Kate Murphy

Dr Kate Murphy

  • kmurphy at bournemouth dot ac dot uk
  • Principal Academic History
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Biography

From 2012 - 2020 I was a member of academic staff at Bournemouth University. I initially joined as a Senior Lecturer in Radio Production and went on to develop and run the new BA History degree, becoming Principal Academic in 2017. Prior to this, I worked at the BBC for 24 years, primarily as a Senior Producer on Radio 4 Woman's Hour. As well as being a radio practitioner, I have always been passionate about history, in particular women's history, and in 2005 I began studying part-time for a PhD at Goldsmiths. My thesis: 'On an Equal Footing with Men? Women and Work at the BBC 1922-1939’ was completed in 2011. After leaving the BBC in 2011, I worked as Guest Curator for the exhibition 'The Long March to Equality: Treasures of the Women's Library’ which marked the transfer of the Library to the LSE. My book 'Behind the Wireless: An Early History of Women at the BBC' was published by Palgrave Macmillan in April 2016.

Research

I continue to research a range of issues connected with women and the BBC in the 1920s and 30s. Most recently this has included an appraisal of Doris Arnold, who became the first female 'DJ' on the BBC in 1938, and also the work of Isa Benzie and Janet Quigley in the BBC Foreign Department. In addition, my research is now extending to consider female producers in the BBC in Second World War and also an in-depth study of the long-running BBC programme, 'Woman's Hour'.

Journal Articles

Books

Chapters

  • Murphy, K., 2022. BBC Woman's Hour. Routledge Companion to Radio Studies. Routledge.
  • Murphy, K., 2014. From Women's Hour to Other Women's Lives: BBC Talks for Women and the Women who Made Them, 1923-1939. In: Andrews, M. and McNamara, S., eds. Women and the Media. Feminism and Femininity in Britain, 1900 to the Present. London: Routledge, 31-46.

