Thesis to Book 2025

A recent festive visit to Barcelona has rekindled my desire to write again.

After stepping away from thesis-related work for several months with a break that gradually became longer than intended, I’ve returned feeling re-energised and ready to take on a new challenge for 2025: transforming my thesis into a book.

The project will be developed as an open-access monograph, available both in print and digitally, to reach a wider audience beyond traditional academic readership. Thanks to an opportunity arising in 2024 through the Trailblazers Initiative (a collaboration between the libraries at the University of Salford, Lancaster University, and the University of Liverpool), the book will be supported through a structured programme designed to help early-career researchers transition from thesis to publication. Liverpool University Press will edit, publish and distribute the final work, supported by author workshops and skills development networks intended to maximise reach and impact.

The monograph will explore the University of Salford’s modernist campus development from the 1950s through to the 1970s, examining the ambitions, policies, and social contexts that shaped its transformation. Revisiting earlier research while introducing new perspectives, I hope to broaden the narrative by incorporating a stronger social dimension alongside the architectural focus.

Excitement and uncertainty inevitably sit side by side. Writing remains challenging, and transforming a thesis into a more accessible book requires stepping into unfamiliar territory. Yet the process offers an opportunity to rethink how research can speak to wider audiences while retaining academic depth.

The ambition is to align publication with the University of Salford’s 60th anniversary in 2027, with a draft scheduled for completion in 2026. A deadline that already feels closer than expected. Reaching this stage has only been possible through the support of colleagues and mentors, particularly the team at the Clifford Whitworth Library and Alison Welsby at Liverpool University Press.

A Catalan connection

So where does Barcelona fit into this story?

During my visit, I spent time exploring the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic, originally constructed for the 1937 Paris International Exhibition. Designed by Luis Lacasa and Josep Lluís Sert, they were both influenced by Le Corbusier. The Pavilion embodied the functional clarity and political symbolism associated with the European Modern Movement. Although very different in context and time from the Maxwell Building at Salford, both projects emerged from transitional moments and shared an ambition to signal modernity and progress through architecture.

The Pavilion’s restrained, rational design aligned with the Republic’s ideological aims during a period of political upheaval. Its legacy, reconstructed in Barcelona in 1992, reflects how modernist architecture could act simultaneously as a cultural statement and practical framework for new social realities. Similar influences influenced post-war planning across Britain, including developments within Salford’s Peel Park campus, where architecture was used to project institutional change and renewed identity.

While the connection between these two buildings may at first seem indirect, both can be understood as expressions of a broader modernist moment, one that aimed to redefine the relationship between architecture, society and the future.

Here’s to a positive year ahead, and to the challenges and opportunities that come with turning research into something new.

More Flickr pics.