Dr Philippa (Pip) Gregory

Dr Philippa (Pip) Gregory completed her BA in Theology in Bristol in 2005, detoured through medieval literature for an MA, and then turned to teacher training. She taught secondary level RE, History and English for three years in Essex before returning to university education at Kent for another MA in Modern History in 2011. 

This she followed with her PhD looking at cartoon humour through the Great War and its lasting memory and considered reproduction; she graduated in June 2017. Throughout her PhD, she worked at both the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University, where she completed her PGCAP, gaining HEA fellowship, also in 2017.  

A recent focus of Pip's research is images of women through the First World War, and how they do not fit traditional perceptions of a ‘turning point’ for how women were understood during the period. She is also working on social controls and the Defence of the Realm Act, and its embodiment in the characters of DORA and the Censor by cartoonists. 

Her ongoing background research looks at the images produced in trench journals and hospital journals throughout the First World War; she is also cataloguing cartoon material for the artist William K. Haselden, using the University’s Special Collections Archive facilities.

Pip is also undertaking active andragogical research for developing historical skills among students, and particularly for international students who study other disciplines at home.

Pip has written blog posts relating to cartoon images and their use and understanding for the German site Arthistoricum. She has also worked with the War Through Other Stuff Society, participating in their conferences, including a Twitter conference in 2018. She is a member of the international First World War Studies Society and the First World War Network, a cross-institution UK organisation.