Conferences

  • Murphy, K., 2019. “Analytical chemist, naval architect, chauffeuse … professional women and BBC women’s programmes 1923-1968”. In: Women's History Network 6-7 September 2019 London School of Economics.
  • Murphy, K., 2018. BBC Woman’s Hour – from Producer to Teacher. In: Console-ing Passions 11-13 July 2018 Bournemouth University.
  • Murphy, K., 2018. Varsity Girls? Women's Networks at the BBC in the Interwar Years. In: Singularity and Solidarity: Networks of Women at the LSE, 1895 - 1945 16 March 2018 London School of Economics.
  • Murphy, K., 2017. From domestic service in Canada to tiger shooting in India: the BBC and international talks for women, 1923-1939. In: Women's History Network Annual Conference 1-2 September 2017 University of Birmingham.
  • Murphy, K., 2017. Talking as a 'typical housewife': Mrs Edna Thorpe and the BBC, 1935-1951. In: Social History Conference 4-6 April 2017 University College London.
  • Murphy, K., 2017. “On the same footing as men"? Recruitment, mobility and pay at the BBC, 1923-32. In: Women's Work during the First World War and Interwar Years: Workshop and Study Day 27 January 2017 Sheffield Hallam University.
  • Murphy, K., 2016. ‘She is known in every European capital’: Isa Benzie and the Foreign Department of the BBC, 1927-38. In: The Radio Conference, 2016 5-8 July 2016 University of Utrecht.
  • Murphy, K., 2016. ‘Literary’ Women: Behind the Scenes at the BBC, 1923-1939. In: Literature and the BBC, 1922 to 1955 15 June 2016 University of Edinburgh.
  • Murphy, K., 2016. ‘Outside the common round of household drudgery’? Modernity and Women’s Talks in the Interwar Years. In: RADIO MODERNISMS Features, Cultures and the BBC 19 May 2016 British Library.
  • Murphy, K., 2016. ‘New and important careers …’ How women excelled at the BBC, 1923-1939. In: Gendered Labour and Media 19 February 2016 Centre for Media History, Macquarie University, Sydney.
  • Murphy, K., 2014. “An undoubted success”: Women, Work and the BBC in the Second World War. In: Women's History Network Annual Conference 5-7 September 2014 University of Worcester.
  • Murphy, K., 2014. ‘The voice of the ordinary average listener? Mrs Edna Thorpe and BBC Talks in the Inter-war Years’. In: MeCCSA 8-10 January 2014 University of Bournemouth.
  • Murphy, K., 2013. "Woman’s Hour: telling history, being history, making history…". In: Whose History is it Anyway?: Public History in Perspective 5-6 September 2013 University of Central Lancashire,Preston.
  • Murphy, K., 2013. “Vigorous and various contributions”: Women’s Voices on the BBC, 1923-1939. In: The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum 9-12 July 2013 University of Bedfordshire.
  • Murphy, K., 2013. "Private v public: Revealing the BBC life of Hilda Matheson". In: Centre for Media History Conference on Ethical Dimension of Media History: European Perspectives 9-10 May 2013 University of Bournemouth.
  • Murphy, K., 2012. "From The Week in Westminster to What we Pay Rates For: the BBC, Citizenship and Women’s Talks, 1923-1939". In: Women's History Network 21st Annual Conference: Women State and Nation: Creating Gendered Identities 7-9 September 2012 University of Glamorgan.
  • Murphy, K., 2011. “…the strain of combining married life with office work.” What the BBC Marriage Bar tells us about married women’s lives in the inter-war years. In: Women's History Network 20th Annual Conference: Looking Back, Looking Forward 9-11 September 2011 Women's Library, London.
  • Murphy, K., 2009. "Miss Somerville and Miss Sprott: Separate but Equal? Women in the Early BBC". In: Women's History Network 18th Annual Conference: Women, Gender and Political Spaces: Historical Perspectives 11-13 September 2009 St Hilda's College, University of Oxford.
  • Murphy, K., 2007. "Bursting out of the Archive: Women in the BBC 1922-1945". In: Business Archives Council Annual Conference: Initiatives and Innovation: Business Archives Today and Tomorrow 13 November 2007 Barclays HQ, Canary Wharf.
  • Murphy, K., 2007. "The BBC Marriage Bar: Contradictions within a New Industry". In: Women and Employment in 20th Century Britain 26-27 March 2007 The British Postal Museum and Archive.

Internet Publications

Others

  • Murphy, K., 2018. Entry on Mary Somerville in The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. Edinburgh University Press. Published.

PhD Students

  • Kathryn Terkanian, 2018. Wartime, Women and the BBC: : how wartime restrictions and recruitment woes reshaped the corporation, 1939-45

Profile of Teaching PG

  • MA Radio Production: Advanced Radio Production
  • MA Radio Production: Regulation and Compliance

Profile of Teaching UG

  • BA (Hons) History: Level 4 - Media, Communications and Society in Britain, Part One, 1500-1900
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 4 - Being an Historian, Part One: Concepts and Methods
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 4 - History in the Public World
  • BA (Hons) Radio: Level 6 - Developing Concepts for Radio
  • BA (Hons) Radio: Level 5 - Advanced Radio Production
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 5: Women and Equal Rights 1850-2000
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 6: Women's Hour: Being History, Making History, Telling History
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 6: Dissertation Supervision
  • BA (Hons) Radio: Professional Studies

Invited Lectures

  • Interwar Radio Programmes for Women, London School of Economics, 25 Mar 2021 more
  • Hilda Matheson: Literary Talks on the BBC, University of York, 11 Jun 2020 more
  • Pioneering women at the BBC:feminist media history, Maynooth University, 21 May 2020 more
  • All in it together: women in the early BBC, Tolpuddle Radical History School, 18 Jul 2019 more
  • Varsity Girls? Women's Networks at the BBC, London School of Economics, 16 Mar 2018 more
  • Behind the Wireless, Lytchett Minster School, poole, 07 Feb 2017 more
  • On the Same Footing as Men?, Sheffield Hallam University, 27 Jan 2017 more
  • "How Girls Make Good in Radio" Surprising Stories, Macquarie University, Sydney, 16 Feb 2016 more
  • ‘Woman's Hour: Telling History, Being History, University of Sussex, Centre for Life History, 22 May 2014 more
  • Significance of women's archives, London School of Economics, 12 Mar 2013 more

