Dr Sophie Scott-Brown

Dr Sophie Scott-Brown gained her PhD from the Australian National University for research into the British History Workshop movement and the democratisation of history making. She has published two academic books: The Histories of Raphael Samuel: A Portrait of a People’s Historian (2017), and Colin Ward and the Art of Everyday Anarchy (Routledge, 2022). Her next academic book, The Radical Fifties (OUP, 2024), explores activist culture and democratic education in Cold War Britain. Sophie’s work has appeared in several academic journals including History of Ideas, Modern Intellectual History, British Journal of Educational Studies, The History of European Ideas, History of Education, and Rethinking History. She has spoken widely and internationally on her work, is a recurrent guest on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking (now on Radio 4) and regularly appears at How the Lights Get In festival (both their Hay Festival and London events). She was elected to the Royal Historical Society in 2022 and awarded an honorary fellowship from St Andrew’s University in 2023. She lectured in political philosophy and rhetoric at UEA until 2022 and is now the programme director of ‘Everyday Democracy’, funded by Open Society Foundation.