Tools: History Skills Biographies

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The latest MarineLives History Skills Programme kicks off this week (week commencing Monday 12th October 2015). There are two remaining places. The application list closes on Friday October 165h 2015. To learn more and to apply for one of these places please use our contact form. To see profiles of previous participants in our history skills training programmes see sample volunteer biographies



Jonathan Dent


Jonathan Dent has an MA in Modern History. He is interested in learning to decipher seventeenth century script and in contributing to an impressive project to make marine lives more generally accessible to the wider public.


Colin Greenstreet


Colin Greenstreet and Bron (a Hungarian vizsla)

Colin Greenstreet is co-founder and co-director of the MarineLives project. He studied human sciences, and philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford, and was the recipient of a Kennedy scholarship for study at Harvard Business School. His career has been spent in finance, consulting, pharmaceutical research and development, and as an entrepreneur.

Likes: Mountains, languages, travel, and dogs (plus wife, Yerevag; elder daughter and musician, Rebecca; and younger daughter and aspiring neuroscientist, Francesca)

Dislikes: Broccoli

Languages: English, German, indifferent French, staggers through Dutch with a dictionary and a glass of wine

Academic interests: Editing the private papers of Sir George Oxenden (1620-1669); writing an academic dual biography of Sir George Oxenden and his elder sister and commercial agent, Elizabeth Dallison. For papers, seminar and conference presentations see his academia.edu page

Tweets at @marinelivesorg.



Dr Philip Hnatkovich


Dr Philip Hnatkovich

Philip Hnatkovich is a Co-Director of the MarineLives project. He received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 2014. He is a historian of the British and French Atlantics, with interests in early modern maritime networks, cultural geography, and transnational communities. His doctoral thesis ("The Atlantic Gate: The Anglo-Huguenot Channel Community, 1558-1685") examines Anglo-French mercantile networks in English Channel ports during the French Wars of Religion, when a militant alignment of Huguenot and Elizabethan elites oversaw a decades-long collaboration in privateering and experimental transatlantic plantation ventures. He argues that the maritime society of the Channel region produced merchant capital, maritime expertise, and formative models for northern trade and colonial settlement in the Americas.

He resides in Pittsburgh, where he spends his spare time dabbling in local politics, perfecting his barbecue technique, riding his bike, and building blanket forts with his daughter.

Languages: English, French, some bits of Latin.

Tweets occasionally @_beneze_



Ross Keel


Ross Keel at a wedding

Ross Keel is a second year undergraduate at Bath Spa University, studying history. He was born in Salisbury, in Wiltshire, where he lived for eighteen years before moving to Bath for university. Ross has held a keen interest in history since an early age and has visited local heritage sites such as Old Sarum castle, Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. This interest has continued throughout his life, and has helped to shape his aspirations for the future, as he hopes to write, research and create historical documentaries and books.

Historical interests: Early modern England and also 20th century Europe.
Other Interests: Watching football, jogging (well, plodding...) and reading a wide variety of books.

Ross tweets very rarely from @Ross14Keel



Jo Pugh

Jo Pugh

Jo Pugh is a PhD student at the University of York, studying information seeking in archival collections. His previous role was in Education & Outreach at the National Archives.

On Twitter @mentionthewar.



Mia Ridge

Mia Ridge recently completed a PhD in Digital History. She spent much of that time exploring different crowdsourcing projects and is glad to finally have enough time to take part in Marine Lives.

Maya Silverman


Maya Silverman in Chicago

Maya Silverman is a student currently residing in San Francisco.


Oliver Tanner


Oliver Tanner and girlfriend, Abby

Oliver Tanner is a second year history student at Bath Spa University. When not at university he is a part time chef, amateur chess player and keen cyclist.
After leaving school Oliver took a year out to travel around the world - his experiences traveling include working as a confectioner in Israel, on a coffee plantation in Tanzania, and catching stray dogs in India and vaccinating them against rabies. Throughout this year Oliver developed a keen interest in social history, which he is following up at university.



Samuel Watson


Samuel Watson

Sam Watson is a second year student at Bath Spa University. He lives in Kent when he is not in Bath at University. He studied Ancient History at A level and has developed an interest in a very wide range of different topics throughout history.

Likes: Travelling, Adventure, Bear Grylls, Football (Chelsea) and trying new things.

Dislikes: Cold weather.



Jill Wilcox


Jill Wilcox is co-founder and co-director of the MarineLives project. Jill's passion for family history led her to complete a history degree at the University of Hertfordshire as a mature student. Subsequently, she has spent sixteen years as a comprehensive teacher and head of department. She completed a MEd in leading teaching and learning at the University of Cambridge in 2011. Throughout her career Jill has used technology to engage and assist her students in their learning.