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Dr Jennifer Aston

Associate Professor

Department: Northumbria Law School

I am an Associate Professor in Law.

Originally joining 51 as Lecturer in the Humanities Department in 2017, I moved to Northumbria Law School in 2024. I previously held the EHS Eileen Power Research Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research and positions at the universities of Oxford, Birmingham and Hull. I am also an Associate Member of the at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. My research interests include gender and small business ownership, bankruptcy, and the law. I am the author of (Palgrave, 2016) and my latest book (Hart, 2024) won the SLS Margaret Brazier Second Prize for Outstanding Mid-Career Scholarship, 2025.

I have published widely on the interaction between gender and legal and financial institutions, including the edited collections (Boydell, 2019) and (Palgrave, 2020), and articles in journals including Economic History Review, Business History and the Journal of Legal History. My article, ’ in the Journal of Legal History was Highly Commended by the judges of the British Records Association’s Harley Prize 2022.

My current editorial board positions include Deputy Editor for and Production Editor for .I sit on the Editorial Board of , and I am a member of the ESRC Peer Review College.

I am currently working on two research projects:

. Funded by an ESRC New Investigator award, this project employs a new, multidisciplinary methodology that combines mixed-method historical approaches with feminist legal theory and digital humanities to address 4 key research strands (a) the history of divorce and domestic abuse; (b) the economic cost of divorce; (c) child custody and mediation; and (d) the development of the family law profession.

Bankruptcy in Edwardian Britain, 1901-1914. This project [funded by an Economic History Society Carnevali Small Research Grant] uses previously unexamined Board of Trade Official Receiver’s Reports to examine business and personal failure in an era often seen as period of economic prosperity, social decadence, and entrepreneurial opportunity. I will use this new material as a starting point to write the first economic, social, legal, and cultural history of bankruptcy in Edwardian Britain.

In 2025/6, I am teaching on Academic and Professional Practice 1 (LW4024) and co-leading Legal History (LW6026). I was nominated for a Student Led Teaching Award in 2022, and in 2023 received the Student Led Teaching Award for 'Outstanding Staff Member for Arts, Design and Social Science'.

I welcome enquiries about postgraduate study in economic, social, gender and legal history in nineteenth century Britain and the wider world.

Jennifer Aston

Campus Address

51
City Campus
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST

  • Helen Leighton-Rose From Kirk to Secular Committee: The Impact of Changing Administration of Immoral Crime, Sexual Activity and Poverty upon South Eastern Scottish Borders Women’s Lives, 1707-1870. Start Date: 06/05/2025
  • Kerri Armstrong Crime, Conviction and Rehabilitation: Women and the Criminal Justice System in the Late Nineteenth Century England Start Date: 01/10/2023
  • Abby Hammond 'Women in the Ledger Stones, 1640-1815: New Histories at Newcastle Cathedral' Start Date: 01/10/2023

  • History PhD October 12 2012
  • Fellow of Higher Education Academy 2019


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