Dr Marc Collinson teaches contemporary history and politics. An active political historian of post-war Britain, Marc is interested in electoral phenomena (including by-elections), political parties, and policymaking. He is currently writing a study of Smethwick in electoral politics, c. 1955-1970. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

  • PhD: Commonwealth Immigration, Policymaking, and the Labour party, c. 1960-1980
    2013–2019
  • PGCertHE (part 1 & 2)
    2014–2018

Dr Collinson was appointed Teaching Associate in 2020 after several years as a part-time Tutor in the School. He teaches modern history and contemporary politics. 

Current modules:

  • HPH-4007: 'Documents and Sources for Modern Historians' [Convenor; contributor]
  • HGH-2138/3138: 'Europe, 1945-1992' [Convenor; Lecturer]
  • HGH-2142/3141: 'Twentieth Century Dictatorships' [Convenor; Lecturer]
  • HPS-2004: 'Twentieth Century Ideas and Movements' [Convenor; Lecturer]
  • HPS-1002: 'Principles of Politics' [Convenor; Lecturer]
  • HXH-1012: 'Britain: Blitz to Brexit' [Convenor; Lecturer]

Past modules include:

  • HPS-1006: 'Essential Skills for Academic Success' [Co-convenor; Lecturer]
  • HPH-4005: 'Themes and Issues in History' [Contributor]
  • HPS-4004: 'Research Skills' [Contributor]
  • HPS-1001: 'From Cradle to Grave' [Convenor; Lecturer]
  • HCH-1050: 'Past Unwrapped' [Convenor; Lecturer]
  • HWH-2133/3133: 'Global Wales' [Contributor; Seminar convenor]
  • HXH-1012: Modern Politics in Action [Convenor; Lecturer]
  • HCH-2050: 'Debating History' [Contributor; Seminar convenor]

A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Dr Collinson is a published practioner-researcher (Innovative Practice in Higher Education, 2021) with an interest in employability, and has graded on the University's internal PGCertHE. 

Building on his PhD research, Dr Collinson's scholarly interests focus on how post-war socio-economic change interacted with perceptions of locality to affect political parties and Government. He is also interested in political leadership and policy history, together with the significance of agency, ideas, and myth in electoral politics. These interests are divided into three main themes:

Locality, change, and representative politics

This examines how political parties and political actors interpreted and interacted with localised processes, such as deindustrialisation and social change, in the construction and articulation of their political appeals to voters. The role of the Member of Parliament as an actor within this context remains a particular focus of this theme. Initial outputs have been published with Contemporary British History (2020); Midland History, Parliamentary History,Transactions of the HSLC & Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society (all 2022). 

Forthcoming

The major output from this theme will be a monograph (under contract for the Routledge 'Studies in British History' series) re-examining the 1964 election contest at Smethwick.

Power and agency in institutional policymaking

The second focuses on understanding the role of political parties within the policymaking process within their historical contexts. This examines how the policymaking process developed within political parties, the relationship between parties and government through the agency of party leaders, ministers, and policy networks, and the role of ideas and their champions within a dissaggregated party structure. His PhD examined this process with regard to post war Commonwealth Immigration. In collaboration with Dr Anna Olsson-Rost (MMU) this approach has been applied to debates within the Labour party about the comprehensivisation of secondary education in post-war Britain. This has been published in the British Journal of Education Studies (2022).

National Government policy and local responses

This research theme considers how various communities and groups active at the local level understand, conceptualise, and react to national policy decisions and plans. So far, this project has focused on the UK Government's post-war construction of nuclear power stations in north Wales. It consideres the reponse of local actors, campaign groups (like the CPRW), and resident communities to these major state-backed interventions into local societies. Outputs have appeared in: Transactions of AAS (2018); Journal of Energy History (2021); The Local Historian (2022).

Forthcoming:

First, further work on nuclear policy and north Wales [in collaboration with Dr Mari Wiliam]. Second, a project on how the Local Government Act (1972) affected politics in Manchester [in collaboration with Dr Bertie Dockerill (UoM) and Prof. Peter Shapely].

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Dr Collinson has also published a half-centenary reflective article on the significance of P.F. Clarke's Lancashire and the New Liberalism in the Transactions of the HSLC. He has contributed entries to the Dictionary of Labour Biography (2020) and the Dictionary of Welsh Biography (2022).

2023

  • CyhoeddwydRees, Merlyn (Later Lord Merlyn-Rees) (1920-2006): politician
    Collinson, M., 4 Ebrill 2023, Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales (NLW)
    Allbwn ymchwil: Pennod mewn Llyfr/Adroddiad/Trafodion Cynhadledd › Cofnod mewn Gwyddoniadur/Geiriadur
  • CyhoeddwydRoute of Change on Angleysey
    Collinson, M., Wiliam, M., Evans, S., Williams, C. & Rowland, M., 27 Ion 2023, Rural History Today, 44, t. 5-6.
    Allbwn ymchwil: Cyfraniad at gyhoeddiad arbenigol › Erthygl

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2023

2022

  • Bodorgan Estate Heritage Route

    The Bodorgan Estate (https://www.bodorgan.com/) located in south-west Anglesey has received a Welsh Government grant to construct a new public footpath through part of the estate, linking to the existing Wales Coast Path. The development of the footpath infrastructure will proceed alongside a programme of habitat restoration. The route will embrace several important landscape features, linked to the social, cultural and economic history of Anglesey. The project is committed to sharing this landscape history with future users of the footpath through the installation of appropriate heritage interpretation along the route. The Bodorgan Estate is collaborating with Bangor University’s Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates (http://iswe.bangor.ac.uk/) to deliver these objectives.

