Dr Kate Mahoney
-
Email
k.mahoney@essex.ac.uk -
Location
Colchester Campus
Profile
Biography
From October 2017 to January 2022, I worked at the University of Essex as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant on the Wellcome Trust-funded project 'Body, Self, and Family: Women’s Psychological, Emotional and Bodily Health in Britain, c. 1960-1990’. I am now Research Manager at Healthwatch Essex. The ‘Body, Self, and Family’ project aims to create an intersectional history of gender, body, and the self from the bottom-up rather than the top-down. I managed the project’s research strand on women’s health activism. More broadly, my research explores the intersection of feminism, women’s everyday health, and psychological and psychotherapeutic discourses in England from the late 1960s onwards. Of particular interest are the ways in which feminist activists have used psychotherapy and psychoanalysis to understand their own personal and political experiences, whilst also supporting other women with mental health concerns. My book on this topic – 'Feminist Mental Health Activism in England, c. 1968-1995' – is due to be published by Manchester University Press in 2022. My interest in politics and self-identity extends to the research process. I have examined how researcher and participant emotions have influenced their engagement with historical narratives of feminism. My focus on mental health also incorporates an interest in the influence of academic structures and practices on the wellbeing of doctoral students.
Qualifications
-
PhD History Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick, (2017)
-
MA Medical History Cardiff University, (2012)
-
BA History Cardiff University, (2011)
Appointments
University of Essex
-
Postdoctoral Research Assistant, History, University of Essex (2017 - present)
Other academic
-
Administrator, University of Warwick Feminist History Group (2016 - 2017)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Feminism and radical politics
Gender, health and medicine
Community-based and voluntary organisations
Psychology and psychotherapy
Conferences and presentations
May 2016: 'Women, Mental Health and MIND: The Influence of Feminism on a Mental Health Charity', Feminist Review Early Careers Workshop (SOAS University of London);
London, United Kingdom, 2016
April 2016: 'The Liberating Possibilities of Psychotherapeutic Techniques: The Negotiation of Therapy and Politics in Women's Liberation Movement Psychology Groups in 1970s England', European Social Science History Conference (Universitat de València, Spain);
Valencia, Spain, 2016
July 2015: 'Finding Our Own Solutions: The Women's Liberation Movement and Mental Health Provision in Post-war England', Wolfson Postgraduate Scholars in the Humanities Symposium (British Academy, London);
London, United Kingdom, 2015
June 2015: 'The Political, Emotional and Therapeutic: Personal Histories of Consciousness-Raising in the English Womens Liberation Movement', New Subjectivities, New Emotions, New Politics: Oppositional Politics and Counter Cultures Across the Iron Curtain During the Long 1970s- International Workshop (Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies, Europe University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany). I also co-organised this event;
Frankfurt, Germany, 2015
July 2014: 'Historicising Consciousness-Raising: the Personal, the Political and Womens Mental Health', Situating Women's Liberation; Historicising a Movement (University of Portsmouth);
Portsmouth, United Kingdom, 2014
May 2014: 'One in every six women and one in every nine men: Second-wave feminism and mental health in post-war Britain', Warwick History Postgraduate Conference (University of Warwick);
Coventry, United Kingdom, 2014
January 2014: Emotion and the Feminist Researcher: Writing Histories of the Womens Liberation Movement, Emotion and the Researcher: Workshop 1 (Families, Identities and Research Network, Cardiff University);
Cardiff, United Kingdom, 2014
January 2014: The Personal is Political? Consciousness-Raising and Changing Definitions of Therapy in the British Womens Liberation Movement, 1969-1979, British Society for the History of Science 2014 Postgraduate Conference (University of Leeds);
Leeds, United Kingdom, 2014
June 2013: The Personal is Political? The Womens Liberation Movement and Contemporary Psychologies in Britain, 1960-1985: An Oral History Project, West of England and South Wales Womens History Network 20th Annual Conference: Women and Protest in a Historical Perspective (Royal Literary and Scientific Institute, Bath);
Bath, United Kingdom, 2013
March 2012: Were not beautiful or ugly. Were angry: Second-wave feminism and the social depictions of women in Britain, 1960-1980, Women and Media: Representations Past and Present (Queens University, Belfast).
Belfast, United Kingdom, 2012
Publications
Journal articles (4)
Loughran, T., Mahoney, K. and Payling, D., (2022). Women’s voices, emotion and empathy: engaging different publics with ‘everyday’ health histories. Medical Humanities. 48 (4), 394-403
Mahoney, K., (2019). Race, Ethnicity and the Women’s Movement in England, 1968-1993. By Natalie Thomlinson. Twentieth Century British History. 30 (4), 624-627
Mahoney, K., (2018). Book Review Symposium: Rachel Thwaites and Amy Pressland (eds), Being an Early Career Feminist Academic: Global Perspectives, Experiences, and Challenges by Kate Mahoney. Sociology. 52 (1), 200-201
Mahoney, K., (2016). Historicising the ‘Third Wave’: narratives of contemporary feminism. Women's History Review. 25 (6), 1006-1013
Books (1)
Häberlen, JC., Keck-Szajbel, M. and Mahoney, K., (2018). The Politics of Authenticity Countercultures and Radical Movements across the Iron Curtain, 1968-1989. Berghahn Books. 1789200008. 9781789200003
Book chapters (2)
Mahoney, K., (2018). 'The Political, the Emotional and the Therapeutic: Narratives of Consciousness-Raising and Authenticity in the English Women's Liberation Movement'. In: The Politics of Authenticity Countercultures and Radical Movements across the Iron Curtain, 1968-1989. Berghahn Books. 65- 88. 1789200008. 9781789200003
Mahoney, K., (2018). ‘It’s Not History. It’s My Life’: Researcher Emotions and the Production of Critical Histories of the Women’s Movement. In: Emotion and the Researcher Sites, Subjectivities, and Relationships. Editors: Loughran, T. and Mannay, D., . Emerald Group Publishing. 65- 80. 178714612X. 9781787146129
