Dr Sacha Hepburn
Assistant Professor | Director of Student Experience and Progression
Faculty of Arts | University of Warwick
Room 2.39 | Faculty of Arts Building | University Road | Coventry | CV4 7EQ
E: sacha.hepburn@warwick.ac.uk
Academic Profile
2024-Present: Director of Student Experience and Progression, Faculty of Arts, University of Warwick
2024-Present: Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Warwick
2020-2024: Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, School of Historical Studies, Birkbeck, University of London
2017-2020: Teaching Fellow in African History, Department of History, University of Warwick
2016-2018: Past and Present Fellow, The Institute of Historical Research
2016: DPhil History, University of Oxford
2012: MA World History, University of Manchester
2011: BA History, University of Warwick
About
I joined Warwick in 2024 as Assistant Professor and Director of Student Experience for the Faculty of Arts, following postdoctoral fellowships at Birkbeck, the Institute of Historical Research and here at Warwick.
I am a historian of modern Africa with specific interests in labour, gender and age. Using oral histories and critical archival analysis, I foreground the experiences of marginalised workers and challenge conventional definitions of ‘work’ and ‘worker’, offering more nuanced understandings of African economies and societies across time. My research contributes a vital historical perspective to contemporary global challenges—including gender inequality, child labour, and food security—informing policymaking by amplifying excluded African voices and engaging with diverse international partners.
Drawing on my research, my teaching addresses key global challenges and encourages students to see how these can be tackled through a greater understanding of the historical impacts and contemporary legacies of colonialism and racial capitalism. My commitment to critical and inclusive education informs my approach to improving students' experiences across the Faculty. I lead student-centred, co-created initiatives that challenge structural inequalities and foster a stronger sense of community within the Arts.
Publications
Book
Home Economics: Domestic service and gender in urban southern Africa (Manchester University Press, 2022).
Journal Articles
‘Colonial Exceptions: The International Labour Organization and child labour in British Africa, c. 1919-1940’, co-written with April Jackson, Journal of Contemporary History, 57:2 (2022), 218-241.
‘Girlhood, Domestic Service and Perceptions of Child Labour in Zambia, c. 1980-2010’, Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 12:3 (2019), 434-451.
‘Service and Solidarity: Domestic workers, informal organising and the limits of unionisation in Zambia’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 45:1 (2019), 31-47.
Book Chapters
‘Women in Kenya’, in Dorothy Hodgson (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Women’s History (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Forthcoming. Online version published 2023.
‘“Bringing a Girl from the Village”: Gender, child migration and domestic service in post-colonial Zambia’, in Marie Rodet and Elodie Razy (eds), Children on the Move in Africa: Past and Present Experiences of Migration (Woodbridge: James Currey, 2016), 69-84.
Book Reviews
Sarah Bellows-Blakely, Girl Power? A History of Girl-Focused Development from Nairobi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2025). Gender and History, forthcoming.
Pedro Monaville, Students of the World: Global 1968 and decolonization in the Congo (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2022). Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 17:2 (2024), 329-331.
Rebecca Shumway and Trevor R. Getz (eds), Slavery and Its Legacy in Ghana and the Diaspora (London: Bloomsbury, 2017). Cultural and Social History, 16:2 (2019), 244-245.
Susanne M. Klausen, Abortion Under Apartheid: Nationalism, Sexuality, and Women's Reproductive Rights in South Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). Journal of Southern African Studies, 44:1 (2018), 190-192.
S. E. Duff, Changing Childhoods in the Cape Colony: Dutch Reformed Church Evangelicalism and Colonial Childhood, 1860-1895 (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015). Journal of Southern African Studies, 43:4 (2017), 482-483.
Évelyne Trouillot, The Infamous Rosalie (Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2013). Women’s History Review, 24:3 (2015), 462-464.
Trevor R. Getz and Liz Clarke, Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). Women’s History Review, 23:1 (2014), 145-146.
Teaching and Supervision
I teach and supervise students in modern African history, particularly in the areas of work, childhood and youth, gender and women's history.
I currently teach on:
Themes & Approaches to the Historical Study of Empire (HI995)Link opens in a new window
Administrative Roles
Co-convener of the Arts DSEP Forum, University of Warwick
Member of the Faculty of Arts Education Committee, University of Warwick
Member of the Faculty of Arts Management and Operations Committee, University of Warwick
Professional Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Member of the African Studies Association (UK)
Member of the Global History and Culture Centre