Caroline Mariah McWilliams

I began my PhD in September 2020 under the supervision of Professor Chandrika Kaul. My research focuses on the connection between informal diplomacy, upper class women and the British press in the inter-war years. Informal diplomacy has been utilised for centuries by the world’s élites. They used their networks, be they familial, religious or marital, and conducted business in a form that I term “drawing-room diplomacy.” Historians of the British aristocracy have focused on informal diplomacy, though usually as portends to war and economics. Here, I look at what their wives, sisters, and mothers were doing: influencing society and politics from within the home. Key thematic areas include the state of the upper classes in the inter-war years, popular press culture and the education of women. As regards popular press culture, I look at the emergence of a mass national media, female journalists and editors, society columns and the most notable society and fashion magazines of the day. 

• The inter-war years in Britain
• British aristocracy
• British Press
• Anglo-American relations 
• Women's history
• Fashion history 

I first arrived in St Andrews in 2014 and completed my MA (Hons) in English and Modern History in 2018. I returned the following year and completed an MLitt in Modern History before undertaking PhD work from 2020 onwards. My research is supported by the Ewan and Christine Brown Postgraduate Scholarship in the Arts and Humanities. I also serve as Regent (CEO) of the Walter Hines Page Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.