Congratulations, Dr. Gunning!

Today Oliver successfully passed his viva (subject to minor corrections).

Oliver’s PhD “Skilled Migrants in the Glass Industry: Northern Britain 1674-1845” is one of our project’s major outputs. As he explains: “During the early modern period, migrant glassworkers actively moved across Britain, bringing innovation to manufacturing processes, products, labour practices, and logistics to new regions. Their movement from place to place made them experts in finding solutions to problems that spanned across craft, industries, and geography, linking the British Isles to a pan-European knowledge exchange network of glassworkers. Thus, migrants actively contributed to the creation of new knowledge during the crucial period before industrialisation. The cultures of knowledge they fostered—embedded in the tactile, sensory environments of artisanal workshops—offer an engaging and understudied perspective in debates about the origins and development of the Industrial Revolution.”

Our thanks to the examiners, William J. Ashworth from Liverpool University and Neil Murphy from Northumbria. They praised Oliver’s confident and knowledgeable viva performance and were impressed by a thesis that is an important to an under-researched area. Huge thanks also to Jennifer Aston who has a fantastic second supervisor - and first supervisor while Felicia was one maternity leave.

Congratulations, Oliver!