David Kennerley

Dr. David Kennerley is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of History at Queen Mary University of London. He holds a PhD from the University of Oxford (2014) and previously held part-time lectureships at Worcester and Somerville Colleges, Oxford, alongside research roles including an ERC-funded project at King's College London. His current research focuses on 'A sonic history of Chartism: Music, sound and politics in Britain, c.1838-1848'.

His expertise lies in the history of sound, musical performance, and their intersections with gender, politics, and cultural change in 18th- and 19th-century Britain. Key research themes include women’s voices in musical culture, the political uses of music, and the role of sound in social movements.

Publications include the monograph Sounding Feminine (Oxford UP, 2020), peer-reviewed articles on gender and musical professionalism, and edited volumes on Charles Dibdin and late Georgian culture. His work bridges musicology, gender studies, and political history, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to aural and cultural analysis.

He teaches courses on British political history, including Chartists, Rebels and Suffragettes: Democracy in Britain, 1830-1928. His Leverhulme Fellowship supports innovative research on the sonic dimensions of Chartism, exploring how music and sound shaped political identity and collective action.