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Laura Gowing

Professor Laura Gowing

Professor of Early Modern History

Research interests

  • History

Biography

Laura Gowing joined the department in 2002, following teaching posts at Essex, Hertfordshire and Royal Holloway, where she studied for her PhD.

Research and supervision

  • Women and gender in England 1500-1700
  • Early modern social history
  • History of Crime
  • History of London
  • History of the body
  • Women’s work in early modern England 

Laura Gowing’s research uses legal records to examine the lives of women in early modern England. Her work is concerned primarily with the history of sex, gender, language and the body, and more broadly with early modern social and cultural history. Her book Common Bodies: Women, Touch and Power in Seventeenth-century England (Yale, 2003) was awarded the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize by the American Historical Association. This area is developed in the MA option Body and Society in Early Modern Europe. Her most recent book, Gender Relations in early  modern England (Pearson Longman 2012) presents recent developments in the field together with new documents. Recent research on women’s work and the history of gesture appears in Cultural and Social History spring 2013, and on the social history of the bed in Home Cultures autumn 2014.

Enquiries from prospective PhD students in any area of British social and cultural history 1500-1800 are welcome. Current students are working on topics including the history of smell 1660-1800; motherhood in the 17th century; and infanticide in the 17th century. 

Professor Gowing is particularly interested in:

  • The history of women and gender
  • sex and sexuality
  • crime and the law
  • London
  • popular culture
  • work
  • cultural history

Joint supervision with other departments (such as English) also offers opportunities for those interested in interdisciplinary projects.

For more details, please see her full research profile.

Expertise and public engagement

Professor Laura Gowing is a convenor of two seminars at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) – Society, Culture and Belief in Early Modern Europe and Women’s History – and is an editor of History Workshop Journal. 

    Research

    cems skating
    Centre for Early Modern Studies

    The Centre for Early Modern Studies was established in 2015 to promote research in the early modern period (understood in its broadest sense, roughly 1400-1700).

    Thumbail (2)
    Women & Gender through History

    Committed to an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach, colleagues come to the subject through histories of work.

    News

    King's researchers elected new Fellows of The British Academy

    The British Academy has elected five new Fellows from King’s College London.

    British Academy Fellows

    Professor Laura Gowing awarded the Social History Society's Book Prize

    Laura Gowing, Professor of Early Modern History, has won the Social History Society Book Prize for her book Ingenious Trade: Women and Work in...

    Profesor Laura Gowing. Photo by The Royal Historical Society

    Gender Relations in Early Modern England

    Dr Laura Gowing of the Department of History publishes new book titled Gender Relations in Early Modern England.

    Gender Relations in Early Modern England, by Dr Laura Gowing, published by Pearson Education Ltd (2012) and Routledge (2014).

    Events

    15JunPhoto by Alexander Grey, Upsplash.

    Intimacy by Design: Imagining ‘closeness’ in online and offline spaces

    Led by the Digital Futures Institute’s Centre for Technology and the Body, this event considers the meanings of intimacy, past, present and future.

    Please note: this event has passed.

      Research

      cems skating
      Centre for Early Modern Studies

      The Centre for Early Modern Studies was established in 2015 to promote research in the early modern period (understood in its broadest sense, roughly 1400-1700).

      Thumbail (2)
      Women & Gender through History

      Committed to an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach, colleagues come to the subject through histories of work.

      News

      King's researchers elected new Fellows of The British Academy

      The British Academy has elected five new Fellows from King’s College London.

      British Academy Fellows

      Professor Laura Gowing awarded the Social History Society's Book Prize

      Laura Gowing, Professor of Early Modern History, has won the Social History Society Book Prize for her book Ingenious Trade: Women and Work in...

      Profesor Laura Gowing. Photo by The Royal Historical Society

      Gender Relations in Early Modern England

      Dr Laura Gowing of the Department of History publishes new book titled Gender Relations in Early Modern England.

      Gender Relations in Early Modern England, by Dr Laura Gowing, published by Pearson Education Ltd (2012) and Routledge (2014).

      Events

      15JunPhoto by Alexander Grey, Upsplash.

      Intimacy by Design: Imagining ‘closeness’ in online and offline spaces

      Led by the Digital Futures Institute’s Centre for Technology and the Body, this event considers the meanings of intimacy, past, present and future.

      Please note: this event has passed.