Rosie Hodgson
Editing Empire: The Hakluyt Society in (Post-)imperial Britain, 1846 to the present
I am a first-year PhD researcher working on a Collaborative Doctoral Award with the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).
This project uses the archives of the Haklyut SocietyLink opens in a new window (1846 - present) to investigate the relationship between institutions, travel writing, and colonialism. Formed only 16 years after the RGS, the Hakluyt Society aimed to provide solutions to contemporary geographical questions by referring to historical materials, rather than sources from the time. Early publications were often biographical accounts of early modern travellers, but by the early-nineteenth century output had diversified into post-eighteenth century accounts, as well as lectures and lobbying.
More broadly, I am interested in instances of so-called "informal empire" - the idea that a British colonial agenda can still be traced in regions where there was no official or governmental authority. I have previously investigated how the production of knowledge, often in the context of missionary work, informed these colonial narratives. Having focused on the Korean Peninsula at undergraduate level and Chile at Masters, I have studied forms of coloniality in different regions of the globe and have found value in not conforming to one specific region. Similarly, interdisciplinary approaches inform my research and I hope to contribute to discussions beyond History.
This project is generously funded by the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership.
Supervisors: Professor David Lambert and Dr Guido van Meersbergen (Dr Katie Parker at RGS)
Wider Research Interests
- Global history
- Knowledge production and the history of ideas
- Religious history
- "Informal empire"
- Decolonisation and postcolonialism
- Historiographical trends
Education
- 2025 - 2029: PhD in History, University of Warwick
- Editing Empire: The Hakluyt Society in (Post-)imperial Britain, 1846 to the present
- 2023 - 2025: MA Global History, University of Sheffield
- 'Nothing more than an English colony': British "informal empire" in nineteenth-century Chile
- 2019 - 2023: BA History with a Year Abroad, University of Leicester (2021 - 2022, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea)
- Learned Societies and the Production of Knowledge: The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch, 1900-1950
Experience and Positions
Membership Officer (2025 - 2026): History LabLink opens in a new window at the Institute of Historical Research
Regional Representative (2024 - 2025): History LabLink opens in a new window at the Institute of Historical Research
Royal Historical Society (Postgraduate Member)
Awards
M4C Collaborative Doctoral Award (2025 - 2029) - Issued by AHRC
Duo-Korea Fellowship Programme (2021) - Issued by ASEMLink opens in a new window
Centenary Scholarship for Excellence (2019) - Issued by the University of Leicester