Prof Katrina Navickas, a historian of protest, political and social movements, landscape and public space in England.
I am Professor of History at the University of Hertfordshire: link to staff page
Email: k.navickas@herts.ac.uk
LinkedIn profile and CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrina-navickas-687b7128/
I post on Bluesky @katrinanavickas and on Instagram @ruralmodernism
My books
- Contested Commons: A History of Protest and Public Space in England (Reaktion Books, 2025).
- New Lives New Landscapes: Rural Modernity in Britain, ed. Linda Ross, Katrina Navickas, Matthew Kelly and Ben Anderson (Oxford University Press, 2023), https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267455.001.0001
- Decommissioning the 20th Century, ed. Ben Anderson, Matthew Kelly, Katrina Navickas and Ian Waites (Uniform Books, 2023),
- Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789-1848 (Manchester University Press, 2016), https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719097058.001.0001
- Loyalism and Radicalism in Lancashire, 1789-1815 (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Recent press and media
Expert witness at the parliamentary joint committee on human rights: inquiry into security, safety and protest, 15 April 2026: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/f32ed5c3-6a95-4cb6-a954-a3c19909cf44?in=15:19:54
- expert witness on BBC Radio 4, Great Lives, on 28 April 2025, for Alex von Tunzelmann’s choice of General Ludd: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002bhk9
- MERL ‘Absolute Units’ podcast, episode 11, September 2025: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/absolute-units/
- BBC Radio 3, Sunday Feature, about the history of Handel’s Messiah, broadcast 22 December 2024, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00262bg
- three part BBC Radio 4 series, Policing Protest, produced by Simon Hollis, first broadcast July 2024: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0021b16
- I spoke at the E. P. Thompson centenary commemoration at Halifax on 3 February 2024. Photo by Gawain Little.
- I’ve written the Croydon IKEA entry for the Twentieth Century Society 100 20th Century Shops (Batsford Books, 2023)
- I’ve written an essay on the history of bins for Joe Lycett’s book, Bins (2023)
- I gave an interview for BBC Radio 4, ‘Analysis’, ‘what’s the point of street protest?’, Monday 4 October 2022, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001cpkk
- At Womad 2022, I chaired a panel of writers for Comma Press’s collection, The Cuckoo Cage: Bidisha, Courttia Newland and Irfan Master.
- I gave the Frow Lecture at the Working Class Movement Library, June 2022
- Dan Snow’s HistoryHit, podcast, ‘enclosures’, 2022:
https://podfollow.com/1042631089/episode/13ee7d03c66a922fc552b292897a4cb33bdac080/view
- I was Open Spaces Society Fellow 2020-21 at the Museum of English Rural Life
- Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, podcast, ‘Architecture and Protest’: https://www.sahgb.org.uk/podcast/architecture-and-protest
- https://pod.link/1562980101/episode/1f5b0b2e216325dd3bb357af05503efa
- John McDonnell’s People’s History, episode 3, ‘The Chartists’: https://peoples-history.simplecast.com/episodes/episode-3-the-chartists
- BBC One’s The One Show, 1 March 2021, interviewed by Bill Bailey on the Ramblers’ Association’s campaign to save lost footpaths. With Jack Cornish of the Ramblers.
- BBC Newsnight, August 2019, on the Peterloo 2019 commemorations:
Writing:
I’ve written for the LRB, Tribune, History Today, Red Pepper, and Open City.
- Review of Doreen Massey, Selected Political Writings, ed. David Featherstone and Diarmaid Kelliher, for Red Pepper, 237, autumn 2022, https://www.redpepper.org.uk/review-doreen-massey-selected-political-writings/
- Review of Historic England’s guide to Stevenage, for Tribune magazine, winter 2022 edition: https://tribunemag.co.uk/issue/winter-2022
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/05/utopia-and-reality
- Central Croydon Pocket Tour map for Open City, which you can purchase from their website: https://shop.openhouselondon.org.uk/collections/printed-tours/products/pocket-london-croydon-printed-tour-guide
- Chapter, ‘Croydon’, in The Alternative Guide to the Boroughs of London, edited by Owen Hatherley for Open City London: https://open-city.org.uk/blog/the-alternative-guide-to-the-boroughs-of-london
- Essay in The Cuckoo Cage, edited by Ra Page (Comma Press, 2022)
https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-cuckoo-cage
- Essay on Peterloo for the LRB, 20 Dec 2018: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n24/katrina-navickas/opprobrious-epithets
- Essay on E. P. Thompson, Karl Polanyi and R. H. Tawney for the LRB, 11 Oct 2018: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n19/katrina-navickas/whats-missing
- Essay in Protest: Stories of Resistance, edited by Ra Page (Comma Press): https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/interview-ra-page-on-stories-of-uprising-and-protest-in-the-age-of-coronavirus/
