2015-2016 Programme
1st October 2015 History Lab - Planning Future Meetings
In this session we meet to discuss possible directions for History Lab's future during this semester and the next. From intriguing documentaries, academic papers to potential guest speakers, any bright ideas are welcome!
15th October 2015 History Lab - Edward Turner, 'Revolutions: a selective force for the secular state?' paper and discussion.
Edward Turner, Principal Research Assistant for the SESHAT: Global History Databank project and co-runner of UH's History Lab will deliver a paper on a recent blog he has written. See the link below:
https://evolution-institute.org/blog/revolutions-a-selective-force-for-the-secular-state/
4th November 2015 History Lab - The National Archives Pauper Letters Workship, 'In Their Own Write: A pauper’s life in their own words'
The National Archives have agreed to deliver a workshop to all those interested. The session will be from 1:30 to 4pm and will be hosted by TNA's Principal Modern Domestic Record Specialist Dr Paul Carter, and Reader Adviser Katie Fox.
Katie has recently written a blog on the subject on the TNA website:
http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/paupers-life-words/
The aims for the session are for you to:
Be able to identify pauper letters
Be able to identify other ego documents of the poor
Be able to locate pauper letters held at The National Archives
Make the most of Discovery for tracking pauper letters and other ego documents of the poor
Know how to weigh up the evidence in these papers.
19th November 2015 History Lab - Nathan Bend, 3 minute presentation on research; Megan Webber, Public Engagement Project.
Nathan will be delivering a short 3 minute presentation on his research in preparation for a similar one to be delivered the following week for the eighteenth century seminar series. Following this Megan will be talking about a public engagement project she was recently involved in. www.futurehistories.mmu.ac.uk
3rd December 2015 History Lab - Utopia. A reflection on the recent SSAHRI conference and a broader discussion on utopian ideas.
Suggested readings to choose from:
Lewis Mumford, "What Is a City?", Architectural Record, 1937
http://www.contemporaryurbananthropology.com/pdfs/Mumford%2c%20What%20is%20a%20City_.pdf
David Leopold, Education and Utopia: Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, Oxford Review of Education, Volume 37, Issue 5, 2011
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2011.621679
From Owenite Socialism to Blairite Social-ism: Utopia and Dystopia in Robert Owen and New Labour, Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, Volume 35, Issue 2, 2007
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03017600701446256
Gregory Claeys, ‘Owen, Robert (1771–1858)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21027
Richard K. P. Pankhurst, Fourierism in Britain, International Review of Social History, Volume 1, Issue 03, December 1956, pp 398-432
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000000730
Wednesday 27th January 2016 History Lab - Dr James Kneale, Department of Geography, UCL 'The prohibitionist's pub and the teetotaller's wine cellar, 1840-1914'. 1pm Law Court Building room W030 -Lunch provided.
Dr Kneale will discuss how hard it was to separate drink from temperance over this period, based on the apparently not unusual occurrence of teetotal individuals and companies owning pubs.
Wednesday 10th February 2016 History Lab - Chris Day, The National Archives - Speaking on 19th century public health and the General Board of Health. 1pm-3pm, R140 - Lunch provided.
Thursday 3rd March 2016 - PG Training Session from 12-1pm (for those attending), followed by History Lab at 1:30-3pm - both held in R023, lunch provided as always. Simple, Dramatic, and Bias?: The problems of 'selling' History to a modern audience.
As the title implies, I invite everyone to consider the possible complications associated with engaging the general public.
This can come in the form of documentaries on 'mainstream' television (i.e. BBC), exhibitions, or other forms.
As food for thought, one might consider the following:
- Qualifications of scriptwriters and presenters; should non-historians present History?
- 'Selling' History - the need to be profitable; presenting a simplified and uncontroversial version to improve viewership
- Generalisation; anecdotal evidence presents an uneven perspective
- Exaggerating or dramatising historical events, particularly ones which contrast with modern moral norms (e.g. working conditions and democracy)
Thursday 17th March 2016 - PG Training Session from 12-1pm (for those attending), followed by History Lab at 1:00-2:30pm - both held in R023, lunch provided as always. Simon Langsdale (UH) - 'Making Letters Live': Edward Johnston and the Commemoration of the Dead of Two World Wars.
'Johnston was the man who designed the London Underground Type face in 1916. He was the most influential teacher and practitioner of calligraphy and lettering of the 20th century and without him there wouldn't have been the Imperial War Grave Headstones or the many hand written memorial books. His teaching was highly influential in Germany and so the situation arose where by the dead of the two opposing nations where often commemorated with lettering coming from the same source.'
Thursday 28th April 2016 - PG Training Session from 12-1pm (for those attending), followed by History Lab at 1:00-2:30pm - both held in in R023, lunch provided as always. Workers or Shirkers? Ian Hislop's Victorian Benefits
'Ian Hislop provides an entertaining and provocative look at Victorian attitudes to the poor, exploring the views of five individuals whose Victorian attitudes remain resonant.'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b076vtmz/workers-or-shirkers-ian-hislops-victorian-benefits
Given that a few of us are working on poor relief, welfare more broadly, and/or charity, I thought the following documentary would be an interesting discussion topic. If possible please view the documentary before the session. We may have time to show some of the documentary in the session, but not all of it.
Thursday 12th May 2016 - PG Training Session from 12-1pm, 'How to present your first conference paper', followed by end of semester social, both held in R141, lunch provided.
