Alexia Yates

Dr. Alexia Yates is a Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on urban political economy, business history, and the cultural context of financial systems in modern Europe, particularly France. She holds a PhD in Modern European History from the University of Chicago and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard, Cambridge, and the National Humanities Center.

Education:

• PhD, Modern European History, University of Chicago
• MA, History, University of Toronto
• Bachelor's, Smith College (Honors in Early Modern British History)

Research Interests: Modern European history, cultural and social history of France, urban history, history of economic life, financial modernity, and moral economies. Her work examines how global economic processes are localized, including studies of real estate markets in Paris and the role of ordinary citizens in shaping financial systems.

Publications: Key works include Selling Paris (2015) and ongoing projects on financial modernity in 19th-century France. Recent articles explore racial capitalism, gendered investment practices, and Haitian economic governance.

Awards:

• Certificate of Teaching Excellence (Harvard, 2013)
• Fellow of the National Humanities Center (2019)
• Wallace K. Ferguson Prize (2015)

Advising & Grants: Led the Rise of the Rentier project (2020–2022), funded by Research Councils. Supervised one doctoral student. Affiliated with the Manchester Urban Institute, focusing on urban studies and economic governance.

Labs/Teams: Research Associate at Harvard's Center for History and Economics and part of the Manchester Urban Institute.