This blog post is by Amber Millard, submitted last year as a coursework assignment for the module The Wars of the Roses. Now it's marked and deanonymised we can share it with you! The Two Princes Edward and Richard in the Tower,painted by Sir John Everett Millais, 1878. One of the most debated topics in... Continue Reading →
Bridgerton, race and history
* No plot spoilers! * I have just finished watching the second season of Bridgerton, which dropped on Netflix last month. I am a fan, which is perhaps unsurprising as I'm a historian of the period: my interests in masculinity and material culture are well catered-for by a show that is all about the marriage... Continue Reading →
Is Vladimir Putin an Imperlialist?
Is Vladimir Putin an Imperlialist? On Wednesday 24 February 2022 Vladimir Putin order the 200,000 troops surrounding the Ukraine and in the two Russian backed separatist areas of Donestsk and Luhansk in the east, to invade Ukraine. There is no doubt that this a date that marks a turning point in European and probably global... Continue Reading →
What Would You Do?
Would you join a militant political movement, risking not only your job but potentially your family, friends and public reputation? What physical and emotional trauma would you be willing to face? These were all questions that faced women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when they joined the emergent women’s rights and suffrage... Continue Reading →
‘It’s a Sin’- COVID-19 and the AIDS Pandemic of the 1980s
This blog post is by our undergraduate student Joseph Price. Image from It's A Sin The recent Channel 4 drama series ‘It’s a Sin’ directed by Russel T Davies offers a terrifying and heartbreaking insight into the experiences of gay men in the 1980s. The series follows the lives of a group of friends where... Continue Reading →
We're excited to announce that Dr Kate Lister will be speaking at our virtual seminar series on Wednesday 17 March! Click here to register for this event.
In the light of another assault on democracy we need the Humanities more than ever
When I finally switched off from a day of online meetings on Wednesday I thought I’d relax by watching some gentle TV. Then a prompt from a friend on social media made me switch over to a new channel, the BBC at first and then CNN. Within moments I was hooked in to the drama... Continue Reading →
Attack on the Capitol and Appropriating the Medieval
Getty Images: Man dressed as a " Viking" storms the US Capitol While the world reels from the attempt by right-wing insurrectionists to storm the US Capitol, I'd like to draw the attention of my students studying Medieval Chivalry and its Afterlives to this striking image of a man dressed as a pseudo-Viking. Jake Angeli,... Continue Reading →
We all love a good conspiracy theory, even it if it might kill us
At the weekend ‘thousands of people took to the streets of central London and held a rally in Trafalgar Square. The numbers involved are disputed: ‘about a 1,000’ said most news reports, but I’ve seen posts on social media saying that there were 35,000 protesting in Nelson’s shadow. They were there to protest about the... Continue Reading →
There are bigger battles to fight so please just wear a mask folks
Even a cursory engagement with British history would be enough to remind us that we are a fairly rebellious people when we are told what we should or shouldn’t do. There is a proud tradition of standing up for our ‘rights’ even if, for the most part, those rights are nowhere defined in a written... Continue Reading →