Bletchley Park Week: Writing the 'Missing' History of Women in Intelligence

There are many challenges involved in researching and writing about the intelligence world. In this session, Professor Yasmin Khan will speak with historian Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall about the specific challenges of researching and writing about women in intelligence, and the methodologies they have used to overcome these challenges and recover the history of women at Bletchley Park and in the worlds of intelligence and espionage.  Dr Hubbard-Hall is the author of Her Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence.

Speakers:

Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall is a leading historian and author who specialises in the forgotten voices of women in the world of secret intelligence. Claire’s debut book, Her Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), was published in October 2024. She has held lecturing posts in several British universities and is an honorary Associate Professor of Intelligence History at Bishop Grosseteste University, where she worked for nearly 14 years leading the undergraduate Military History programme. As a founding Board member of the Women’s Intelligence Network, Claire is committed to promoting and supporting research on women, and by women, in the field of intelligence. She is a strong supporter of heritage sites and museums devoted to the history of secret intelligence. She is a trustee of the Medmenham Collection and the National Signals Intelligence and Security Trust (NSIST).

Professor Yasmin Khan is a historian and writer, and Professor of Modern History based at the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford and a member of the History Faculty. Her research focuses on the history of the British in India, the British Empire, South Asian decolonization, refugees and the aftermath of empire. She has also written about the Second World War and the imperial dimensions of the conflict.

Yasmin has given public lectures and talks in the UK, Nepal, India, Pakistan and the USA. She is a trustee of the Charles Wallace India Trust which welcomes applications from Indian research students. She is an editor of History Workshop Journal, a journal committed to debating the role of history in public life, and exploring the dialogue between past and present. She has contributed to media including the Guardian, BBC Radio and Channel 4 News and in 2018 presented the BBC2 television series A Passage to Britain.

This in-person event is free and open to all.

Bletchley Park Week:

This event is part of our annual Bletchley Park Week programme of events celebrating a partnership between Oxford and Bletchley Park. This year’s event is entitled ‘Women at Bletchley‘

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Please note:

This event may be photographed and filmed. If you do not wish to appear in the photographs/footage, please let the photographer/videographer know.

Should you have any further queries, or unable to attend after booking, please contact events@kellogg.ox.ac.uk.

Open to: the public,