Charlotte Sleigh

Dr. Charlotte Sleigh is Lecturer in the School of History at the University of Kent at Canterbury. (2003)

Charlotte Sleigh studied at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. She had a one-year visiting assistant professorship at the University of California, Los Angeles, before taking up her post at Kent in 2000, where she is now senior lecturer in history of science.

Charlotte has been known as ‘the ant woman’ for some time now on account of her research into the history of myrmecology, the science of ants. She has researched how social and cultural perspectives have shaped the ways in which scientists have looked at ants, resulting in two books (Ant, Reaktion, 2003, and Six Legs Better, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) and a number of articles.

Keen to shake off her insectan title, and to be known for other areas of expertise, Charlotte is currently working on a book about science and literature to be published by Palgrave. Besides this, her research interests encompass the life sciences over the past 150 years. She has given public lectures and appeared on a number of radio and TV programmes, speaking with varying degrees of authoritativeness on a number of history of science-related topics.

Charlotte’s teaching at Kent includes science and literature, Victorian science and society, the history of animals, and the history of the body in the twentieth century. She is co-director of the MSc in Science, Communication and Society, run jointly with Biosciences. This unique degree combines practical training in science communication with insights from the humanities on the history, sociology and ethics of science.