Dr Marc Collinson teaches contemporary history and politics. An active political historian of post-war Britain, Dr Collinson 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.

Dr Collinson currently acts as Programme Lead for BA Politics. 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).

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2025

  • Overview: RAF Bodorgan and the Llanverian Project

    Talk to Anglesey Antiquarian Society Bodorgan excursion

    12 Jul 2025

    Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
  • City of Soest

    Taith part-funded mobility to explore and develop a future research project on the history of Bangor's twinning with Soest, NordRhine-Westfalen

    22 Jun 2025 – 26 Jun 2025

    Activity: Visiting an external academic institution (Visiting researcher)
  • Community Re-engagement: Welsh history courses as civic engagement at Bangor

    Reflection on Bangor History team engagement with short community courses, and the potential of Welsh history as civic mission activity.

    9 May 2025

    Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
  • Colin Phillips Memorial Lecture: 'A Window into Political Change: Preserving Local Labour Party Papers from the 1970s'.

    This lecture will introduce the speakers’ upcoming RSLC volume, Realities of Reorganisation: Manchester City Labour Group’s Experience of Reformed Local Government, 1973–1977, which reproduces manuscript minutes of meetings held by Manchester City Labour party councillors in the early years of their council after its reorganisation following the Local Government Act, 1972. The lecture will consider a number of illustrative case studies, ranging from housing maintenance, concession management at Manchester Airport and reciprocal exchanges with Manchester's 'twin' city, Leningrad, to demonstrate the breadth of local authority activity, and the multifaceted political culture of the Manchester Labour party during the supposed 'gloom' of 1970s Britain.

    27 Mar 2025

    Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
  • Castles, Quarries, and Communities

    Building on the interest in Bangor History’s ‘College on the Hill’ event for the University’s 140th Anniversary, this course explores different aspects of the history and heritage of north Wales. Our historians and archaeologists are passionate experts in their field of study, and the course is designed to introduce some of the more contested aspects of local and community history.

    19 Mar 2025 – 9 Apr 2025

    Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Organiser)
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Sickly: Dictators as Political Leaders

    Dictators fascinate and frighten in equal measure. Yet, how they use their power can tell us a great deal about them, or certainly how they are perceived. Some are remembered positively as founding fathers, while others are remembered negatively, being variously mad, bad, and dangerous to know.

    We will think of them as political figures and leaders and try to consider how they governed and how they presented themselves. Exploring examples from the familiar Hitler to the less familiar Saparmurat Niyazov. We see how, with dictators, myths, misrememberings, and propaganda often shape our understanding of these often-flawed political figures.

    16 Mar 2025

    Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Schools engagement (Contributor)
  • The Road to Smethwick's 1964 contest: Activism, candidates, and elections

    The October 1964 General Election brought Harold Wilson's Labour party into power, but it also brought Smethwick to notoriety. This paper examines these events to set the political context of Malcolm X's visit to Smethwick. It will discuss the preceding elections and activist campaigns, together with deeper political and urban problems, which shaped the contest in 1964. The role of key figures, like Peter Griffiths and Patrick Gordon Walker, will be discussed alongside some less familiar candidates. Finally, the paper will explore the extent to which this rather complicated political environment shaped future interpretations of the events of 1964 in Smethwick

    8 Feb 2025

    Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)

2024

  • The Road to Wylfa: A Nuclear North Wales?

    Presentation on a history of nuclear energy production in north Wales. Delivered to the Telford Centre Winter Lecture series.

    13 Nov 2024

    Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
  • The College on the Hill: 140 Years of Bangor University History

    For 140 years, Bangor University has been located in the City of Bangor. This event is a celebration of both the university and that ongoing relationship. Talks will cover a number of aspects of the university's founding and provide opportunities for attendees to discuss issues further.

