Our controlled use of fire is arguably one of the most significant developments in human history. But when and where did we first start to use it? Rebecca Scott, Mark…Read More >
Heritage & Creativity
Seven things you probably didn’t know about life in medieval castles
Dr Karen Dempsey’s research tells the stories of medieval people’s lives through the objects they used and cared about, in the spaces where they lived and worked. Here she tells…Read More >
The Jungle Book: more than just an imperialist tale for children?
Is Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book a simple allegory for colonial rule in India? Or is it about what it is to belong, and to be human? Ahead of her…Read More >
Ripped, Torn & Cut: new book on how fanzines shaped punk
A book exploring the surge of fanzines that emerged in the wake of punk in the 1970s and 1980s was launched this week at the London College of Communication. Here,…Read More >
In pictures: researchers at work
Images made by Reading PhD students at work were selected for an exhibition at our annual doctoral research conference last month, featuring diverse subjects from earth worms to food bank…Read More >
Mohamed Morsi: death of Egypt’s former president shows deep state was always going to triumph
In a new post for The Conversation, Middle Eastern historian Dr Dina Rezk writes that Morsi’s inhumane treatment and subsequent fate is unexceptional in a regime set on imposing its…Read More >
Objects and death: three burials across time
Across millennia, people have buried objects alongside the dead. Ahead of his upcoming British Museum conference ‘Objects and death’, Dr Duncan Garrow spoke to Sarah Harrop about three mysterious things…Read More >
Fragments in the archive: stories of slavery, sexual violence and testimony
Enslaved women make only fleeting appearances in the historical records from colonial and antebellum America – as property rather than people. But after the Civil War, there was an outpouring…Read More >
Human agency: are we really in control of what we do?
Are our actions truly under our control? Or are they actually the result of hidden forces that shape our decisions? Professor Emma Borg explores the philosophy of human agency ahead…Read More >
