Dr Kristin Hay

  • Lecturer (Political & International Studies)

email: Kristin.Hay@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns: She/her/hers

Room 627, Gilbert Scott Building (East Quad), University of Glasgow

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167

Biography

Lecturer in Economic and Social History. Historian of medicine, gender and oral history. 

Research interests

I am interested in the intersections of gender, sex, reproduction and medicine. My previous research focused on reproductive health and rights activism through the lens of the Scottish Abortion Campaign. My PhD thesis explored the impact of the growing availability of birth control in Scotland during the 1970s, through archival evidence and an extensive oral history project. 

I am passionate about reproductive health and rights activism, sexual and reproductive health, birth control, pregnancy and parenthood through an intersectional lens.

More broadly, I am interested in medical professionalism and the development of health and healthcare from the nineteenth century. I am an experienced oral historian and contribute to the development of oral history theory and methodologies in my work. 

Research groups

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2021
Number of items: 10.

2025

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2025) ‘It Was the Woman That Went and Got Looked After…[She] Had Most to Lose’: Interviewing Men About Contraceptive Responsibility in 1970s Scotland. Oral History Society Conference: Whose Voices, University of Strathclyde, 6-7 June 2025.

Cawley, Felicity, Cook, Vanessa and Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2025) ‘True’ Collaboration? Navigating Collective Leadership, Co-creation, and Professional Development of Staff in an Undergraduate Team-taught Honours Course. 18th Annual University of Glasgow Learning and Teaching Conference, Glasgow, UK, 02-08 April 2025.

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2025) ‘The doctor made clear his utter contempt of me, and I can remember it still’: unmarried women’s experiences of accessing the pill in Scotland c. 1968–1980. Social History of Medicine, (doi: 10.1093/shm/hkae060) (Early Online Publication)

2024

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2024) The pill for the unmarried girl is hardly going to improve her character’: the impact of changing sexual behaviours on the construction of adulthood in Scotland, c. 1968-1980. In: Cannon, Maria and Tisdall, Laura (eds.) Adulthood in Britain and the United States from 1350 to Generation Z. Series: New historical perspectives. University of London Press. ISBN 9781908590824 (In Press)

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2024) ‘They Put a Ring on Their Finger and Said ‘Oh I’m at University’’: Performance and Resistance in Women’s Experiences of Accessing Oral Contraception in 1970s Scotland. Society for the Social History of Medicine Conference: Resistance, University of Strathclyde, 14-17 July 2024.

2023

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2023) Between “moral crisis” and “Sexual Revolution”: Accessing Contraception and Abortion in 1970s Scotland. European Association for the History of Medicine and Health Biennual Conference, University of Oslo, 30 August-2 September 2023.

Goff, Jennifer, Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167, Kay, Kirsty, McMurray, Scott, Petersen, Thomas and Robertson, Linda (2023) “More taboo than talking about drugs”: A Qualitative Assessment of the Sexual Health Needs of People who Inject Drugs in Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Project Report. Waverley Care, Glasgow.

2021

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2021) The Pope and the Pill: Sex Catholicism and Women in Post-war England. By David Geiringer. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2020. 232 pp. ISBN 978-1-5261-3838-5, £80. Twentieth-Century British History, 32(1), pp. 155-157. (doi: 10.1093/tcbh/hwaa026)[Book Review]

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2021) ‘More than a defence against bills’: feminism and national identity in the Scottish abortion campaign, c. 1975–1990. Women's History Review, 30(4), pp. 594-612. (doi: 10.1080/09612025.2020.1791405)

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2021) Tanya Cheadle, Sexual Progressives: Reimagining Intimacy in Scotland, 1800–1914. Innes Review, 72(2), pp. 223-225. (doi: 10.3366/inr.2021.0314)[Book Review]

This list was generated on Wed Aug 20 07:54:05 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Book Sections | Book Reviews | Research Reports or Papers | Conference or Workshop Item
Number of items: 10.

