Marianna R Dudley

Marianna R Dudley is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Humanities within the Department of History at the University of Bristol and affiliated with the Cabot Institute for the Environment. Her academic career spans environmental history, energy studies, and interdisciplinary environmental humanities, with significant leadership roles including co-directing the University of Bristol Centre for Environmental Humanities (2018-2021) and serving as Vice-President of the European Society for Environmental History (2021-2025).

Education:

• BA, University of Warwick
• MA, University of Bristol
• PhD, University of Bristol

Dudley specializes in the environmental history of modern Britain, examining energy transitions, water systems, and military environmentalism. Her research reveals how wind energy shaped British identity from the industrial revolution through welfare state development, while her water studies explore rivers as sites of cultural memory and identity formation. She pioneers interdisciplinary connections between environmental history, medical humanities, and energy policy, particularly through her work on the Severn Bore and nuclear waste activism.

Her recent publications demonstrate a cohesive trajectory exploring energy as a lens for understanding British societal transformation, with emerging focus on anthropocene temporalities and health-environment intersections. Current projects like Wasting Time: Anthropocene Stories and Practices (2024) reveal evolving interests in nuclear waste governance and creative resistance.

Scientific Awards:

• Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (2021)
• Vice President of the European Society for Environmental History (2021)
• Vice President of the European Society for Environmental History (2023)

Dudley actively supervises doctoral research including Rebecca Tyson's Norman Conquest environmental history and Willow Ross's nuclear activism study. Her grant portfolio features leadership in the Making Nuclear Waste International project (2025) and the Wasting Time initiative (2024), while her earlier MedEnv collaboration (2019-2022) established foundations for medical-environmental humanities integration. She serves as External Examiner for Trinity College Dublin's Environmental History program.

As Cabot Institute affiliate, Dudley contributes to Low Carbon Energy, Water Research, and Environmental Change initiatives. Her co-direction of the Centre for Environmental Humanities fostered cross-disciplinary networks now evident in current projects examining energy transitions, water cultures, and anthropocene waste practices through collaborative frameworks with Australian and Norwegian institutions.