Dr Sally Holloway

I am a social and cultural historian of Britain from the early modern period to the late nineteenth century with a particular interest in the rituals which give structure and meaning to everyday life, and how men and women conceptualise and navigate their emotional lives. I have published widely on histories of emotions, intimate relationships, letter-writing, gifting practices, and the affective meanings of material culture. My first book The Game of Love in Georgian England: Courtship, Emotions, and Material Culture was published by Oxford University Press in 2019. I have also co-edited two volumes: Feeling Things: Objects and Emotions through History (Oxford, 2018) and A Cultural History of Love in the Age of Enlightenment (Bloomsbury, 2025). With Ute Frevert and Katie Barclay, I co-edit the Oxford University Press series ‘Emotions in HistoryLink opens in a new window’.

I currently hold a Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for my new project on the history of heartbreak, titled After Love: Romantic Heartbreak, Emotions and Embodiment in Britain c. 1750-1900Link opens in a new window. The project approaches romantic heartbreak as a distinctive form of extreme grief with profound effects on the body and mind. Through analysing heartbreak as an embodied emotional experience, it aims to ascertain how its distinguishing characteristics have changed over time, and how we can most effectively process and heal from it. The project establishes a series of partnerships with the artists Jill MuellerLink opens in a new window and Julie LightLink opens in a new window, the Poetry PharmacyLink opens in a new window, the Oxford Visual Arts Development AgencyLink opens in a new window, and the charity Oxfordshire MindLink opens in a new window, and will result in a book, an exhibition, and a series of public engagement events held between 2025 and 2027. In 2021, I delivered the Bedford Centre for the History of Women and Gender Annual Lecture on this research, which you can watch hereLink opens in a new window.

Prior to joining Warwick, I held a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellowship at Oxford Brookes University, and an International Visiting Research Fellowship at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. I have taught at Royal Holloway, Queen Mary University of London, Oxford Brookes University, and Richmond, The American International University in London.

I have extensive public engagement experience in both broadcasting and heritage, having spent a decade as a researcher for factual history programmes on BBC television and radio, and acting as a consultant for the BBC FOUR series A Very British Romance. From 2013-16 I was an Associate Researcher at Historic Royal Palaces, conducting research to underpin a series of exhibitions at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court to mark the tercentenary of the Hanoverian succession. My most recent collaboration has been with the London Foundling Museum, on their multi-platform exhibition and podcast, Take this TokenLink opens in a new window. You can find me talking about my research on podcasts including You’re Dead to MeLink opens in a new window, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness - on the history of courtshipLink opens in a new window and Valentine's DayLink opens in a new window, History ExtraLink opens in a new window, and The Thing About AustenLink opens in a new window.

Publications

Books

A Cultural History of Love in the Age of Enlightenment, ed. Katie Barclay and Sally Holloway (Bloomsbury, 2025)

The Game of Love in Georgian England: Courtship, Emotions and Material Culture (Oxford, 2019)

Reviewed as ‘a landmark study’ (Social History), ‘an exemplar of how to “do” emotions history with objects’ (Women’s History Review) and ‘a reference and model for scholars for years to come’ (English Historical Review)

Feeling Things: Objects and Emotions through History, ed. Stephanie Downes, Sally Holloway, and Sarah Randles (Oxford, 2018)

Reviewed as ‘a must-read for all emotions students and scholars’ (Emotions: History, Culture, Society) with ‘poignant, rigorously researched, and theoretically provocative essays’ (Eighteenth-Century Fiction)

Articles

‘The Foods of Love? Food Gifts, Courtship, and Emotions in Long Eighteenth-Century EnglandLink opens in a new window’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 34.2 (2024): 111-134 [Open Access]

‘Love, Custom & Consumption: Valentine’s Day in England c. 1660–1830’, Cultural and Social History 17.3 (2020): 295-314.

with Lucy Worsley, ‘“Every body took notice of the Scene of the Drawing Room”: Performing Emotions at the Early Georgian Court’, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 40.3 (2017): 443-64.

‘“You know I am all on fire”: Writing the Adulterous Affair in Englandc.1740-1830Link opens in a new window’, Historical Research 89.244 (2016): 317-39 [Open Access]. Selected as one of the journal’s ‘Classic ArticlesLink opens in a new window’ representing their most downloaded or cited works.

Chapters

[under contract] ‘Love’ in Katie Barclay and Sharon Crozier-De Rosa (eds) Oxford Handbook of the History of Emotions (forthcoming: Oxford University Press, 2026).

‘Love in Art & Material Culture’ in Katie Barclay and Sally Holloway (eds) A Cultural History of Love in the Age of Enlightenment (Bloomsbury, 2024), pp. 171-90.

‘“Kiss mee”: Coins, Love & Matrimony’ in Sarah Lloyd and Timothy Millett (eds) Tokens of Love, Loss and Disrespect 1700–1850 (Paul Holberton Publishing, 2022), pp. 87-92.

‘Materializing Maternal Emotions: Birth, Celebration, & Renunciation in England, c. 1688–1830’ in Stephanie Downes, Sally Holloway and Sarah Randles (eds) Feeling Things: Objects and Emotions through History (Oxford University Press series ‘Emotions in History’, 2018), pp. 154-74.

with Stephanie Downes and Sarah Randles, ‘A Feeling for Things, Past & Present’ in idem (eds) Feeling Things: Objects and Emotions through History (Oxford University Press series ‘Emotions in History’, 2018), pp. 8-23.

‘Textiles’ in Susan Broomhall (ed.) Early Modern Emotions: An Introduction (Routledge, 2017), pp. 161-5.

Special Issues

with Katie Barclay (eds) Cultural and Social History Special Issue ‘Interrogating Romantic LoveLink opens in a new window’ 17.3 (2020), co-author of ‘Interrogating Romantic Love’, 271-9 [Open Access].

with Alice Dolan (eds) Textile Special Issue ‘Emotional TextilesLink opens in a new window’ 14.2 (2016), co-author of ‘Emotional Textiles: An Introduction’, 152-9 [Open Access].

Encyclopedia Entries

‘Love’, Encyclopedia of Smell History and HeritageLink opens in a new window, Odeuropa (2023)