Kate Gibson

Dr. Kate Gibson is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the John Rylands Research Institute, University of Manchester. Her work focuses on social history, particularly family dynamics, gender, and inequality in eighteenth-century Britain. She holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield (2018) and has held fellowships at institutions including the University of Edinburgh and the Huntington Library. Her research explores fostering/adoption, illegitimacy, and religion's role in family life. She has published a critically acclaimed book and contributes to public history through BBC radio appearances and museum collaborations.

• Education: PhD in History, University of Sheffield (2018)
• Fellowships: University of Edinburgh, Birmingham, Huntington Library, John Rylands Institute

Research interests include the gendering of care work, socio-economic impacts of childcare practices, and the intersection of religion with urbanization. Her Leverhulme-funded project examines fostering/adoption in Britain (1700–1839), challenging historical marginalization of care work. Awards include the Women's History Network Book Prize (2022) for her monograph on illegitimacy.

Her articles analyze topics like urban domesticity, extra-marital relationships, and motherhood in historical contexts. Grants include the AHRC-funded 'Faith in the Town' project (2019).