I am an historian of 19th and 20th century British social history. I am particularly interested in topics which include women's history and the history of healthcare – hence my PhD (which I gained from Kingston in 2007) focussed on nursing in Victorian London. At Kingston I teach an undergraduate module on 19th century social history and I also teach on skills courses at undergraduate and MA level. I am particularly interested in helping students discover the wonder of archives and archival research, and organise trips to local archives to introduce them to treasures they hold. My own research focusses on healthcare. In addition to an ongoing interest in nursing history I am also interested in the history of child health and particularly in children's hospitals. My other strand of research focuses on digital humanities. I have been involved in a number of projects to create digital resources from paper-based archives.
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I am supervising two PhD students: the first is working on the development of the cottage hospital movement in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is due to complete in 2018; the second is also due to complete in 2018, on the role of the 3rd London Military Hospital at Wandsworth during the First World War and its connections to the art community.
Hawkins, Sue and Tanner, Andrea (2016) Food, glorious food : the functions of food in British children's hospitals, 1852-1914. Food and History, ISSN (print) 1780-3187 (In Press)
Hawkins, Sue (2016) 'I must remind you that the nurse is not the doctor ; that she never can be' : gender and hospital nursing in 19th and 20th century England. Historia Hospitalium, 30, ISSN (print) 0440-9043 (In Press)
Jones, Claire G. and Hawkins, Sue (2015) Women and science. Notes & Records of The Royal Society, 69(1), pp. 5-9. ISSN (print) 0035-9149
Jones, C. G. and Hawkins, Sue (2015) Women and science. Royal Society of London. Notes and Records, 69(1), pp. 5-9. ISSN (print) 0035-9149
Hawkins, Susan (2010) From maid to matron: nursing as a route to social advancement in nineteenth-century England. Women's history review, 19(1), pp. 125-143. ISSN (print) 0961-2025
Start, Kath and Hawkins, Sue (2003) HSJ people. One for all. The Health Service Journal, 113(5864), pp. 34-35. ISSN (print) 0952-2271
Hawkins, Susan [Editor] and Sweet, Helen [Editor] (2015) Colonial caring: a history of colonial and post-colonial nursing. Manchester : Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719099700
Hawkins, Susan (2010) Nursing and women's labour in the nineteenth century: the quest for independence. Oxford, U.K. : Routledge. 228p. ISBN 9780415551694
Warren, Juliet [Creator] and Hawkins, Sue [Creator] (2015) V.A.D. Indexes Online: Personnel Records of First World War Volunteers.
Hawkins, Susan [Creator], Warren, Juliet [Creator], Tanner, Andrea [Creator] and Stuart, John [Director] (2007) The Historic Hospital Admission Records Project (HHARP).
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