Kate Ferris

Professor Kate Ferris is a leading scholar in modern European history, specializing in Italy and Spain from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. She serves as a Professor in the School of History at the University of St Andrews, where she chairs the Equality & Diversity Committee and is affiliated with the Institute for Transnational and Spatial History and St Andrews Institute for Gender Studies (StAIGS). Her research focuses on dictatorship experiences, cultural production, and spatial methodologies. She leads the ERC-funded 'DICTATOREXPERIENCE' project (2018–2023), exploring everyday life under Mediterranean dictatorships. Previously, she held an AHRC Early Career Fellowship for her work on alcohol and fascist Italy. She has authored books like Everyday Life in Fascist Venice and Imagining 'America' in late nineteenth century Spain, and co-edited volumes on transnational history. Her academic career includes roles at Durham University and University College London, with a Marie Curie fellowship at Università Ca’Foscari Venice. Ferris has supervised multiple PhD students and contributed to projects examining gender, education, and authoritarian regimes.

Research Interests: Prof Ferris examines dictatorships ‘from below,’ analyzing how policies were enacted in everyday spaces. Her ERC project compares Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece, emphasizing fragmented, human-scale experiences. Her earlier work on alcohol spaces in fascist Italy reveals contested dynamics between regime control and public practices. She actively promotes transnational and spatial historiography, collaborating with global scholars to redefine historical scales and methodologies.

Awards & Grants: Principal Investigator for the £2.5M ERC grant (DICTATOREXPERIENCE) and recipient of the AHRC Early Career Fellowship. Her Marie Curie fellowship supported interdisciplinary research in Venice. She co-edits journal special issues and serves on academic committees.

Advising & Grants: Supervises PhD students Josh Hill and Yannick Lengkeek. Her grants include funding for collaborative research on Mediterranean dictatorships and alcohol’s role in fascist Italy. She mentors early-career scholars through her ERC team and academic networks.

Labs/Teams: Leads the DICTATOREXPERIENCE research team, including Post-doctoral Fellows Dr Huw Halstead and Dr Grazia Sciacchitano. Engages with interdisciplinary groups at St Andrews and European institutions.