Member Profile

Name: Ruth Derham Institution:
Academic Status: Independent scholar Main Discipline: History
Additional Disciplines: Other Scholarly Societies:
Research Interests: My research surrounds the practices of the Victorian Divorce Court and changing attitudes towards marriage and divorce.
Recent publication: Decadent Divorce: Scandal and Sensation in Victorian Britain (Amberley, May 2024).
Recent article: '"A Perfect Farce": the Practice of Claiming Damages for Adultery in the Late-Victorian Divorce Court' (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2024.2331829).
Current research: '"Without Reasonable Excuse": Deserted Wives and the Late-Victorian Divorce Court' (working title).
I am working on a reinterpretation of the Crawford-Dilke Divorce Scandal of 1886 from the perspective of its enigmatic protagonist Virginia Mary Crawford (1862-1948) - social worker, journalist, literary critic and women's rights campaigner - and gathering data on bigamy proceedings, 1670-1914.

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