I am a historian of the built environment, passionate about humanities outreach and teaching. My research explores how humans make the places in which we live through relationships with other forms of life, energy and matter.
From 2022-25 I was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, where I still teach architectural history and theory. I worked on a three-year project titled ‘Making North Sea coasts in England, Flanders and the Netherlands, c.1800-1950’. This contributes to the developing fields of environmental architectural history (see Current Collective, for example) and coastal history (see this online reading list curated by members of the Coastal History Network). I am currently writing-up the monograph from this project, provisionally titled Making Modernity and the Southern North Sea, 1790s-1910s: Journeys in transdisciplinary history. I am associated with the University of Stavanger’s Ghosts of Empire in the North Sea research collective.
I work to improve public discourse around climate change, environmental history, and cities as key sites in the making of environmental futures. I have published on cities with Aeon online magazine and was an active member of the Historians for Future collective 2021-23. I have also appeared on ABC Radio’s Counterpoint and BBC Radio 4’s Arts & Ideas Podcast.
My current project grew out of a two-year postdoc funded by the Leverhulme Trust, on the nineteenth century history of the ports of Antwerp, London and Rotterdam. I worked on this from 2020-22 at The Centre for Urban History, University of Antwerp.
From 2016-20 I studied for a PhD in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh, under the supervision of Alex Bremner. This was on the urban history of the colonial Nile valley in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The thesis is available Open Access here. Parts of this work have been published in the journal Environmental History and the volume Environment, Agency, and Technology in Urban Life since c.1750: Technonatures in the Global North, see Publications page for more details. While at Edinburgh I also taught undergraduates on modules covering modern urban, the global history of architecture from prehistory to the present, and study skills for architectural history.
Before starting my PhD I worked in Technology Enhanced Learning for St Mary’s University, Twickenham, on a project to improve the digital capabilities of both staff and students. This involved researching and developing innovative and critical approaches to the use of technology in teaching and learning. I have an MA in Urban History and a BA in Ancient History and History.
I post on my own blog here on this site and also use it to keep a record of my work. You can contact me on s.grinsell@ucl.ac.uk and follow me on bsky. More details about my background and experience can be found on the CV page of this site.