Key details
Dr Vanessa J Taylor
Senior Lecturer in Environmental History
Vanessa Taylor joined the Greenwich Maritime Institute as a research fellow at the University of Greenwich in 2009. She has been in teaching on the BA History programme here at the university since 2016.
Vanessa works on the environmental and social history of modern Britain, with a particular interest in water, energy and the politics of rivers. Recent research has been devoted to a new book: Seven Rivers: A Journey through the Currents of Human History, published in August 2025 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Other recent research includes a collaborative project working with historians and sociologists on energy transitions and everyday life, and the history and politics of the Thames environment.
Responsibilities within the university
Programme Leader, BA History
Chair, Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee
Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Representative, University Research Ethics Board
Recognition
Vanessa Taylor is a member of the European Society for Environmental History and the Oral History Society.
She has peer reviewed for the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health, Society & Natural Resources, The London Journal, Environment and History, Social History of Medicine, Palgrave Macmillan and the European Science Foundation. She is a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College (2017-20).
Research / Scholarly interests
Dr Taylor works on the environmental and social history of modern Britain, with a particular interest in water, energy and the politics of rivers.
She is the author of Seven Rivers: A Journey through the Currents of Human History, published in August 2025 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Other recent research includes a collaborative project working with historians and sociologists on energy transitions and everyday life, and the history and politics of the Thames environment.
Key funded projects
Carson Fellow, 'Transitions in Energy Landscapes and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries', Rachel Carson Center, Munich (July 2017)
Research Fellow, 'Material Cultures of Energy: Transitions, Disruption, and Everyday Life in the Twentieth Century' (2014-2017), AHRC research project, Birkbeck College, University of London
Co-investigator, 'Running the River Thames: London, Stakeholders and the Environmental Governance of the Thames, 1960-2010', University Fellow (2011-2013), ESRC research project, University of Greenwich
Co-investigator, 'Liquid Politics: The historic formation of the water consumer' (2005-2007), part of ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption Research Programme, Birkbeck College, University of London
Recent publications
Article
Taylor, Vanessa Jane and , (2020), Gender and agency in the Anthropocene: energy, women, and the home in Twentieth-Century Britain. Rachel Carson Center (RCC). In: , , , “Women and Energy,” edited by Abigail Harrison Moore and Ruth Sandwell, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society. Rachel Carson Center (RCC), Munich RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society, 2020/1 (1) (1st) . pp. 11-15 ISSN: 2190-5088 (Print), 2190-8087 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/9065).
Chappells, Heather and , Taylor, Vanessa (2019), Introduction. Rachel Carson Center. In: , , , . Rachel Carson Center, Rachel Carson Center Perspectives, 2019 (2) . pp. 5-10 ISSN: 2190-5088 (Print), 2190-8087 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/8735).
Taylor, Vanessa and , Chappells, Heather (2019), What consumers in the past tell us about future energyscapes. Rachel Carson Center. In: , , , . Rachel Carson Center, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society, 2019 (2) . pp. 11-21 ISSN: 2190-5088 (Print), 2190-8087 (Online) (doi: http://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/8736).
Book section
Taylor, Vanessa and , (2021), Anthropocene women: energy, agency and the home in Twentieth-Century Britain. McGill-Queen’s University Press. In: , , In: Abigail Harrison Moore, Ruth W. Sandwell (eds.), In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Toronto, Canada (1st) . ISBN: 9780228006190 (doi: ).
Taylor, Vanessa and , (2020), Water and its meanings in London, 1800–1914. University of Pittsburgh Press. In: , , In: Bill Luckin, Peter Thorsheim (eds.), A Mighty Capital under Threat: The Environmental History of London 1800-2000. University of Pittsburgh Press, . pp. 155-176 . ISBN: 9780822946106 (doi: ) NB Item availability restricted.
Taylor, Vanessa and , (2017), Watershed democracy or ecological hinterland? London and the Thames River Basin, 1857-1989. University of Pittsburgh. In: , , In: Martin Knoll, Uwe Lübken, Dieter Schott (eds.), Rivers Lost – Rivers Regained: Rethinking City-River Relations. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (1st) . pp. 63-81 . ISBN: 9780822944591 (doi: http://www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx?bookId=36677).