Dr Simon Sleight is Reader in Urban History, Historical Youth Cultures and Australian History, Co-founding Director of the Children's History Society and Deputy Director of the Australia Studies Institute at King’s. A native of Lincolnshire, Simon received his tertiary education at Warwick, University College London and Monash University in Melbourne, his doctoral thesis winning the Australian Historical Association’s Serle Award for best PhD in Australian history.

His latest books are A Cultural History of Youth in the Modern Age (Bloomsbury, 2023, co-edited with Kristine Alexander), and History, Memory and Public Life: The Past in the Present (Routledge, 2018, co-edited with Anna Maerker and Adam Sutcliffe). Simon is also the the author of Children, Childhood and Youth in the British World (Palgrave, 2016, co-edited with Shirleene Robinson) and Young People and the Shaping of Public Space in Melbourne, 1870-1914 (Routledge, 2013; republished 2016). Aside from these books, Simon has also published on urban memory, the morphology of cities, street gangs, processions, the representation of working childhoods, expatriate experience, historians and sustainability and the use of historical cartoons. Simon's current research project explores living history museums in transnational comparison and children's oral histories.

Research interests

• The history of children and young people
• Urban history (particularly 1850 to present) and the production of space
• Social and cultural history, especially the history of experience, and historical memory
• Interdisciplinary history, especially the links between history and geography

Simon’s work explores the history of urban place-making, the evolution of youth cultures and public history. He is particularly interested in understanding the lived experience of the past, and uses a wide range of source material to do so.

By way of example, his 2013 monograph, 'Young People and the Shaping of Public Space in Melbourne, 1870-1914' analyses the relationship between young people’s activities in the public domain and the shaping of the modern city. Ranging across topics including urban play and autonomy, the hidden economies of the streets, consumerism, courtship, gang culture, the politics of urban display, the regulation of behaviour and national identity, the book adopts an interdisciplinary approach to address related issues within urban history and cultural geography.

Simon welcomes enquiries from prospective doctoral students interested in topics including:

• Australian history
• The history of children, childhood and young people, particularly in the West*
• Urban history, 1850 to present
• History and memory; public history

Teaching

Simon is an award-winning lecturer and tutor. Based on student nominations, he is the recipient for four years in a row of the prize for 'Sustained Excellence' within the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

At undergraduate and postgraduate level, Simon teaches a range of modules on Australian history, comparative urban history, the history of crime, the history of youth, and history and memory.

His rotating series of modules include:

• 4AAH0001: Historical Skills, Sources and Approaches
• 5AAH0001: History & Memory I (Semester 1)
• 5AAH0002: History & Memory II (Semester 2)
• 5AAH1055: Electric Cities: The Experience of Modernity in London, Melbourne, New York and Paris, 1870-1929
• 5AAH2013: Great Southern Land: The History of Australia (Full year)
• 6AAH3069: Young Lives: Growing Up in Liverpool, London, Melbourne and Sydney, 1870-1970 (Full year)
• 6AAH4004: Crime & Punishment (Full year)
• 7AAH0001: Advanced Skills for Historians (MA)
• 7AAH5009: London Calling: Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters with the Metropole (MA)

Expertise and public engagement

Simon is Co-founding Director of the Children’s History Society, an organisation for scholars who either study, or are themselves, young people. Since 2013, he has also been involved with the K-Link Widening Participation Programme, working with schools in Pimlico, Bethnal Green and Nunhead. Simon co-convenes a seminar series on ‘Life-Cycles’ at the Institute of Historical Research in London, and administers an online Australian studies research community. Media appearances include for the BBC series 'Who Do You Think You Are?', for a Channel 5 documentary on the history of Australia, and radio interviews including for ABC Radio National’s 'By Design'.

Simon sits on the editorial board of Anthem Press for the 'Studies in Australian History' series and is a series editor of 'Routledge Studies in the Histories of Children and Youth'. He acts as trustee and assessment chair for the Northcote Graduate Scholarship scheme, which offers scholarships for postgraduate study in Australia, and has also served on panels assessing the best theses and academic articles on the history of childhood and youth globally. Simon reviews submissions for academic journals including 'English Historical Review', 'Australian Historical Studies', the 'Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth' and 'History Australia'. He welcomes media enquiries.

Simon sits on the editorial board of Anthem Press for the ‘Studies in Australian History’ series and is a series editor of 'Routledge Studies in the Histories of Children and Youth'. He acts as trustee and assessment chair for the Northcote Graduate Scholarship scheme, which offers scholarships for postgraudate study in Australia, and has also served on panels assessing the best theses and academic articles on the history of childhood and youth globally. Simon reviews submissions for academic journals including 'English Historical Review', 'Australian Historical Studies', the 'Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth' and 'History Australia'. He welcomes media enquiries.

Selected publications

• A Cultural History of Youth in the Modern Age (Bloomsbury, 2023, co-edited with Kristine Alexander)
• History, Memory and Public Life: The Past in the Present (Routledge, 2018, co-edited with Anna Maerker and Adam Sutcliffe)
• Children, Childhood and Youth in the British World (Palgrave, 2016, co-edited with Shirleene Robinson)
• Young People and the Shaping of Public Space in Melbourne, 1870-1914 (Routledge, 2013; republished 2016).