Acclaim for historian's assisted suicide book

A review in the journal Disability & Society has described the latest book by Sunderland historian Dr Kevin Yuill as a 'timely and welcome' volume in an area often under-analysed by academics. Susie Balderston, from the Law School at Lancaster University suggests that Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case against Legalization (Palgrave, 2013) 'maturely delineates a consistently well-argued path through the thorny discrepancies of polarised debates, past and present'. Balderston maintains that the author 'has a refreshing talent for injecting readability into thorny subjects', and concludes her review by stating that the volume is 'by far the best book on this subject in many years; the author should be proud of this important volume that brilliantly and eloquently tackles injustice and prejudice around assisted suicide'.

English Research Seminar

'Hypnotic Séance'. Painting by Richard Bergh, 1887.
Source: Wikipedia

Staff and students from all faculties are welcome to the first talk of the new season of English research seminars. Culture PhD student Jamie Spears will be speaking on 'Late Victorian and Fin de Siècle Spiritualism in the North East'. Time: 5pm on Wednesday 19th February. Place: Priestman 313. Ectoplasm not provided.

Kevin Yuill on FDR, immigration and race

Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933.
Source: Wikipedia

Franklin Roosevelt often receives accolades for pushing the USA towards a more liberal stance on race and immigration, even if his administration remained aloof from civil rights or immigration reforms. An article by Dr Kevin Yuill published in the journal Immigrants & Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora questions that contention. Roosevelt, who presided over the period of the lowest immigration in the twentieth century, relied upon the break in immigration imposed by the 1924 Act (and the Depression) to consolidate a national culture based on ‘Nordic’ symbols, effectively carrying through the ‘Americanization’ initiated during World War I without coercion. While there is evidence of Roosevelt's liberal disposition towards those originating from Europe whose numbers were savagely restricted by the 1924 Immigration Act, and while Roosevelt was anxious to maintain cordial relations with Asian nations, he fully supported the Act's debarment of Asians from American citizenship. Moreover, he did so for strictly racial reasons.

Yuill, K. 2014. 'In the Shadow of the 1924 Immigration Act: FDR, Immigration and Race'. Immigrants & Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora.

University launches research funding blog

The University of Sunderland has launched a blog which publishes the latest research funding news drawn from a variety of sources. Click on the links below to view funding opportunities for:

Faculty of Applied Sciences

Faculty of Arts, Design & Media

Faculty of Business & Law

Faculty of Education & Society