Public Engagement & Outreach Activities

  • 100 Years of Women at the BBC workshop hosted by Edgehill University
  • Interwar Radio Programmes for Women: the challenges of being a 'periodical' on the air, hosted by LSE Library
  • First to Do It! In Conversation with Anita Corbin. Hosted by Sussex University and Brighton Museum
  • Interview: BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour about 100 Voices that made the BBC: Pioneering Women website
  • Interview: Late Night Live (ABC) about 100 Voices that made the BBC: Pioneering Women website
  • Nine interviews on BBC Local Radio about 100 Voices that made the BBC: Pioneering Women website
  • Interview: BBC Radio 4 Last Word: Obituary to Dorothy Torry
  • Expert panel, ‘Women in the Media Industries: Inputs & Influences’ MeCCSA Women's Media Studies Network
  • Interview: New Books Network about Behind the Wireless
  • Talk at Lytchett Lecture Series: Inspire, Challenge, Enthuse at Lytchett Minster School, Poole
  • Talk at Dilettante on "The wonders of wireless: wowing women at the BBC"
  • Interview: BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour on Mary Adams, first woman TV produce
  • Talk at Chalke Valley History Festival on 'Radio Women: History through the BBC'
  • Talk at BBC Broadcasting House to BBC Alumni on early women at the BBC
  • Interview: BBC Radio Solent,talking about new book Behind the Wireless
  • Article for BBC News Online Magazine: Viewpoint: The pioneering women of the BBC's early years
  • Interview: BBC Radio 4 'Woman's Hour, talking about new book 'Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC
  • Masterclass, Macquarie University, Sydney: Writing media history: an insider/outsider view
  • Public Lecture at Macquarie University, Sydney: "How Girls Make Good in Radio": Surprising Stories of the Early BBC
  • Interview: BBC 'Woman's Hour, guest on special New Year's Day edition to launch the programme's 70th birthday. January 2016
  • Speaker at the BBC event: "A Celebration of Women in Radio” September 2015
  • Speaker at Sound Women Festival, BBC Broadcasting House
  • Guest Speaker: Goodenough College, on ' A Life in Women's History'
  • Coordinator, BAC Wadsworth Prize for Business History
  • Editorial, Women's History Magazine
  • Guest Curator, “The Long March to Equality: Treasures of The Women’s Library’, October 2012 - March 2013
  • Consultant / researcher, The Woman's Hour Collection, selected archive recordings, 2013
  • Sound Women podcast on 'An Audio Education' April 2014
  • Interview: BBC Radio 4 'Today' programme on Sheila Borrett, first woman radio announcer. July 2013
  • Interview: BBC World Service 'Weekend' programme on Sheila Borrett, first woman radio announcer. July 2013
  • Interview: BBC Solent to mark the centenary of the death of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison. June 2013
  • Interview: BBC 'Woman's Hour, guest on special programme on 1920s women. May 2013
  • Interview: 2ser Sydney, national community radio, 'The Wire' programme - interview about early BBC women
  • Interview: ABC, Radio National, Australia: interview on 'Life Matters' about early BBC women