Articles

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2025) ‘The doctor made clear his utter contempt of me, and I can remember it still’: unmarried women’s experiences of accessing the pill in Scotland c. 1968–1980. Social History of Medicine, (doi: 10.1093/shm/hkae060) (Early Online Publication)

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2021) ‘More than a defence against bills’: feminism and national identity in the Scottish abortion campaign, c. 1975–1990. Women's History Review, 30(4), pp. 594-612. (doi: 10.1080/09612025.2020.1791405)

Book Sections

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2024) The pill for the unmarried girl is hardly going to improve her character’: the impact of changing sexual behaviours on the construction of adulthood in Scotland, c. 1968-1980. In: Cannon, Maria and Tisdall, Laura (eds.) Adulthood in Britain and the United States from 1350 to Generation Z. Series: New historical perspectives. University of London Press. ISBN 9781908590824 (In Press)

Book Reviews

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2021) The Pope and the Pill: Sex Catholicism and Women in Post-war England. By David Geiringer. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2020. 232 pp. ISBN 978-1-5261-3838-5, £80. Twentieth-Century British History, 32(1), pp. 155-157. (doi: 10.1093/tcbh/hwaa026)[Book Review]

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2021) Tanya Cheadle, Sexual Progressives: Reimagining Intimacy in Scotland, 1800–1914. Innes Review, 72(2), pp. 223-225. (doi: 10.3366/inr.2021.0314)[Book Review]

Research Reports or Papers

Goff, Jennifer, Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167, Kay, Kirsty, McMurray, Scott, Petersen, Thomas and Robertson, Linda (2023) “More taboo than talking about drugs”: A Qualitative Assessment of the Sexual Health Needs of People who Inject Drugs in Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Project Report. Waverley Care, Glasgow.

Conference or Workshop Item

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2025) ‘It Was the Woman That Went and Got Looked After…[She] Had Most to Lose’: Interviewing Men About Contraceptive Responsibility in 1970s Scotland. Oral History Society Conference: Whose Voices, University of Strathclyde, 6-7 June 2025.

Cawley, Felicity, Cook, Vanessa and Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2025) ‘True’ Collaboration? Navigating Collective Leadership, Co-creation, and Professional Development of Staff in an Undergraduate Team-taught Honours Course. 18th Annual University of Glasgow Learning and Teaching Conference, Glasgow, UK, 02-08 April 2025.

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2024) ‘They Put a Ring on Their Finger and Said ‘Oh I’m at University’’: Performance and Resistance in Women’s Experiences of Accessing Oral Contraception in 1970s Scotland. Society for the Social History of Medicine Conference: Resistance, University of Strathclyde, 14-17 July 2024.

Hay, Kristin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-9167 (2023) Between “moral crisis” and “Sexual Revolution”: Accessing Contraception and Abortion in 1970s Scotland. European Association for the History of Medicine and Health Biennual Conference, University of Oslo, 30 August-2 September 2023.

This list was generated on Thu Aug 21 10:25:02 2025 BST.

Grants

Learning and Teaching Development Fund (2023-2024)

Wellcome Trust Doctoral Studentship Award (2018-2022) 

Wellcome Trust Masters Studentship Award (2017-2018) 

Supervision

I am open to acting as a PhD supervisor for students interested in the history of sex, gender, medicine and oral history. 

  • Chou, Jean Tzu-Yin
    Local mobility, medical management, and the founding of hospitals by the Chinese communities in the Straits-Settlements-era Singapore, circa. 1826-1942

Teaching

I teach across several undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Glasgow, including:

Pre-honours:

  • Economic and Social History 2A: Britain 1770-1914  
  • Economic and Social History 2B: Britain 1914-2008 

Honours:

  • Addiction in the Modern World 
  • Motherhood and Maternity 
  • Researching Economic and Social History 2
  • Oral History for Social Scientists 

Postgraduate Taught:

  • Innovation in the Middle East and North Africa
  • Research Design

I also provide dissertation supervision for undegraduate and postgraduate taught students. 

 

Professional activities & recognition

Prizes, awards & distinctions

  • 2017: Neil Rafeek Oral History Prize Winner (Scottish Oral History Centre)
  • 2019: Leah Leneman Essay Prize Runner Up (Women's History Scotland)

Editorial boards

  • 2025: Women's History Review

Additional information

Associate Fellow of the Recognising Excellence in Teaching Framework

Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Best College Teacher Award (Nominee), Teaching Excellence Awards 2024 

Leah Leneman Essay Prize Runner Up (2019) 

Neil Rafeek Oral History Prize Winner (2017) 

Public Engagement

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Admitting Women Exhibition

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Admitting Women Blog Series

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Vaccination - finding the 'perfect disease' Exhibition

BBC Radio Scotland, 'Sex and the Single Girl', Time Travels

Body of Work Podcast, 'Kristin Hay'

 


Dr Kristin Hay on Twitter