Dr Annemarie McAllister

Annemarie’s role is research-only, after a long career in teaching, but she is available to advise students with an interest in temperance history. She publishes in a wide range of fields, primarily history, both in print and online media, and has written a popular survey, 'Demon Drink? Temperance and the Working Class,' for Kindle (2014). Another aspect of her work is giving invited talks to a wide range of audiences, from local history societies to addiction specialists. She also works with and on radio and TV productions, such as ‘A House Through Time’ series 3 (2020). See her work at Demon Drink.

Annemarie has taught a varied range of courses at school, college and university level, and her own writing, speaking and presentation work is characteristically interdisciplinary. Her academic study of the history, culture, and impact of the UK temperance movement has resulted in academic papers, chapters, and a monograph (in process), but she also enjoys the varied range of public activities which she is invited to undertake. Her work has been recognised in many ways: she was awarded £50,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund for her project ‘Temperance and the Working Class’ (2012-3), involving several exhibitions, including an eight-month show at the People’s History Museum and the ground-breaking virtual exhibition at www.demondrink.co.uk, which continues to attract international and interdisciplinary notice. She has spoken and performed at a range of conferences ranging from the Alcohol and Drugs History Society to The Victorian Popular Fiction Association, and has organised several conferences in the UK and US, the most recent being ‘Radical Temperance: social change and drink, from Teetotalism to Dry January’ (UCLan, 2018), supported by grants from Alcohol Concern UK and the Alcohol and Drugs History Society. Annemarie has also been invited to write articles on temperance history for popular magazines such as 'Who Do You Think You Are?' as well as acting as advisor on the topic for many programme-makers. She has appeared on radio programmes including 'You and Yours' and 'Woman’s Hour,' and her TV work ranges from 'The One Show' to 'Antiques Road Trip,' and 'A House through Time' (2020). As well as writing on many aspects of the temperance movement in the past, she studies and has links with current recovery and sobriety groups, liaising with national and local societies. This dual focus led to her invitation to create a special edition of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society journal, ‘Temperance Past and Present’ (2019). Her introduction to this volume surveys temperance historiography and the modern sobriety and recovery ‘tribes.’ She is a member of The Lancashire Research Centre for Digital Life, collaborating with Dr Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel in a number of digital projects linked to UCLan’s Livesey Collection. Annemarie’s expertise in temperance periodicals was instrumental in her gaining a 2019-20 Curran Research Fellowship and grant, from the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals, to prepare her monograph on Activist Writers.