ProfKeith Gildart

Keith Gildart is a Professor of Labour and Social History. After working as an underground coal miner for seven years he studied at the universities of Manchester and York.

His research interests are focused on nineteenth/twentieth century British history, labour movements, working class politics, youth culture and popular music. Keith has published widely on British labour history, most notably a monograph on the North Wales Miners and numerous articles and edited collections on coal mining history.

He is an editor of the multi-volume 'Dictionary of Labour Biography', for which he has contributed entries on British Labour Members of Parliament and important trade union figures. His most recent books include 'Images of England through Popular Music: Class, Youth and Rock ‘n’ Roll, 1955-1976' (Palgrave, 2013) and the Dictionary of Labour Biography Vol. XV (Palgrave, 2019). He has just completed a monograph titled 'Keeping the Faith: A History of Northern Soul' (Manchester University Press, 2020) and is working on publication projects on the industrial and political culture of mining communities in post-war Britain.

He has appeared on television documentaries for the BBC including Who Do You Think You Are?, commentated on news items on radio, and for the local and national press.

Professor Gildart is the Principal Investigator of a 3-year project (2017-2020) titled 'On Behalf of the People: Work, Community and Class in the British Coal Industry 1947-1994'. This is supported by a £655,736 grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and in partnership with the National Mining Museums of England, Scotland, Wales and the General Federation of Trade Unions. He is also the Co-Investigator of an Economic and Social Research Council funded project on 'New Directions in Coal Mining History and Heritage in Japan and the UK'. He is a co-investigator of an international project on 'Deindustrialisation and the Politics of Our Time' that was recently awarded a grant of $2.5 million by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.