Rachel Duffett

Rachel Duffett completed her doctorate in history at the University of Essex in 2009. Her thesis was an exploration of the significance of food in the lives of the soldiers of the First World War, both as a physiological necessity and a source of psychological comfort; her monograph The Stomach for Fighting was published by Manchester University Press in 2012 and she has also edited a book for Ashgate Publishing on Food and War in 20thC Europe following a symposium of the International Commission for Research into European Food History.

She has published extensively on her research and contributed to podcasts, radio and TV programmes; you can listen to her contribution to UCD's WW1 series here: http://www.ucd.ie/humanities/events/podcasts/2015/wartime-attachments/

Rachel is currently working with Professor Mike Roper on a project exploring the role of the First World War in the lives of the children of the interwar years; her article on the legacy of the war in children’s play and toys, ‘Playing Soldiers?’, has just been published in Children’s Literature and Culture of the First World War (Routledge, 2016).

Rachel teaches at Essex University and the Open University, she is also a researcher on the AHRC WW1 Engagement Centre, Everyday Lives in War.