Siobhan Talbott

Professor Siobhan Talbott is a Professor of Economic and Social History and Director of Education at Keele University's School of Humanities. She holds leadership roles including Group Lead of the Strategic Research Group for Outputs and Chair of the Faculty Student Experience and Engagement Group. Her research focuses on business history, early-modern Atlantic information exchange, and commercial education. Talbott has authored monographs such as Conflict, Commerce and Franco-Scottish Relations, 1560-1713 (2014), which won the Senior Hume Brown Prize, and co-edited Business News in the Early Modern Atlantic World (2024). She has received prestigious grants including an AHRC Leadership Fellowship and British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. Talbott supervises numerous PhD students in topics ranging from Victorian asylum studies to military logistics and transatlantic trade networks.

Education & Professional Background

• PhD, University of St Andrews, 2010
• Postdoctoral Fellowships: Institute of Historical Research (University of London) and University of Manchester
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Research Interests

Talbott's work examines how commercial information was created, disseminated, and used in the early-modern Atlantic world. Key themes include business education, maritime trade networks, and the socio-economic impacts of conflict. She has published widely on Franco-Scottish relations, Irish migrants in France, and merchant letterbooks.

Awards

• Senior Hume Brown Prize (2016)
• British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (2022-23)
• AHRC Leadership Fellowship (2018-22)
• Pollard Prize (Institute of Historical Research)

Teaching & Supervision

Teaches undergraduate courses on early-modern Britain and the Atlantic World. Supervises PhD students on topics including Victorian occupational stress, military logistics, and transatlantic trade. Current projects involve Staffordshire's historical connections to slavery and perceptions of time in early modern Europe.

Service & Engagement

• Co-editor, Royal Historical Society's Camden Series
• Member, AHRC Peer Review College
• Academic Board Member, Centre for Port and Maritime History (Liverpool)