Helen Berry
{{short description|British historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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| name = Helen Berry
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRHistS|FRSA}}
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1969|12|11|df=y}}
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| nationality = British
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| occupation = Professor of British History
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| awards = In April 2024, Berry was inducted to the Collegium of Scholars, College of Ministers and Laity, Martin Luther King Jr Chapel, Morehouse College
| website = https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morehouse_Collegehttp://www.helenberry.net/
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| alma_mater = Cambridge University
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| doctoral_advisor = Keith Wrightson
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| discipline = History
| sub_discipline = British History
| workplaces = Newcastle University University of Exeter
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| main_interests = Social history
18th century Britain
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Helen Berry {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRHistS|FRSA}} (born 11 December 1969) is a British historian and Professor of British History at the University of Exeter. She specialises in British history in a global context between 1660 and 1800, with particular interests in social, cultural and economic history, the history of gender and sexuality, the family, the rise of the mass media and coffee house culture.
Education
Berry read history at Durham University from 1989 to 1992. She was president of the Durham Union for Easter term of 1991.{{cite web |title=Durham Union Society (Photographs) |url=http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ark/32150_s19w0323082.xml#UNDall-2785 |website=Catalogue of Durham University Records: Associations and Societies |access-date=13 September 2019}} Her doctoral research was at Jesus College, University of Cambridge 1995–1998, where she wrote a thesis on the history of coffee houses and the earliest London newspapers. In 2000 she was awarded the Royal Historical Society Alexander Prize{{cite web |title=Previous Winners of the Alexander Prize |url=https://5hm1h4aktue2uejbs1hsqt31-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/alexanderpastwinners.pdf |website=Royal Historical Society |access-date=15 October 2018 |archive-date=17 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917143304/https://5hm1h4aktue2uejbs1hsqt31-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/alexanderpastwinners.pdf |url-status=dead }} for the paper ‘Rethinking Politeness in Eighteenth-Century England: Moll King’s Coffee House and the Significance of Flash Talk’ based on her thesis{{cite journal |last1=Berry |first1=Helen |title=Rethinking Politeness in Eighteenth Century England: Moll King's Coffee House and the Significance of 'Flash Talk': The Alexander Prize Lecture |journal=Transactions of the Royal Historical Society |date=2001 |volume=6 |issue=11 |pages=65–81 |doi=10.1017/S0080440101000044 |s2cid=163087308 |url=https://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/15528/C0682082-BD50-48DB-BFC5-8CF63E6A7C7F.pdf}}
Career and research
Following her PhD, Berry was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Essex (September 1998 – July 1999), and a postdoctoral researcher at Northumbria University (July 1999 – September 2000), before taking up a lectureship in history at Newcastle University in September 2000.{{cite web |title=Linked In - Helen Berry |url=https://uk.linkedin.com/in/helen-berry |website=LinkedIn}} She was promoted to professor in June 2012. She has also held visiting professorship positions at the Harry Ransom Humanities Library, University of Texas at Austin, and the Huntington Library, San Marina California.
She is a former dean of postgraduate studies (2015–2018) and acting pro-vice chancellor (2018), Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Newcastle University. From February 2019 - September 2020 she was head of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Newcastle, before moving to the University of Exeter where she is currently Head of History.{{Cite web |title=History staff - Prof Helen Berry |url=https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/history/staff/hmb221/}} She is also adjunct assistant professor at IUPUI Department of History, IU School of Liberal Arts.{{cite web |title=British and Irish Studies at IUPUI |url=http://www.iupui.edu/~british/British_Studies/Berry.html}}
Her research covers a wide range of themes, from the history of how a new kind of consumer society emerged in Britain during the eighteenth century, to how global trade and economics shaped personal experiences, families and communities. She also has interests in the history of the mass media from the late-seventeenth century onwards; coffee house sociability and politeness; the history of gender and sexuality, particularly in the shifting definitions of marriage over time. Her book, [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-castrato-and-his-wife-9780199569816?cc=gb&lang=en& The Castrato and His Wife] (published by OUP in 2011) explores the impact of Italian culture in the British Isles. Her most recent book,
Berry has presented for the BBC, including a feature on BBC1's Inside/Out programme about the archaeologist, explorer and diplomat Gertrude Bell.{{cite web |title=Gertrude Bell on BBC 1 |url=https://my.ncl.ac.uk/staff/nuconnections/item/gertrude-bell-on-bbc |website=Newcastle University}}{{cite web |title=Lecture Wednesday, November 18, 2015 |url=http://www.bisi.ac.uk/content/lecture-2 |website=The British Institute for the Study of Iraq}}
Awards and honours
She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society,{{cite web |title=Royal Historical Society, Current Fellows and Members |url=https://royalhistsoc.org/membership/rhs-fellows-and-members/}} and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
Her book The Castrato and his Wife{{cite web |title=The Castrato and his Wife |url=http://www.helenberry.net/the-castrato-and-his-wife |website=Helen Berry}} was featured as Book of the Week on Radio 4{{cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week Tue 4 Oct 2011 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015bt0y}}
Her book Orphans of Empire was shortlisted for the 2019 Cundill History Prize.{{cite web |title=The longlist for the 2019 Cundill History Prize |url=https://www.cundillprize.com/news/the-longlist-for-the-2019-cundill-history-prize |website=Cundill History Prize|date=17 October 2023 }}{{Cite web|title=Revealed: the 8 history books shortlisted for the 2019 Cundill History Prize|url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/revealed-books-authors-who-shortlist-2019-cundill-history-prize/|last=|first=|date=|website=History Extra|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
References
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External links
- http://www.helenberry.net/
- https://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/staff/profile/helenberry.html#background{{Dead link|date=June 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
- https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/holdingarea/experts/profile/berryhelen/{{Dead link|date=June 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
- https://jonathan-conway.com/authors/professor-helen-berry
- http://www.iwne.org/prof-helen-berry.php
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Category:21st-century British women writers
Category:21st-century British historians
Category:British women historians
Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
Category:Academics of Newcastle University
Category:Historians of the United Kingdom
Category:Presidents of the Durham Union
Category:Alumni of St Mary's College, Durham
Category:Academics of the University of Exeter
Category:Historians of the early modern period
Category:Historians of sexuality