Augusta Waldie

My PhD project explores legal concepts of nationality, citizenship, protection, and statelessness within the constitution of the British Empire during the first half of the twentieth century. I am interested in the ways that Whitehall legal mandarins adapted imperial frameworks of belonging to keep pace with global shifts in mobility, migration, colonial expansion, commerce, international diplomacy, and Commonwealth relations. My research also focuses on the impact of individuals, who leveraged British citizenship and navigated the imperial legal system in unexpected ways that challenged metropolitan control. The project contributes to the growing body of literature around British national belonging and decolonisation during the Windrush era, by tracing continuities and disruptions in immigration and citizenship prior to the Second World War.

Before coming to Cambridge, I worked as a civil servant in Whitehall focusing on EU-Exit readiness policies between 2017-2019. I completed my B.A. at the University of Toronto (2016) and gained a Master’s degree from the University of Edinburgh (2017).

I supervise on Twentieth Century World History & Modern British History papers.