皇家华人

Richard Dennis read Geography as an undergraduate and postgraduate at听,听. His PhD thesis, 'Community and social interaction in a Victorian city: Huddersfield, 1850-1880', prepared the way for a book on English Industrial Cities of the Nineteenth Century: A Social Geography (, 1984). After a year as a Junior Research Fellow in Geography at the听, he was appointed Lecturer at听听in 1974 and promoted to Reader in 1991 and Professor in 2009. He has also spent periods as a Leverhulme Research Fellow and Research Associate at the听听(1986-87), as Visiting Lecturer in Geography at听听(1982), and as Visiting Professor at听听and the听听(1991).

He was Associate Editor of the听听from 1997 to 2007 and is on the Editorial Board of听. Until 2004 he was also a Series Editor of Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography (published by听). From 1993 until 2010 he was convener of the听. From 2008 to 2011 he was Secretary of the听s. He is also an Associate Fellow of UCL鈥檚 Institute of the Americas. He co-convenes the听Metropolitan History听Seminar at the University of London听Institute of Historical Research. He is currently both a member of the Editorial Committee and a trustee of the听London Journal.

Research

My research focuses on the 'modernity' of cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I am interested in the modernization of the built environment, in 鈥榥ew spaces鈥� in cities, and also in new ways of seeing the city. I am also keen to promote a degree of methodological eclecticism, combining a variety of quantitative and qualitative, archival and literary approaches. Thematically, my archival research has been principally concerned with the development, ownership, management, occupancy and experience of new residential forms, including middle-class apartment buildings and working-class model dwellings in London and Toronto in the period 1880-1939.

Research on Canada is directed towards the production of a book on听American Apartments in Canadian Cities, which will combine analysis of quantifiable records 鈥� building permits, directories, assessment records, property deeds, and probate returns 鈥� which reveal who owned and who lived in apartments, and how the market in apartment property operated, with case studies of planning controversies reported in newspaper articles, council minutes and correspondence, and also with the study of the representation of apartment life in contemporary novels, guide books and advertising.

Research on London uses similar methods but focuses as much on the construction and representation of 鈥榤odel dwellings鈥� as on luxury apartments. My chapters in Black and Butlin (eds)听Place, Culture and Identity听(2001) and Spiers (ed)听Gissing and the City听(2006) illustrate my methodological approach in the context of blocks of mansion flats and model dwellings which featured prominently both in architectural discourse about living in flats and in George Gissing鈥檚 novels of London life such as听The Nether World听(1889),听New Grub Street听(1891) and听The Whirlpool听(1897).

Most recently, my historical housing interests have concentrated on each extreme in the social hierarchy of nineteenth-century London 鈥� in London鈥檚 first high-rise luxury flats that foreshadow more recent enthusiasm for penthouses and loft-living, and in the common lodging-houses associated with Jack the Ripper鈥檚 victims in 1880s Whitechapel.

As well as continuing to work on Gissing鈥檚 representations of London, I have also explored the moral geography of the city in the writing of 鈥楥anada's first urban novelist鈥�, Morley Callaghan, and the representation of Toronto in film.

My book on听Cities in Modernity: Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space, 1840-1930(Cambridge University Press, June 2008) examines new ways of seeing Anglo-American cities 鈥� in literature, art, mapping and social survey 鈥� and new forms of public and private, residential, financial, commercial and leisure spaces, drawing extensively on different strands of my own research (e.g. on bridges, forms of housing, streets, railways) as well as making a critical interpretation of research on other 鈥� commercial and leisure 鈥� spaces, primarily in London, New York and Toronto.

Other ongoing research focuses on the historical geography of the London Underground in the decades prior to World War I: on its environmental and planning history, and on the experience of underground travel.

