Education
BA Columbia University, 1976
MA University of Pennsylvania, 1977
PhD University of Cambridge, 1984
Research Interests
Susan Dabney Pennybacker’s research centers upon the political culture of modern Britain and the former British Empire. Her book-in-progress, entitled Fire By Night, Cloud by Day: refuge and exile in postwar London (Cambridge), concerns the movement of individuals between South Africa, Trinidad, India, and metropolitan London between 1945 and 1994. It is based in both archival and ethnographic research conducted in London, New Delhi, Port of Spain, Cape Town, and Johannesburg. She also works with documentary photography and film. Pennybacker is a Visting Professor of History, King’s College London (2025-27), a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; and past president of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS). During 2023, she was a member of the School of Historical Studies of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
Some Notable Publications
- “Cambridge Beginnings, Oxford Departures: ‘Liberal Education’ and Imperial Legacies, 1945-70,” in Paul Readman and Geraint Thomas, eds., Culture, Thought and Belief in British Political Life since 1800, Essays in Honour of Jonathan Parry, (Boydell Press, 2024).
- "Fire By Night, Cloud By Day: refuge and exile in postwar London," Presidential address, North American Conference on British Studies, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 50, 1, January 2020.
- “A Cold War Geography: South African Anti-Apartheid Refuge and Exile in London, 1945-1994, in, Nathan Riley Carpenter and Benjamin N. Lawrence, eds., Africans in Exile: mobility, law and identity (Indiana University Press, 2018), 185-99.
- “Anti-apartheid testimony: unmaking the histories of South African Jewish communists” in Carol S. Gould, Simone Gigliotti and Jacob Golomb, eds., Ethics, Art, and Representations of the Holocaust: Essays in Honor of Berel Lang (Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield, 2013)
- From Scottsboro to Munich: Race and Political Culture in 1930s Britain (Princeton University Press, 2009)
- A Vision for London, 1889–1914: Labour, Everyday Life and the London County Council Experiment (Routledge, 1995, paperback edition, 2013)
Graduate Students
- This faculty member is not accepting applicants for the 2024-2025 application cycle
- Katie Laird
- Morgan Wilson (Co-Advised with Morgan Pitelka)
Courses Taught (as schedule allows)
For current information about course offerings, click here.
- HIST 164—The History of Britain in the 19th Century
- HIST 165—The History of Britain in the 20th Century
- HIST 398—Modern London: The Imperial Metropolis
- HIST 490 (Honors)—Topics in British Imperial History, 1715–Present
- HIST 722—Contemporary Global History
- HIST 771—Topics in Modern European History
- HIST 775—Studies in Modern English History