Hello!
My name is Nastasha Sartore
I am a social and cultural historian of modern Britain and the British Empire with particular interests in histories of gender, labour, intimacy, and everyday life. My written work has appeared in scholarly journals including Labor History and History Workshop.
I recently earned my PhD in History from the University of Toronto, where I have taught undergraduate courses in British and European history and the history of gender and sexuality. I also hold an MPhil in Modern European History from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from McGill University.
Currently, I am the Elizabeth and Cecil Kent Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan.
Research
I am currently working on my first book, which is based on my doctoral research and tentatively titled Precarious Desire: Women and Poverty in London. ​Using a wide range of archival materials and creative methodologies, my research reconstructs the intimate and emotional lives of women who lived in the margin of British society, from industrial factory workers and laundresses to dressmakers, suffragist activists, and sex workers.
I am also working on a second project that examines histories of women and suicide in modern Britain. This research draws from scholarship on disability and the history of sexuality to interrogate how gender, class, race, and disability were entangled in contemporary understandings of suicidality.
Digital Projects
I have also explored themes of space, intimacy, connection, sex, and the body in my digital and public history work.
A History of Commercial Sex is an open-access mapping exhibit on sex work in Victorian and Edwardian London. Built using ArcGIS StoryMaps, this project includes an interactive map with ten locations, historic and archival images, narrative text, and a full bibliography. You can view my StoryMap here.​​​
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My second public history project reimagines untold stories of lower-class women's tattoos in early 20th century Britain. A piece of this ongoing project has been published on History Workshop (online) in collaboration with students in the illustration program at Nottingham Trent University. You can view the article and accompanying artwork here.