Miss Megan Cook

(she/her)

BA (Hons.), MA, PhD in progress

My research focuses on Welsh women in colonial India, with particular interests in gender history, postcolonial history, missionary history, identity, agency, and cultural encounters. Through my previous research, I have sought to uncover the voices of women whose experiences have often been marginalised in historical narratives. My BA dissertation explored Indian women’s responses to the Child Marriage Act and how experiences of oppression inspired activism, while my MA dissertation examined the impact of Sati through the lens of East India Company policing and surveillance. Together, these projects contributed to wider discussions surrounding gender, power, and colonialism in India and demonstrated the importance of recovering women’s perspectives from the historical record.

I am currently undertaking a PhD that examines the lives and experiences of Welsh women who travelled to India during the twentieth century. Drawing on memoirs, missionary reports, letters, photographs, and artefacts held at the National Library of Wales, I explore how these women negotiated their identities within colonial contexts and how notions of Welshness were shaped overseas. Alongside my doctoral research, I recently published a blog for the Indian Heritage Centre in Cardiff reflecting on its Indian Independence Day celebrations, and I am currently preparing an article on Welsh missionary activity in the Khasi Hills, exploring social change, gender, and the lasting influence of Welsh connections in the region.