Research Skills and Specializations

Abby is an experienced historical researcher and presenter, and has carried out research in various countries and in many different archives and libraries. Abby’s research approach is interdisciplinary, incorporating sources and methdology from history, literature studies, language studies, film studies, psychology, sociology, and gender and sexuality studies.

Abby has conducted research through a variety of archives and historical societies, including the Imperial War Museum, Royal Air Force Museum, Shuttleworth Collection, and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and the National Gallery of Art, National Archives and Records Administration, Library of Congress, United States Holocaust Museum, National Museum of the United States Army, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Library of Virginia, Virginia Holocaust Museum, The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, and the special collections of the University of Richmond in the United States.

Areas of Expertise

  • Conflict and War in general

  • Legacies of the World Wars

  • Popular Culture representations of the World Wars

  • First World War Aviation (Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Air Force, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte, and the Flying Ace Image)

  • Literature of the First World War

  • Combat medicine in the World Wars

  • Combat Psychology and Psychiatry and aviation psychology and medicine

  • Military welfare practices

  • Luftwaffe

  • The Royal Air Force

  • The Battle of Britain

  • Operation Overlord (D-Day)

  • WWII American Airborne Operations (E Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division)

  • American and British Home Fronts in World War I and World War II

  • British imperialism and Commonwealth (Victorian Era to present day)

  • Social and cultural history of the Victorian Era

  • Music, Social Commentary, and Protest in the Cold War Era

    Abby is available to consult on any of these topics, and various others, as well as on the history and legacies of the World Wars in general.

Skills

  • Paper archives

  • Material culture archives

  • Film and art collections

  • Oral histories and sound collections

  • Firearms and military equipment

  • Working with digital and social media

  • Working with schools and young people

  • Working with community organisations

  • Working with collections and archives

  • GIS

  • Project Management

  • Exhibitions and Interpretation

  • Marketing and PR

  • Delivering presentations

Languages

  • English (native)

  • German (professional working proficiency)

  • Norwegian, Bokmål (limited working proficiency)

  • Spanish (limited working proficiency)