Beyond the University
What have our women historians done after, or beyond, the University? What careers have historians gone into? What other activities have they undertaken?
We still have a lot to add to this section about how our women graduates used their History beyond the University. If you are one of our graduates, and would like to share your story, please use the Contact Form to get in touch, or email us directly via [email protected]
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Lynne Peabody, charity CEO
Lynne Peabody graduated with a MA in Modern History in 2006. Working in the sustainability and social change sector for more than two decades, she currently leads the EY Foundation.
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Amanda DeGiorgis, librarian of the nuclear age
Amanda DeGiorgis graduated with a PhD in Medieval History in 2008. She is currently a classified reference librarian at the Los Alamos National Lab, where she works with records cataloguing the history of the Manhattan Project and the building of the first atomic bomb.
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Seona Robertson, TV producer
Seona Robertson graduated with a MA Honours degree in Mediaeval History in 1972. After post-graduate research in Florence and creating a film archive, Robertson has devoted her career to television in the UK and internationally.
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Elaine Fulton, professor & director of education
Elaine Fulton graduated with a MA in Modern History in 1997, an MLitt in 1998, and a PhD in History in 2003. She has spent more than two decades as an educator at the University of Birmingham. Elaine Fulton spent “an extremely happy decade” studying history at St Andrews, which she claims, “was absolutely the…
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Elspeth King, curator
Elspeth King (1949-2025) graduated with a MA in Mediaeval History in 1971. Working at museums in Glasgow, Dunfermline, and Stirling, King was central to redefining the preservation of public heritage and social history in Scotland.
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Alex Walmsley, charity trustee and defence consultant
Alex Walmsley graduated with a MA Honours degree in Modern History with International Relations in 1993, and then stayed to complete a PhD in Modern History in 1998. She has enjoyed a long career in the defence sector advising on foreign policy and nuclear waste management.
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Elizabeth Hewat, missionary and scholar
Elizabeth Glendinning Kirkwood Hewat (1895-1968) was employed as Assistant Lecturer in History in 1919-20. She went on to be a noted missionary and scholar, and a campaigner for women’s ordination in the Church of Scotland.
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The Challenges of Job-Hunting: Edith MacQueen in the 1930s
The career trajectory of Edith MacQueen – the first woman to obtain a PhD in History at the University of St. Andrews – poses a certain paradox: a woman of high academic standing, she possessed the right credentials and awards for a successful career in academia. She completed her PhD in 1927, and then a…
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Authors and Broadcasters in the early 20th century: Annie M’Killiam and Rhoda Power
For those of the first women History graduates who hoped to use their historical learning in a career of some sort, there were relatively few options in the early twentieth century. There were very few jobs for women in universities, except in women’s colleges. Some went into school teaching (and sometimes, later, to university jobs).…
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Women Students’ Alumni Associations
One of the most fascinating findings from analysing the University Calendars of the 20th century was discovering the prevalence of women’s associations that existed for alumni of the University of St Andrews. In the 1935 calendar alone, there were 3 different alumni associations across the United Kingdom dedicated to bringing women graduates together for social…
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Doris Ketelbey, visiting professor in the Gold Coast, 1950
One of the most fascinating periods of Doris Ketelbey’s life is the six months she spent working in the British occupied Gold Coast from 1950-1951. Ever a historian at heart, Ketelbey saved a large collection of letters and relevant paperwork from her time overseas and donated it to the University of St Andrews Library prior to her death. Most of the information in this blog…