    After an introductory talk from Prof Merfyn Jones, staff discussed aspects of university history. Talks include:

    Bangor: Growth of a City before 1884 - Shan Robinson

    Who were the University’s founders? - Shaun Evans

    A Victorian University: The Violet Osborne Affair - Lowri Ann Rees

    Building history: The growth of Bangor University since 1884 - Marc Collinson

    Tea and coffee will be provided. The talk will begin at 10am and finish around 3pm, and there will be a break at lunch time.

    19 Oct 2024

    Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Contributor)
  • Darlith Hanes bore Dydd Sadwrn: ‘Pa lanast yw peilonau?’ Tir, iaith ac atomfeydd ym Mhen Llŷn c.1936-1969 // 'What a mess are pylons?' Land, language and nuclear power plants in Pen Llŷn c.1936-1969.

    Bydd y ddarlith hon yn bwrw golwg ar arwyddocâd Pen Llŷn a’i thirlun i ddelfrydau o Gymreictod a gwledigrwydd yn ystod canol yr 20fed ganrif, gan ganolbwyntio’n arbennig ar y trafodaethau yn ystod y 1950au a’r 1960au ynghylch gosod atomfa niwclear ger Edern. Bydd hyn yn cael ei gyferbynnu gydag enghreifftiau eraill cynhennus o ‘foderneiddio’ golygfeydd Pen Llŷn, megis yr Ysgol Fomio ac ymlediad twristiaeth yn y fro. Holodd Baner ac Amserau Cymru yn 1957 ‘Pa lanast yw peilonau’, gyda’r cwestiwn yna’n greiddiol i drafodaethau ingol am enaid Pen Llŷn, diboblogi gwledig a’r frwydr am ‘fara’ neu ‘harddwch’

    This lecture will take a look at the significance of Pen Llŷn and its landscape to ideals of Welshness and rurality during the middle of the 20th century, focusing particularly on the discussions during the 1950s and 1960s regarding the installation of a nuclear power station near Edern . This will be contrasted with other controversial examples of 'modernisation' of Pen Llŷn scenery, such as the Bombing School and the spread of tourism in the area. Baner and Amserau Cymru asked in 1957 'What a mess pylons are', with that question at the core of poignant discussions about the soul of Pen Llŷn, rural depopulation and the battle for 'bread' or 'beauty'.

    6 Jul 2024

    Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
  • ‘Atomic structures: how nuclear power stations in North Wales impacted people and places’

    The future of relatively ‘clean’ nuclear energy is of the greatest importance to our national economy and our path toward ‘net zero’. The rate of development of nuclear energy in Britain since the 1960s has been significantly affected by societal attitudes. This talk will consider the history and local impacts of three nuclear power stations in North Wales: Trawsfynydd, Wylfa and Edern (a station proposed for the Llŷn Peninsula that was never built, but was a notable feature of the nuclear discourse). Based on recent research at Bangor University, the talk will examine the repercussions of the industry on landscape, language and local politics from the 1950s to the 1980s.

    21 Mar 2024

    Links:

    Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
  • Thomas Telford Centre (Menai Bridge Community Heritage Trust) (External organisation)

    Trustee

    2024 →

    Activity: Membership of board (Director)

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 Aug 2022 – 31 Dec 2022

    Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Research and Teaching at External Organisation (Advisor)
  • '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 Jul 2022

    Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
  • 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 Jul 2022 – 8 Jul 2022

    Activity: Consultancy (Consultant)
  • Patrick Gordon Walker: A ‘Commonwealth man’ in Smethwick politics?

    (Audience: c.40)

    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.

    11 Jun 2022

    Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
  • Wales and the World: Cynefin, Colonialism and Global Interconnections

    Attended.

    6 Jun 2022 – 7 Jun 2022

    Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Participant)
  • Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (External organisation)

    Publications Secretary, HSLC

    23 Mar 2022 →

    Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups (Contributor)

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 Sep 2021

    Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Participant)
  • Patrick Gordon Walker: A ‘Commonwealth man’ in Smethwick politics?

    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 Jun 2021

    Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)

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