1st October 2015 History Lab - Planning Future Meetings
In this session we meet to discuss possible directions for History Lab's future during this semester and the next. From intriguing documentaries, academic papers to potential guest speakers, any bright ideas are welcome!
15th October 2015 History Lab - Edward Turner, 'Revolutions: a selective force for the secular state?' paper and discussion.
Edward Turner, Principal Research Assistant for the SESHAT: Global History Databank project and co-runner of UH's History Lab will deliver a paper on a recent blog he has written. See the link below:
https://evolution-institute.org/blog/revolutions-a-selective-force-for-the-secular-state/
4th November 2015 History Lab - The National Archives Pauper Letters Workship, 'In Their Own Write: A pauper’s life in their own words'
The National Archives have agreed to deliver a workshop to all those interested. The session will be from 1:30 to 4pm and will be hosted by TNA's Principal Modern Domestic Record Specialist Dr Paul Carter, and Reader Adviser Katie Fox.
Katie has recently written a blog on the subject on the TNA website:
http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/paupers-life-words/
The aims for the session are for you to:
Be able to identify pauper letters
Be able to identify other ego documents of the poor
Be able to locate pauper letters held at The National Archives
Make the most of Discovery for tracking pauper letters and other ego documents of the poor
Know how to weigh up the evidence in these papers.
19th November 2015 History Lab - Nathan Bend, 3 minute presentation on research; Megan Webber, Public Engagement Project.
Nathan will be delivering a short 3 minute presentation on his research in preparation for a similar one to be delivered the following week for the eighteenth century seminar series. Following this Megan will be talking about a public engagement project she was recently involved in. www.futurehistories.mmu.ac.uk
3rd December 2015 History Lab - Utopia. A reflection on the recent SSAHRI conference and a broader discussion on utopian ideas.
Suggested readings to choose from:
Lewis Mumford, "What Is a City?", Architectural Record, 1937
http://www.contemporaryurbananthropology.com/pdfs/Mumford%2c%20What%20is%20a%20City_.pdf
David Leopold, Education and Utopia: Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, Oxford Review of Education, Volume 37, Issue 5, 2011
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2011.621679
From Owenite Socialism to Blairite Social-ism: Utopia and Dystopia in Robert Owen and New Labour, Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, Volume 35, Issue 2, 2007
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03017600701446256
Gregory Claeys, ‘Owen, Robert (1771–1858)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21027
Richard K. P. Pankhurst, Fourierism in Britain, International Review of Social History, Volume 1, Issue 03, December 1956, pp 398-432
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000000730
Wednesday 27th January 2016 History Lab - Dr James Kneale, Department of Geography, UCL 'The prohibitionist's pub and the teetotaller's wine cellar, 1840-1914'. 1pm Law Court Building room W030 -Lunch provided.
Dr Kneale will discuss how hard it was to separate drink from temperance over this period, based on the apparently not unusual occurrence of teetotal individuals and companies owning pubs.
Wednesday 10th February 2016 History Lab - Chris Day, The National Archives - Speaking on 19th century public health and the General Board of Health. 1pm-3pm, R140 - Lunch provided.
Thursday 3rd March 2016 - PG Training Session from 12-1pm (for those attending), followed by History Lab at 1:30-3pm - both held in R023, lunch provided as always. Simple, Dramatic, and Bias?: The problems of 'selling' History to a modern audience.
As the title implies, I invite everyone to consider the possible complications associated with engaging the general public.
This can come in the form of documentaries on 'mainstream' television (i.e. BBC), exhibitions, or other forms.
As food for thought, one might consider the following:
- Qualifications of scriptwriters and presenters; should non-historians present History?
- 'Selling' History - the need to be profitable; presenting a simplified and uncontroversial version to improve viewership
- Generalisation; anecdotal evidence presents an uneven perspective
- Exaggerating or dramatising historical events, particularly ones which contrast with modern moral norms (e.g. working conditions and democracy)
Thursday 17th March 2016 - PG Training Session from 12-1pm (for those attending), followed by History Lab at 1:00-2:30pm - both held in R023, lunch provided as always. Simon Langsdale (UH) - 'Making Letters Live': Edward Johnston and the Commemoration of the Dead of Two World Wars.
'Johnston was the man who designed the London Underground Type face in 1916. He was the most influential teacher and practitioner of calligraphy and lettering of the 20th century and without him there wouldn't have been the Imperial War Grave Headstones or the many hand written memorial books. His teaching was highly influential in Germany and so the situation arose where by the dead of the two opposing nations where often commemorated with lettering coming from the same source.'
Thursday 28th April 2016 - PG Training Session from 12-1pm (for those attending), followed by History Lab at 1:00-2:30pm - both held in in R023, lunch provided as always. Workers or Shirkers? Ian Hislop's Victorian Benefits
'Ian Hislop provides an entertaining and provocative look at Victorian attitudes to the poor, exploring the views of five individuals whose Victorian attitudes remain resonant.'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b076vtmz/workers-or-shirkers-ian-hislops-victorian-benefits
Given that a few of us are working on poor relief, welfare more broadly, and/or charity, I thought the following documentary would be an interesting discussion topic. If possible please view the documentary before the session. We may have time to show some of the documentary in the session, but not all of it.
Thursday 12th May 2016 - PG Training Session from 12-1pm, 'How to present your first conference paper', followed by end of semester social, both held in R141, lunch provided.