Born and raised in Greenock, at the Tail of the Bank overlooking the River Clyde, I joined the Division in 2024 as Lecturer in Scottish History.
My academic career has been varied in terms of geography and disciplinary interest. After completing my undergraduate degree at Strathclyde I undertook my MA at Central Michigan University. In 2013, I returned to Strathclyde and completed my PhD under the supervision of Professor Arthur McIvor and developed a strong interest in oral history, deindustrialisation, and trade union history.
On completing my Doctorate, I worked in the faculty of Social Sciences here at Stirling for 9-months, researching for a Government-funded project on organised crime in Scotland. In 2017, I was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher in Oral History at the new Oral History Collective at Newcastle University, where I remained until the attraction of Airthrey Loch brought me back to FK9.
My research interests are varied, but oral history is the overarching thread linking them together. I am interested in the impacts and legacies of deindustrialisation, most recently on the ways in which these influence later life experiences. My first monograph considered the response of female workers to industrial closure, engaging with literature from history, deindustrialisation studies, memory studies, and industrial relations. I led a cross-disciplinary project analysing the experiences of first responders to the Lockerbie Pan Am 103 Disaster in 1988. I am currently working on publications from two large projects related to these topics.
Article
“Successful sit-ins seem a particularly Scottish phenomenon”: Gender, Memory and Deindustrialization
Clark A (2024) “Successful sit-ins seem a particularly Scottish phenomenon”: Gender, Memory and Deindustrialization. International Labor and Working-Class History, 105, pp. 66-84. https://doi.org/10.1017/s014754792300042x
Article
Clarke J, Clark A & Wright V (2024) Introduction. International Labor and Working-Class History, 105, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0147547924000085
Monograph
Fighting Deindustrialisation Scottish Women’s Factory Occupations, 1981-1982
Clark A (2022) Fighting Deindustrialisation Scottish Women’s Factory Occupations, 1981-1982. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781802077117.001.0001
Article
Damaged hardmen: Organized crime and the half- life of deindustrialization
Fraser A & Clark A (2021) Damaged hardmen: Organized crime and the half- life of deindustrialization. BJS The British Journal of Sociology, 72 (4), pp. 1062-1076. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12828
Article
Networked territorialism: the routes and roots of organised crime
Clark A, Fraser A & Hamilton-Smith N (2021) Networked territorialism: the routes and roots of organised crime. Trends in Organized Crime, 24 (2), pp. 246-262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-020-09393-9
Article
Workplace Occupations in British Labour History: Rise, Fall, and Historical Legacies
Clark A (2021) Workplace Occupations in British Labour History: Rise, Fall, and Historical Legacies. Labour History Review, 86 (1). https://doi.org/10.3828/lhr.2021.1
Article
Clark A (2021) ‘There Is Nothing There for Us and Nothing for the Future’: Deindustrialization and Workplace Occupation, 1981–1982. Labour History Review, 86 (1), pp. 37-61. https://doi.org/10.3828/lhr.2021.3
Article
Clark A & Gibbs E (2020) Voices of social dislocation, lost work and economic restructuring: Narratives from marginalised localities in the 'New Scotland'. Memory Studies, 13 (1), pp. 39-59. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698017741931