RACHEL BYNOTH

ABOUT RACHEL
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Dr Rachel Bynoth is an eighteenth and nineteenth century historian, specialising in social, political, gender, family, relationships and emotions history. She completed her PhD at Bath Spa University, which was generously funded by the South, West, and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (SWWDTP). Her thesis, entitled ‘Anxious Expressions: Remote Relationships in the Canning Correspondence Network 1760-1830' examines expressions of anxiety in letters across the lifecycle, using the Cannings as a case study to nuance our understandings of the operation of remote familial relationships.

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She has published work on Female Remote Education through letters, co-edited, alongside Ellen Smith, a special issue of Cultural and Social History Journal on Distant Communications: Beyond Death, in which she co-authored the Introduction. A contribution to a Roundtable Chapter on the IHR's Seminar Culture, in the edited publication Talking History: Seminar Culture at the Institute of Historical Research, 1921-2021, came out in 2024. Her next publication is a book chapter on the Bath marriage mart in the publication Bath and Beyond in 2025.

Forthcoming projects include a piece on Teaching with the History of Emotions: Anxiety as a pedagogical tool, political emotions in the Eighteenth Century: George Canning’s Letter Journal and discomfort and letter writing. She is also working in partnership with the Assembly Rooms in Bath on their visitor experience, due to open in 2026, as well as feeding into their current tours. A collaborative article on Slow Time will be the culmination of this project. She is also in the early stages of turning her thesis into a book. 

Rachel has given several public lectures on her work, both for academic and general audiences. She has been an expert for the Sky History show: Mayhem! The Scandalous Lives of the Georgian Kings  and featured on several podcasts. She has also written several articles for The Conversation on letter writing and George Canning, as well as blog posts for the New Directions In Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Art, the Social History Society, the History Journal and written a summary of the recent Bath 250 conference. She has also worked with organisations, especially around her specialist subject of anxiety in the 18th/19th century and what it tells us about anxiety and wellbeing today. If you are interested in consultancy/working with Rachel, please contact her at r.bynoth@bathspa.ac.uk

Rachel is a former committee member of the History Lab, the postgraduate wing of the Institute for Historical Research and previously co-convenor of their seminar series. She is also currently Postgraduate/Early Career Representative for BSECS (British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies). She was the History Strand Editor for the Question Journal until October 2021, Committee Member on the SWWDTP Student Committee and is an ECR member of the Royal Historical Society. She has previously worked in several higher education roles including at Bath Spa Students’ Union as Representation and Advice Co-ordinator.  

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Rachel has organised several conferences with BSECS PGR/ECR committee and the next is in Bath in July 2025. With Ellen Smith, Rachel co-organised the Distant Communications Conference on 21st-22nd July, for which they received funding from the Royal Historical Society, the Social History Society and Midlands4Cities DTP. 

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