Kate Brooks

Kate Brooks is an experienced lecturer and author, interested in the social and often hidden histories of care and education. Her most recent book: Critical Histories in Care and Education explores historical connections between the care and education systems. A senior lecturer in Education at Bath Spa University, she is also Development Manager for the acclaimed Glenside Hospital Museum in Bristol. 

 

Kate has written on the history of foster carers, nineteenth century jobs (a prizewinning blog for the Social History Society) and death in the archives, as well as popular cultural topics from student life to volunteering in charity shops to 1990s men’s magazine readers. A foster carer herself, Kate is an ambassador for the Attachment Research Community (ARC) and a tutor for the National Association of virtual School Heads, NAVSH. 

 

Kate frequently gives talks on her research, and has spoken at Bristol’s MShed, Bristol Central Library, Sparks Bristol and The Foundling Museum, London, as well as numerous local history groups and organisations in the South West, including the South West Women’s History Network. In 2019 she co-curated an exhibition of artworks by and with young care experienced people on Bristol’s care history, at City Hall. Her doctorate focused on institutionalised care in the nineteenth century, investigating a Victorian orphanage in Bristol, in which her great grandfather was orphan no.458. Her work has been cited in The Guardian, The Times Higher Education Supplement and The Bristol Cable. She is currently writing articles for both The Historian (Issue forthcoming) and The Psychologist.

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Kate lives in Bristol, with her partner and daughter.