Siân Davies is a Barra Dissertation Fellow and a PhD Candidate in Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh. Her dissertation “Making Sugar and Slate: A Labour History of the Pennant Estates in Jamaica and North Wales 1765 – c.1900” reveals the bidirectional exchange of ideas and practices between two sites of labour owned by the same family sugar plantations in Jamaica and a slate quarry in North Wales.
Q: Who are the three scholars who most influenced your own work?
Davis: Firstly, my dissertation supervisor, Professor Diana Paton. Her commitment to balancing analysis of everyday lives and the structures in which people operate and change continually inspires my efforts to do the same. Her 2022 article, “Gender History, Global History, and Atlantic Slavery: On Racial Capitalism and Social Reproduction,” is so rich. Every time I read it, I take something else away. I also should say that without her suggesting it and guiding me through the PhD application process, there is no way I would even be doing this work.
Thomas C. Holt’s Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain, 1832-1938 is incredibly relevant to my work and a book I often return to. Holt’s incisive writing traces political and economic transformations between Jamaica and Britain while also providing a compelling criticism of liberal definitions of freedom.
Catherine Hall’s work, particularly Family Fortunes, Civilizing Subjects, and the Legacies of British Slavery project has influenced my work. It was a treat to see her speak at AHA in New York in January about her most recent book on Edward Long, with responses from Vincent Brown, Sasha Turner, Kathleen Wilson, Walter Johnson, and Robin Kelley.
Q: What is the primary source you’ve most enjoyed using in your research?
Davies: I’m lucky to have undertaken archival research in Jamaica and London for my dissertation project. However, my project's primary site of inquiry is the Pennant family papers at Bangor University in North Wales. This archive includes thousands of letters, accounts, reports, and maps related to the Pennants’ Jamaican plantations and their estate in North Wales from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. I’ve spent many hours immersing myself in this colonial archive of management, trying to parse out its silences and distortions. However, when the precise boundaries of the archive’s catalogue, which separate Jamaican and North Walian papers, blur, and letters to and from Jamaica reference North Wales, or vice versa, the importance of considering these interconnected sites together emerges.
Q: What are you most enjoying about your Fellowship at the McNeil Center?
Davies: Moving to Philadelphia from Scotland was a little daunting, but I feel lucky to be part of such a friendly and helpful cohort of fellows. It is so enriching to be in a supportive environment with other scholars who are interested in similar questions. The Brown Bag seminars are particularly generative. I’ve loved reading other graduate students’ work in progress, learning from them, and from the other fellows’ responses.
I am also very grateful that my time at McNeil has coincided with Professor Sasha Turner’s sabbatical fellowship. Her fantastic book Contested Bodies: Pregnancy, Childrearing, and Slavery in Jamaica uses some of the Pennant papers, amongst many others, to highlight how women’s bodies and reproduction became highly contested and managed sites on Caribbean plantations. It was a pleasure to talk with Turner about approaches to the archive and how to write about race and economic life.
Finally, my office! It overlooks Woodland Walk and is situated right by the kitchen and kettle, very convenient for tea breaks.
Q: What are some highlights of your time spent in Philadelphia as a McNeil Center fellow?
Davies: Philadelphia is such a great city. I’ve been to some great gigs and watched my first NBA game live. I’ll miss the Philly cheese steaks.
Siân Davies is a Barra Dissertation Fellow and a PhD Candidate in Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh. Read more about her dissertation on her bio page.