Impact

• My book,听Cities in Modernity听(CUP, 2008) was extensively and positively reviewed in a wide range of leading academic journals, including听American Historical Review,听Journal of Historical Geography,听Canadian Geographer,听Canadian Historical Review,听Victorian Studies,听Technology and Culture,听Planning Perspectives,听Urban History,听The London Journal,听Enterprise and Society听and in major online review essays:听Reviews in History听(IHR),听H-HISTGEOG听and听H-URBAN.
• in听Toronto Star, 9 June 2009听
• Among my publications directed at readerships outside the academy are essays听 in Alex Werner (ed)听Jack the Ripper and the East End听(Chatto & Windus/Museum of London, 2008); in Ross Bradshaw (ed)听Maps听(Five Leaves, 2011) (reviewed in听Time Out听and听The Guardian); in Carlos Galviz and Sam Merrill (eds)听Going Underground: New Perspectives听(London Transport Museum, 2013); in听Camden History Review听(Nov 2013).
• Organizer of academic conferences and conference sessions, including five sessions (20 papers) on 鈥楥ultural and Historical Geographies of Intra-Urban Mass Transit鈥� at the New York meeting of the Association of American Geographers in February 2012; a major session on 鈥楬istoricising the Politics of Transport and Cities鈥� at the European Association of Urban History meeting in Prague in August 2012; and a 2-day conference on 鈥楥anadian Cities: Past into Present鈥� at the Institute of the Americas, UCL, in March 2014.

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Among major academic and public lectures, I have given recently:

• Annual Lecture鈥�, Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester, on 鈥樷�� (May 2011)
• 鈥楥ityscapes in History: Creating the Urban Experience鈥�, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit盲t, Munich, invited keynote address (July 2010)
• 鈥楥entral Spaces: Perspectives on core areas of the modern city after 1850鈥�, Odense, Denmark: invited keynote paper (September 2011)
• 鈥楳obile Urbanisms鈥�, Annual Conference of Urban Geography Research Group: plenary paper on 鈥楳ore Haste, Less Speed: On the Nature of Mobility in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century London (November 2012)
• Urban History Group Annual Conference, York:听 plenary paper on 鈥楿nder London By Rail鈥� (April 2013)
• Going Underground: Travel Beneath the Metropolis, 1863-2013, IHR, London: keynote paper on 鈥楲etting off steam: the perils and possibilities of underground travel in Victorian and Edwardian London鈥� (January 2013)
• 鈥樷�� (UCL Lunch-Hour Lecture, January听 2013)

I have given public lectures at the Museum of London, Museum of London Docklands, Tate Britain, London Transport Museum (forthcoming, October 2014), City of Westminster Archives, and Camden Local Studies.听I have also exhibited at 鈥楥ities Methodologies鈥� Exhibitions, Slade Research Centre, UCL, 2010, 2013, where I chaired a round-table discussion on 鈥樷��.

PhD Supervision

Professor Dennis supervised听doctoral students in the social and cultural geography of 19^th- and 20^th-century cities. He has extensive experience as an external examiner for more than two-dozen doctoral theses in Britain, North America, Australia and South Africa. Since 2000, his own research students have included:

• Larry Cort听(privately funded): 鈥樷�淭his is the place for toil鈥�: Neighbourhoods at Work in the Later Victorian Black Country鈥� (PhD awarded, 2001)
• Caroline Bressey听(听funded): 鈥楩orgotten Geographies: Spaces of Black Women鈥檚 Identity in Late 19^th-Century London鈥� (supervised jointly with听Claire Dwyer) (PhD awarded, 2003)
• Sarah Glynn听(听funded): 鈥楾he Home and the World: Bengali Political Mobilisation in London鈥檚 East End, and a Comparison with the Jewish Past鈥� (supervised jointly with听Claire Dwyer) (PhD awarded, 2003)
• Clifford German听(privately funded): 鈥楶roperty and Population Change in Northampton in the Mid-Nineteenth Century鈥� (ongoing)
• Charlotte Jones听(ESRC funded): 鈥楢 Social History of Turkish Baths in Victorian London鈥� (supervised jointly with James Kneale) (2008-)
• Samuel Merrill听(UCL Scholarship): 鈥楤uried Memories: Mnemonic Production in the London Underground and Berlin U-Bahn鈥� (2010-)
• Kallum Dhillon听(ESRC funded): 鈥楲ocating Crime and Criminality in Edwardian London: a GIS-based approach鈥� (2011-)

Grants

• 2001听'The management of rented housing in Toronto, with special reference to Ancroft Place Limited, 1926-1973'; $4000 Canada Research Award
• 1997-98听'Modernity and multi-storey living: apartment tenants in Canadian cities, 1900-1939'听(Research Officer: Ms Ceinwen Giles); 拢39000 from the Economic & Social Research Council
• 1997 Foundation for Canadian Studies, small grant for further research in the Land Registry, Toronto
• 1995听'The ownership and occupancy of apartment housing in Winnipeg and Toronto, 1920-39'; $3550 Canada Research Award