Kate Murphy
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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 women's employment in the early BBC was completed in 2011. My monograph 'Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC' was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016 and a co- authored book with Michael Carney, 'Hilda Matheson: a Life of Secrets and Broadcasts', was published by Handheld Press in 2023. Since 2007, I have written and spoken widely about the history of women in the BBC.

Research

I continue to research a range of issues connected with women and the BBC. This has included an appraisal of Doris Arnold, who became the first female 'DJ' on the BBC in 1938; the work of Isa Benzie and Janet Quigley in the BBC Foreign Department in the early-mid 1930s; new insights into women in the pre-Second World War BBC television service and a long-view on the editorial processes of Woman's Hour. Current research includes new perspectives on Hilda Matheson and her work with and for women and the reclamation of Margery Wace, in particular her key role in Empire Talks during the Second World War .