005.

Gavin's work explores transmissions between Britain and empire in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a particular focus on Britain's relationship with South Asia. A cultural historian by training, Gavin is interested in the intersections of military, cultural and imperial history. Much of his research examines connections between culture, violence and colonial rule in South Asia, though he is also interested in the impacts of empire on British society and culture. Gavin has also worked on the partition of India, exploring the roles and reactions of imperial troops during the violence which accompanied the end of the British empire in South Asia. Gavin has published on the recruiting and administration of the Indian Army in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as on race, culture and the colonial frontier. Gavin is currently writing a cultural history of the Indian Army in the late-nineteenth century.