The British Academy has awarded Manchester historian Dr Stefan Hanß a Rising Star Engagement Award 2019/20. This scheme is “designed to enable established early career academics to actively engage in the work of the Academy and to enhance their own skills and career development through the organisation of events, training, and mentoring activities for a…
Category: Research News
Histories of the Self
Penny Summerfield (Emerita Professor of History at University of Manchester) recently published a new book, Histories of the Self: personal narratives and historical practice (Routledge, 2018). As she explains, the book was inspired by teaching courses on personal testimony and historical research at Manchester. One of my favourite courses, when I taught at Manchester, was…
Sandbags, strikes and scandals: James Connolly reflects on his latest article on occupied Roubaix in 1915.
Roubaix, c. 1900. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/ This post is a pseudo-confession: whilst my latest article will be published this month in the journal Historical Reflections, when I was researching and writing it there were often moments when I thought that it would never see the light of day. It is one of the…
RESEARCH NEWS: “Opportunities and challenges in the sharing economy” Dr Alexia Yates discusses what Airbnb can tell us about nineteenth-century Paris.
As a historian of cities and economic life, I am interested in how markets transform our understanding and use of space, as well as how local governments grapple with the political and social consequences of those economic changes. Studying real estate as an object with a history offers useful insights for some contemporary urban issues….
RESEARCH NEWS: “Corpses of Mass Violence and Genocide”: Dr Jean-Marc Dreyfus discusses uncovering the ‘forensic turn’ in his recent ERC-funded project.
Skulls displayed at the Nyamata Memorial Site, Rwanda. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. What was the starting-point for this project? Histories of genocide have tended, to date, towards examining the aftermath of mass violence in relation to issues of trauma and memory, and how these factors shape the subsequent political, cultural, and social characterisations of…
Manchester’s Transnational Friendship with France: James Connolly discusses the ‘adoption’ of Mézières.
The 1921 Lord Mayor’s pageant raising funds for Mézières. Image courtesy of Manchester Central Library: http://www.manchester.gov.uk/news/article/7160/central_library_exhibition_to_celebrate_the_link_between_manchester_and_m%C3%A9zi%C3%A8res My last post touched upon my recent side project on British towns adopting French towns and villages after the First World War. Here, I would like to briefly highlight how this transnational history also had a highly local and…
Transnational Friendship: James Connolly discusses British aid to French towns after the First World War
British soldiers enter Lille in October 1918. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. During my research on the occupation of Northern France in the First World War, I came across archival and newspaper documents attesting to the depth of gratitude felt by the formerly-occupied population towards the British, and the latter’s desire to help suffering populations….
Britain at the back of the queue? Mark Seddon discusses the TTIP, Brexit, and the history of US Trade Policy
One of a number of posters created by the Economic Cooperation Administration, an agency of the U.S. government, to sell the Marshall Plan in Europe. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Last month, Greenpeace released documents from a secretive and controversial free trade deal currently being negotiated by the EU and US government. The proposed Transatlantic…
British Colonialism Built Corruption: Dr Steven Pierce discusses the legacy of empire in Nigeria
It’s nothing new—a politician said something offensive and silly about other countries, angering people around the world. When David Cameron declared last week that Nigeria and Afghanistan were “fantastically corrupt,” my social media accounts blew up. Nigerian friends and commentators were very angry, and rightly so. The sad thing is that Cameron probably doesn’t understand why they’re…
What’s In A Name? Dr Linda Briggs discusses Christening Ships in Sixteenth-Century France
Image supplied by author. Last month, the Natural Environment Research Council invited the public to propose names for its new £200 million research vessel. [1] NERC intended to inspire people to read more about polar history and to generate interest in the ship’s future activities. It captured the public imagination, but in the most unexpected…
Only out to save themselves? Dr Sarah Roddy explores the history of fraudulent charity fundraisers.
Camilla Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. To anyone with even a passing knowledge of Victorian and Edwardian charities, the recent spectacular demise of Kids’ Company will have thrown up some strikingly familiar tropes. The charismatic, well-intentioned figurehead and founder, adept at using the media to build support, but then, virtually…
Antrobus the cleric and Peter the cock: Dr James Mawdesley discusses civil war, ministry and animal baptism in mid-seventeenth century Cumberland
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. This cockerel is not, alas, historic; but it is a cockerel. What was the inspiration for this project? I came across the case of Isaac Antrobus during my doctoral research, about the political activisms of the clergy in Lancashire and Cheshire during the reign of Charles I (1625-1649). I had…
