Research output per year
Research output per year
Accepting PhD Students
Sasha Handley specialises in early modern social and cultural history in the British Isles and early America, with a particular interest in histories of everyday healthcare (especially sleep practices), material culture, supernatural belief (especially relating to women's histories) and the history of emotions.
She teaches courses in early modern British, European, and global history, and methods classes relating to material culture. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and Associate Research Director (Research Impact) for the School of Arts, Languages, and Cultures at the University of Manchester.
Sasha currently leads the Bodies, Emotions and Material Culture Collective at the University of Manchester and she is Principal Investigator of the Wellcome Trust Investigator Award, Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World: An Environmental Approach to the History of Sleep Care.
Tackling Health Inequalities
Sasha is Principal Investigator on the Wellcome Investigator Award, Sleeping well in the early modern world: an environmental approach to the history of sleep care . The project reconstructs the principal agents, materials and ‘environing’ practices that were used to manage sleep in ecologically distinct parts of Britain, Ireland and England’s emergent colonies of Virginia and Newfoundland, alongside the bodies of medical, botanical, climatic and material knowledge associated with them. The research brings a fresh environmental history perspective to cross-disciplinary debates about the significance that physical environments play in shaping healthy and unhealthy sleep habits.
A Wellcome Trust Research Enrichment (Public Engagement) award supported the research impact project Sleeping Well at Ordsall Hall. The project developed historic planting schemes at Ordsall Hall, a suite of sleep-themed public programming, and supporting materials for Salford schools to improve the health education and health outcomes of school-age children in Salford. An AHRC Impact Accelerator Award (2024-25) is funding a new phase of this project, piloting wellbeing workshops at Ordsall hall.
Book Projects
Exhibition Projects
I have supervised a number of MA and PhD students (many with AHRC, ESRC or Wellcome Trust funding) and I welcome enquiries from students interested in any aspect of social and cultural history in the early modern period.
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
External Examiner, University of Exeter
2021 → 2024
External Examiner, University of Birmingham
2017 → 2020
External Examiner, University of Hertfordshire
2016 → 2019
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Barker, H. (PI), Handley, S. (CoI) & Wildman, C. (CoI)
1/01/15 → 31/12/15
Project: Research
Handley, S. (Participant)
Impact: Attitudes and behaviours, Awareness and understanding, Economic, Health and wellbeing, Society and culture
Bahl, C. D., Handley, S., Hanß, S. & Winchcombe, R.
24/01/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blogs and social media
9/06/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blogs and social media
20/12/17
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research