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Dr Richard Marsden

Associate Dean, Assessment & Student Futures

History

richard.marsden@open.ac.uk

Biography

Professional biography

I am a Senior Lecturer in History. My research interests lie in how representations of the past have shaped and reflected identities in the UK, from the eighteenth century to the present day. I hold a PhD from the University of Glasgow and an MA from Cardiff University. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In recent years I have been awarded research funding by UKRI and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. 
 
I am currently Associate Dean (Assessment and Student Futures) for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. I am also Academic Lead for the Open University's relationship with the Open College of the Arts, which joined the OU Group in summer 2023.. Previously I was Director of Teaching for the OU's School of Arts and Humanities, and prior to that I coordinated the school's scholarship of teaching and learning activity. 
 
Before joining the OU in 2016 I worked at Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of South Wales. I have also worked in advisory capacities with A-Level exam boards, Access to HE providers and colleges offering HE in FE. 

Publications

Book

Cosmo Innes and the Defence of Scotland's Past c.1825-1875 (2014)

Book Chapter

Innes, Cosmo Nelson (1798-1874), antiquary (2016)

Gerald of Wales; Welsh patriot or English Imperialist? (2012)

Rhys ap Gruffudd (1132-1197) (2011)

Gwynedd, Owain (1137-1170) (2011)

Llywelyn the Great (c.1173-1240) (2011)

Anglo-Welsh wars (1067-1415) (2011)

Stuart, Charles Edward (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”) (1720–88) (2011)

Jacobite rising (1745–46) (2011)

Scottish Burgh Record Scholarship c. 1830-1880 (2009)

Race and imperialism: twelfth-century English attitudes towards Scotland (2004)

Digital Artefact

Game of Thrones: imagined world combines romantic and grotesque visions of Middle Ages (2018)

Brexit and the mythologies of nationalism: a warning for Wales (2018)

Henry Tudor: a Welsh hero...? (2018)

Who was St David? (2016)

The real reason Yes Scotland avoids Braveheart nostalgia (2014)

Off Sick Project Online Exhibition (2013)

Exhibition / Performance

Blaenau Gwent REACH Online Exhibition (2021)

Journal Article

[Book Review] National Museums: New Studies from Around the World (2025)

Heritage, identity and the creative arts in the South Wales Valleys (2024)

[Book review] Craig Beveridge, Recovering Scottish History: John Hill Burton and Scottish National identity in the Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023 (2024)

The First Scottish Enlightenment: Rebels, Priests and History. By Kelsey Jackson Williams [book review] (2021)

In defiance of discipline: antiquarianism, archaeology and history in late nineteenth-century Scotland (2020)

Towsey, Reading History in Britain and America, c.1750-1840 (2020)

Medievalism: New discipline or scholarly no-man’s land? (2018)

Scottish parliamentary record scholarship in the devolution era (2018)

The Weakness of European Wales (2017)

[Book Review] Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland: Commemoration, Nationality and Memory (2015)

Imaginary investments: Illness Narratives Beyond the Gaze (2013)

The antiquarian photography of Cosmo Innes (2012)

Gerald of Wales and Competing Interpretations of the Welsh Middle Ages c. 1870-1910 (2011)

Book Review: Alex Benchimol, Intellectual Politics and Cultural Conflicts in the Romantic Period (2010); Richard J. Hill, Picturing Scotland through the Waverley Novels (2012) (2011)

Book Review: Slaves and Warriors in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland, 800-1200 by Dr. David Wyatt (2010)

Other

What does knowledge exchange look like for a historian? (2024)

The arts and humanities: rejecting the zero-sum game (2023)

National histories and national identities: Brexit and devolution, past and future (2019)

Gerald of Wales: patriotic Welshman or arrogant agent of English imperialism? (2011)

Time to consign this view of the past to the history books (2010)

Report

Changing the narrative: Valuing Arts and Humanities degrees (2024)

Wales REACH Evaluation Report (Development Phase) (2023)

Blaenau Gwent REACH Summary Report (2021)