Dr Rosie Dias’s book, co-edited with Dr Kate Smith (University of Birmingham), will be published by Bloomsbury Academic this week. British Women and Cultural Practices of Empire, 1770-1940 focuses on the ways in which British women, through engagements with material culture, sketching, collecting, curating, writing and display, contributed to constructions of empire in the modern period. Included in the volume is an essay by Dias – “Agents of Affect: Queen Victoria’s Indian Gifts” – which explores the reception, display, and political and cultural meanings of finely-crafted, exotic gifts which Queen Victoria received from Indian princes.

More about Dr Rosie Dias.