Mara Oliva

Email:
m.oliva@reading.ac.uk
Phone:
100
Job title:
Associate Professor in Modern US History

Responsibilities:

Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Digital Humanities

Research Culture Board

Digital Research Strategy Steering Committee

Areas of interest

Mara Oliva is Associate Professor in Modern US History at the University of Reading and Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Digital Humanities (IDRC-DH). Her research sits at the intersection of history, politics, and digital humanities, with particular expertise in twentieth-century US political and environmental history, and digital methods for humanities research.

As Director of IDRC-DH, she provides strategic leadership for the Centre, overseeing financial planning, and institutional development. She is responsible for strengthening grant capture, building external partnerships, and developing the Centre’s profile in Digital Humanities. Her portfolio includes leading on public engagement activity, fostering collaborations with archives, museums and cultural institutions, and shaping approaches to research culture across interdisciplinary teams. She is also a member of the University of Reading Research Culture Board.

Mara is recognised for pioneering new methodologies for historical scholarship, including videographic criticism and other innovative digital approaches to historical interpretation and analysis. Her work explores how digital and interdisciplinary methods can transform historical practice, particularly in relation to archives, narrative form, and public-facing scholarship.

She is a strong advocate for interdisciplinarity and open research, promoting collaborative, transparent, and inclusive approaches to humanities research that engage both academic and non-academic audiences.

Postgraduate supervision

I am supervising PhD research on:

Representations of Race and Gender at the World’s Fairs and Expositions, 1983-1916 (Doug Stoke)
Healing Christianity in Great Britain: the establishment of Christian Science 1910-1960 (Robin Hussey)
The Influence of Innovation Strategies on Aerospace technology (Edo Giglio)

Previous PhD Supervision:

Aid, Oil and Human Rights: Re-evaluating U.S.-Guatemalan Relations, 1981-1986 (Richard Bolzano, 2020-2024)
The Relationship between the United States and the Italian right-wing during the Nixon Administration (David Cardillo, 2022-2025 )
The San Francisco Ballet Company and the Cold War (Martha Hayakawa, 2023-2026)
Spies, Civil Liberties, and the Senate: The 1975 Church Committee (Dr Dafydd Townley, funded GTA studentship 2015-2018)
Cultural diplomacy and the Anglo-American 'Special Relationship' in the Middle East(Dr Darius Wainwright, 2016-2019)

Teaching

Module Convenor:

The United States and the Global Environment: History, Power and Sustainability, 1920-2020
Discovering Archives and Collections
The American Century
The US and the Cold War
The US and China in the Historical Context, 1882-1989
Introduction to Digital Communication

Research centres and groups

Academic qualifications

2012, PhD in United States Studies (pass, no corrections), Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, UK.

Awards and honours

External Funding

2023, British Library Eccles Centre for American Studies Fellowship.
2023, British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Follow-up Grant: Co-I for Project: Researching the felt and lived experiences of in/security: a methodological exchange.
2021, British Academy, Co-I for Project: Researching the felt and lived experiences of in/security: a methodological exchange.
2021, British Academy, Co-I for Project: The Vulnerability Studies Network.
2020, British Academy UK-Canada Knowledge Transfer grant. Project: US Environmental Security.
2020, British Association of American Studies/US Embassy Small Grants. Project: Women and BAME Women in US Foreign Policy.
2020, AHRC/UKRI Engaging with Government Programme 2020.
2020, Institute for Economic and Social Research and Policy, Columbia University, New York City, Digital History Fellowship.
2017, British Association of American Studies Research Grant.
2014, Scouloudi Historical Award, Institute of Historical Research.
2014, European Association for American Studies Small Research Grant.
2010, Fulbright Award.
2009, Royal Historical Society Individual Research Grant.

Research Awards

2026, VC's Award for Research and Community
2020, Society of Historians of US Foreign Policy Global Scholar award for paper: “A Public Diplomacy Failure: Eisenhower and the US press in China”
2019, ECR Research Output Prize (second prize) for Heritage & Creativity Research Division, University of Reading, for monograph: Eisenhower and American Public Opinion on China (Palgrave MacMillan, 2018)
2017, UROP Supervisor of the Year Award, University of Reading
2017, UROP Project Award for Heritage & Creativity Research Division, University of Reading (student: Beth Snyder)

Teaching Awards

2021, Winner of the RUSU Excellence Award, Academic Tutor, University of Reading.
2019, Nominated for the RUSU Teaching Excellence Award, University of Reading.
2018, Nominated for the RUSU Teaching Excellence Award, University of Reading.
2017, Nominated for the RUSU Teaching Excellence Award, University of Reading.
2015, Nominated for the RUSU Personal Tutor Award, University of Reading.
2015, Winner of the RUSU Research-led Teaching Award, University of Reading.

Professional bodies/affiliations

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Peer Review Editor: Digital Humanities Quarterly

Research Culture Product

Associate Editor: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Book Proposal and Manuscript Reviewer for Oxford University Press

Book Proposal and Manuscript Reviewer for Palgrave MacMillan

Impact and public engagement

Appearances on BBC Radio 4, BBC5Live, BBC Radio Ulster, TRT.

Articles for the Conversation, the Geopolitics, Corriere della Sera and Alem-Mar.

Contribution to 2021, House of Commons, Foreign Affairs Committee, “A climate for ambition: Diplomatic preparations for COP26” report.