Dr Rachel Bynoth

Personal statement

Rachel is a Senior Lecturer in Historical and Critical Studies. Her research focuses on anxiety, emotion, social, political and gender history from 1700 to 1945, with a particular interest in letters, communication, distance and consumption practices. Her teaching looks at the history and critical perspectives and theories of design and interdisciplinary perspectives, with focuses on consumption, sustainability, identity and intersectionality. 

Rachel's PhD research was funded by the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (SWWDTP) which looks at anxiety through the lifecycle, using the familial letters of the Canning family from 1760-1830, to nuance understandings of remote relationships and communications through letters and how this can help us develop our understandings of anxiety and wellbeing today. She is currently working on turning this into a monograph.

She is passionate about the importance of History in understanding not just the past but the present and is Associate Fellow for the Royal Historical Society and ECR Committee member for the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS). She is currently undertaking pedagogical work around History in HE and student engagement and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

As an advocate for decolonisation, intersectionality and diverse voices and perspectives, Rachel is part of Bath Spa's Decolonisation Steering Group, which looks at decolonisation initiatives across the university and the Assistive Technology Group. She was also on the working group for the development of BSECS' EDI policy. She is also co-chair of the Women's Staff Network at the university.

She also has a particular interest in student engagement, having previously worked as the Representation and Advice Co-ordinator at Bath Spa Students' Union and is keen to support engagement projects and initiatives, especially in relation to co-creation and student voice. 

Academic qualifications

• BA - Bath Spa University
• MA - Bath Spa University
• PhD - Bath Spa University
• PGCHE - Bath Spa University 

Professional memberships

• Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 

Other external roles

• Postgraduate Researcher/Early Career Researcher Committee Member for British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies 2022-present.

Teaching specialism

• Emotions
• Gender
• Consumption
• Leisure and pleasure
• 18th and 19th century society
• Politics
• Satire
• Letters
• History of communication
• George Canning
• Health and wellbeing.