Hilary Carey is the PI for the Mariners project and will be leading the workstream looking at British mariners in the ports of Bristol, Liverpool and Hull.
Hilary is a religious historian with a special interest in settler colonialism in the British Empire. Her interest in missions to mariners was sparked by her work on religion and the campaign to end convict transportation for her most recent book, Empire of Hell (CUP, 2019).
Before coming to the University of Bristol, she worked for many years at the University of Newcastle NSW in Australia and has a lively interest in the histories of working port cities. She comes from a naval family and spent much of her childhood on the move. She hopes this project will deepen knowledge of ports and peoples and the rich archives of marine missions and other marine charities.
For a fuller academic profile, see my bio on the University of Bristol’s research portal. 
–
Manikarnika Dutta is a postdoctoral research associate for the Mariners project and will be working on the workstream looking at British mariners in the ports of Bristol, Liverpool, and Hull.
Manikarnika is a historian of colonialism, medicine and public health, with a specialist focus on the British Empire in South Asia. Her DPhil research at the University of Oxford was funded by the Wellcome Trust project ‘From Sail to Steam: Health, Medicine, and the Victorian Navy’. It examined the co-emergence of British maritime and tropical hygiene, and the importance of sanitary reforms for empire-building.
Prior to joining Bristol, Manikarnika worked as a research associate for the ‘Invisible Crises, Neglected Histories c.1900-present: Malaria in Asia’ project at Oxford. Her forthcoming monograph explores the health and welfare of European seamen in British naval and merchant fleets in the Indian Ocean, both on board ships and in major Indian port cities. It enriches the historical understanding of the key role of ‘mobile British subaltern subjects’ in shaping British imperialism and tropical and maritime hygiene in the nineteenth century.
Born and brought up near Lallbazaar, the central Calcutta neighbourhood considered to be the largest ‘sailortown’ in Asia in the nineteenth century, Manikarnika hopes to bring her research interest and expertise in maritime missiology, health and labour to the Mariners project.
–
Abi Freeman is the Research Administrator for the Mariners project. She joined the University of Bristol in October 2023.
–
Jess Kirkby was the Research Administrator for the Mariners project from November 2022 to October 2023.
–
Sumita Mukherjee is CoI for the Mariners project and will be leading the workstream looking at the experiences of South Asian seaman, also known as ‘lascars’ in British ports.
Sumita is a historian of migration and mobility, with particular expertise in the history of the migration of people of South Asian descent to Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She also has a strong interest in the history of religion, as well as in gender and families, and hope to bring these together with her interest in migration, race, and empire in the work she does on the project.
Sumita has spent considerable time in the major port cities of London (where she was born and grew up), Calcutta (where her parents were both born), Glasgow (where she previously worked as Lecturer in Economic and Social History) and Bristol (where she has worked since 2016).
For a fuller academic profile, see Sumita’s bio on the University of Bristol’s research portal.
–
Lucy Wray is a Research Associate on the Mariners project, working alongside Sumita on the stream exploring experiences of South Asian Seamen, also known as ‘lascars’ in British ports.
Lucy is a social and cultural historian of Britain and Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, specialising in visuality and lens-based sources. Lucy has researched poverty, philanthropy, and class in urban environments and is interested in further exploring these themes on the project.
Lucy is from the North Coast of Northern Ireland and lived and worked in Belfast for a decade, where she completed her PhD at Queen’s University (2022) and worked for Ulster University as Research Associate on a maritime heritage project. Lucy has been involved in a number of public history, museum, and cultural heritage initiatives.
For a fuller academic profile, see Lucy’s Profile on the University of Bristol’s research portal.