The countryside has long been a place intrinsic to the British national identity, from the Romantic movement through to the present day. And yet, it has remained largely inaccessible to…Read More >
Heritage & Creativity
Welcome to Black History Month
2020 marks the 33rd anniversary of Black History Month (BHM) in the UK, and it has never seemed more relevant. One outstanding feature of the wave of protests, conversations, and questioning that has…Read More >
Mastectomies have been performed for over 500 years – yet we still can’t talk about them
In the middle of the 17th century, Mrs Townsend found a lump in her breast. Diagnosed with breast cancer by a local physician, she underwent a mastectomy without anaesthetic –…Read More >
Taking Publishers’ Archives Online: The Modernist Archives Publishing Project
The publishing industry decides what gets published and determines whose voices get heard. The books we read are shaped by the people who produce them, and a publisher’s archive is…Read More >
Happy Days – creating art from archives
It is well-known that the University’s Special Collections are home to the world’s largest archive for the Nobel-Prize winning writer, Samuel Beckett with over 600 items of original material, including…Read More >
In refugee camps as well as lockdown, gardening helps pass time in limbo
For the last few years, Yasmine Shamma has been interviewing Syrian refugees about their experiences of displacement. One of the things that struck her the most is the common desire…Read More >
‘I don’t care about Hitler’: Wiley and the rise of antisemitism
“There are two sets of people who nobody has really wanted to challenge. Jewish and KKK … Red Necks are the KKK and Jewish people are the Law … Work…Read More >
Pandemic landscapes
In the last few weeks many people have ventured out into the countryside who would never normally do so. Historian Jeremy Burchardt has noticed that walking over the usually deserted…Read More >
A year in the life of the earliest Europeans
The latest archaeological and geological studies are helping us discover more about Europe’s first ‘early human’ (hominin) occupants and highlighting how they coped with the practical challenges of life such…Read More >
Children aren’t starting puberty younger, medieval skeletons reveal
This week, Professor Mary Lewis will be running online workshops to explain the bioarchaeological methods she uses to analyse skeletal remains and answering questions as part of #AskanArchaeologist on Wednesday…Read More >