Virginia graduated in Modern History from Oxford before joining the Institute/Centre of Contemporary British History, where she worked for many years managing ICBH’s activities and students, on oral history projects, and as editor for various publications. She became Deputy Director in 1999, and the Institute joined King’s in 2010. She was awarded her PhD at the Greenwich Maritime Institute in 2009, on 'Constructing Communities: Living and Working in the Royal Navy c.1830-60'. She is a member of the Council of the Navy Records Society.

In 2016 she became Head of School Operations of the newly formed School of Politics and Economics, and she is now also Deputy Director of Operations for the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy.

Responsibilities:

• Leads and manages the School professional services team, ensuring high quality and effective support across the range of the School’s activities;
• Leads on the harmonisation of systems, processes and procedures across the departments/institutes within the School;
• Works closely with the Head of School on all aspects of strategic planning, strategy and policy development;
• Oversees School resources.

 

Teaching

6SSPP397: The Political Economy of Science Fiction

Publications 

‘Changing the world - individual and collective action in Frances Hardinge’s work’, in Papers of the Frances Hardinge conference, 2026.

(ed with Martin Gorsky), The Tomlinson Report and After: Reshaping London’s Health Services, 1992-1997, ICBH and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2013

'Life in the Black Battlefleet: An exploration of the social history of Warrior's crew', in A P Baines (ed), HMS Warrior: 150th Anniversary, Friends of HMS Warrior, 2011.

‘‘That long, long line of naval officers, all with their happy ships’: Nicola, the Navy and heroism in the work of Antonia Forest’, in Celebrating Antonia Forest, Laura Hicks (ed), GGB, 2008.

The UK’s System of Government, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 1998, and rewritten editions 2000, 2005.

London: Portrait of a City, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 1996, and rewritten editions 2002, 2005

(ed) Witness Seminar: Section 28 and the Revival of Gay, Lesbian and Queer Politics in Britain, ICBH, 2002

(ed) 2002. Witness Seminar: Resistance to the Poll Tax, ICBH, 2002.

(ed with Roger Broad), Moored to the Continent? Britain and European Integration, ICBH, 2001

Arctic Convoys, (published in Russian and English), Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 2001.