    The Project Team (Shaun Evans, Marc Collinson, and Mari Wiliam) advised and supervised the work of two paid postgraduate interns (Matthew Rowland and Catrin Williams). They undertook archival work at Bodorgan and interviewed members of the local community to provide historical information and oral testimony to aid the creation of heritage interpretation along the path and online. Members of the team intend to produce academic-level publications in due course.

    1 Awst 2022 – 31 Rhag 2022

    Gweithgaredd: Mathau o waith ymgysylltu academaidd allanol - Ymchwilio a Dysgu mewn Sefydliad Allanol (Cynghorydd)
  • 'Reimagining political communities: encouraging interaction between local history and political history'

    (Audience: c. 30)

    The Does British Political History have a Future CfP argued that political history was ‘outdated, static’ and that ‘political historian’ was a rarely used description. As an academic subdiscipline, local history arguably suffers from comparable reputation problems. Yet, rarely asked questions remain. First, if ‘all politics local’, why have so few political historians engaged with local case studies? Second, why do so few local historians engage more clearly with twentieth century politics? After reflecting on these apparent problems, this paper will suggest that a deliberate and critical interaction between these two areas may actually aid the historical study of place, belonging, and political representation. Addressing issues of local governance and popular politics, together with ideas of community and collectiveness, this paper argues that these issues have laid at the heart of political concerns in recent decades.

    Originating from research considering local electoral contests affected by debates over migration and far-right politics, and how national energy policy affected local communities, economies, and politics, the paper will reflect on whether a renewed focus on the local might help in the conference’s outlined endeavour. It suggests that interactions between local reactions to larger socio-economic processes, like deindustrialisation, cultural change, and political fragmentation, can be better mapped and understood through localised case studies. Responding to concerns, raised by adherents to ‘new political history’, about an assumed ‘nationalisation of politics’ obfuscating localised political cultures and socio-economic factors, this paper advocates moving beyond merely incorporating the local, by making it a fundamental significant area of political activity. After all, In British politics, where the only election that decides national governance is when constituents vote for their Member of Parliament, how localities interpret global, national, and local issues is crucial to our understanding of British politics.

    12 Gorff 2022

    Gweithgaredd: Cyflwyniad llafar (Siaradwr)
  • Consultant Research Assistant: deprivation, riots, and Conservatism

    Research assistance work for Peter Shapely funded by College of Arts and Humanities and Business Seed Fund

    4 Gorff 2022 – 8 Gorff 2022

    Gweithgaredd: Ymgynghoriad (Ymgynghorydd)
  • New Voices in Midlands History

    Patrick Gordon Walker: A ‘Commonwealth man’ in Smethwick politics?

    11 Meh 2022

    Gweithgaredd: Cyflwyniad llafar (Siaradwr)
  • Wales and the World: Cynefin, Colonialism and Global Interconnections

    Attended.

    6 Meh 2022 – 7 Meh 2022

    Gweithgaredd: Cymryd rhan mewn cynhadledd (Cyfranogwr)
  • Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (Sefydliad allanol)

    Publications Secretary, HSLC

    23 Maw 2022 →

    Gweithgaredd: Aelodaeth o gyngor (Cyfarwyddwr)

2021

  • SOCIETY FOR EDUCATIONAL STUDIES ANNUAL COLLOQUIUM

    Co-authored paper (delivered by Dr Anna Olsson-Rost) - Associational public intellectuals and party education policy: The Fabian Society and the shaping of Labour's comprehensivisation policy, c.1960–1979

    24 Medi 2021

    Gweithgaredd: Cymryd rhan mewn cynhadledd (Cyfranogwr)
  • Britain and the World conference 2021

    How politicians consider, define, and respond to issues shape their actions. This paper explores Smethwick’s long-term Labour MP Patrick Gordon Walker, a politician with a complicated legacy in post-war decolonisation. A former Commonwealth Relations Secretary, Gordon Walker had a complicated relationship with racial issues, including the banishment of Seretse Khama, opposition against the restrictive Commonwealth Immigration Bill in late 1961, with his failed re-election at Smethwick in 1964 often linked to this stance. This paper examines Gordon Walker’s social origins and political career to consider whether he was to blame for the disconnection between his candidacy and voters, or whether a ‘connect’ ever existed in the first place.

    18 Meh 2021

    Gweithgaredd: Cyflwyniad llafar (Siaradwr)

2020

2019

2018

Postwar local government reform and Manchester politics

This builds on unarchived material collected in an earlier project in the School, seeking to publish an edition of these documents which evidence political change in post-war Manchester. Dr Collinson's team secured a research assistant through a University-funded, paid internship program to aid project development. 

Collaborators: Prof. Peter Shapely; Dr Bertie Dockerill

Partner: Bangor University Employability and Skills Service