Conference Presentations

  • Doing Women's Film and Television History Conference, Pioneering women at the BBC: feminist media histories and the institutional archive, 10 Jul 2021, Maynooth University and online
  • Oral History and the Media, 'Pioneering Women of the BBC’ – issues of gender in the curation of an institutional oral history website, 09 Jul 2021, Bournemouth University and online
  • Censorship and Blind Spots: the BBC's Silences (1922-1995), Women and the Early BBC, 20 Jan 2021, University of Poitiers and online
  • Women's History Network : Professional Women, Analytical chemist, naval architect, chauffeuse … professional women and BBC women’s programmes, 1923-1968, 06 Sep 2019, London School of Economics
  • Breaking the Mould, 'All in it Together': women in the early BBC, 18 Jul 2019, Tolpuddle
  • Console-ing Passions, BBC Woman's Hour - From Producer to Teacher, 11 Jul 2018, Bournemouth University
  • Singularity and Solidarity: networks of women at LSE, 1895-1945, Varsity Girls? Women's Networks at the BBC in the Interwar Years, 16 Mar 2018, London School of Economics
  • Women's History Network Annual Conference, From domestic service in Canada to tiger shooting in India: the BBC and international talks for women, 1923-1939, 01 Sep 2017, University of Birmingham
  • Cross-currents: Gender and Transnational Broadcasting Workshop, Relay Women: Isa Benzie, Janet Quigley and the BBC's Foreign Department, 1930-38, 06 Jul 2017, Bournemouth University
  • Social History Conference, Talking as a 'typical housewife': Mrs Edna Thorpe and the BBC, 1935-51, 04 Apr 2017, University College London
  • Women's Work during the First World War and Interwar Years: Study Day and Workshop, “On the same footing as men"? Recruitment, mobility and pay at the BBC, 1923-32, 27 Jan 2017, Sheffield Hallam University
  • The Radio Conference, 2016, ‘She is known in every European capital’: Isa Benzie and the Foreign Department of the BBC, 1927-38, 05 Jul 2016, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
  • Literature and the BBC, ‘Literary’ Women: Behind the Scenes at the BBC, 1923-1939, 15 Jun 2016, University of Edinburgh
  • Radio Modernisms: Features, Cultures and the BBC, ‘Outside the common round of household drudgery’? Modernity and Women’s Talks in the Interwar Years, 19 May 2016, British Library
  • Gendered Labour and Media, ‘New and important careers …’ How women excelled at the BBC, 1923-1939, 16 Feb 2016, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia
  • Women's History Network Annual Conference, “An undoubted success”: Women, Work and the BBC in the Second World War, 04 Sep 2015, University of Kent
  • MeCCSA, ‘The voice of the ordinary average listener? Mrs Edna Thorpe and BBC Talks in the Inter-war Years’, 08 Jan 2014, Bournemouth University
  • Whose History is it Anyway? Public History in Perspective, Woman’s Hour: telling history, being history, making history…, 05 Sep 2013, UCLAN
  • The Radio Conference, 2013, Vigorous and various contributions”: Women’s Voices on the BBC, 1923-1939’, 09 Jul 2013, University of Bedford
  • Centre for Media History Conference, Private v public: Revealing the BBC life of Hilda Matheson, 10 May 2013, Bournemouth University
  • Women's History Network Conference, From The Week in Westminster to What we Pay Rates For: the BBC, Citizenship and Women’s Talks, 1923-1939, 07 Sep 2012, Univeristy of Cardiff
  • Women's History Network Annual Conference, the strain of combining married life with office work.” What the BBC Marriage Bar tells us about married women’s lives in the inter-war years, 09 Sep 2011, The Women's Library, London

Qualifications

  • PhD in History (University of London, 2011)

Honours

  • Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Management (Bournemouth University, 2017)
  • HEA Fellowship (Higher Education Authority, 2016)
  • PhD "On an Equal Footing with Men?" Women and Work at the BBC, 1923-1939 http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/6536/1/HIS_thesis_Murphy_2011.pdf (Universityof London, 2011)

Memberships

Networks

  • Centre for Media History, WREN: Women's Radio in Europe Network, Sound Women, Women in Film and Television Network, Southern Broadcasting History Group, Friends of the Women's Library, Fawcett Society,

External Media and Press

Broadcast Interview