Friday, June 21, 2019

The Second Annual History Postgraduate Symposium


The Second Annual History Postgraduate Symposium will be hosted by our MA and PhD students. It will range widely in period and topic. Among the subjects covered will be comedy and political satire, oral history and oral traditions, sports history, working-class women's history, the history of crime and law enforcement, media and public information during the interwar years, the civilian experience in occupied countries during the Second World War.

All are welcome and food and drink is provided. The event is free, but please register here.

Date and time: Saturday 29th June 2019; 09:00 – 17:00.

Location: Fans Museum, Northern Gateway, Sunderland SR5 1AP.





Tuesday, June 18, 2019

MA student awarded prestigious research bursary

One of our MA in Historical Research students, Brogan Fannen, recently received an MA Dissertation Bursary from the Society for the Study of Labour History to facilitate archival research in Manchester.

Brogan's dissertation explores the role of the Socialist Sunday Schools (SSS) within the history of the British socialist movement, with a primary focus on the Schools’ role in facilitating and cultivating a socialist culture among British working-class communities in the twentieth century. 

The bursary allowed Brogan to carry out a research trip to the Labour History Archive (LHA) located at the People’s History Museum in Manchester. She examined the promotional literature of the movement such as pamphlets and postcards, as well as reports and minutes. She also analysed the yearly annuals of The Young Socialist Magazine, a publication which gave insight into the plethora of teaching methods used within the SSSs, the propaganda disseminated by the movement and reports on the Schools’ activities within the community.

You can read more about Brogan's work here.


A BA, MA or PhD student interested in labour history and in need of research support? Apply for an SSLH research bursary here!

Monday, June 17, 2019

Contesting Islamophobia

Dr Geoff Nash has published a chapter co-authored with Dr Nath Aldalala’a (University of Shandong, China) entitled 'Islamophobia and the War of Representations: Martin Amis's 'The Last Days of Muhammad Atta'', in Contesting Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim Prejudice in Media, Culture and Politics (Bloomsbury 2019).

The collection reveals the way in which Islamophobia's pervasive power is being met with responses that challenge it and the worldview on which it rests. The volume breaks new ground by outlining the characteristics of contemporary Islamophobia across a range of political, historic, and cultural public debates in Europe and the United States. Its editors are Professor Peter Morey, University of Birmingham, Dr Amina Yaqin and Dr Alaya Forte, both of the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London.

Dr Geoff Nash has recently become a Research Associate at SOAS (University of London).  

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Storytelling with graphic novels

In the final School of Culture Research Seminar, Costa award-winners Bryan Talbot and Mary Talbot will talk about the books they've done together and what the graphic novel form brings to their storytelling. Focusing on their collaborative work to date, they demonstrate the power of the graphic novel to communicate complex material in an accessible way. Emotionally charged biographical details, tangled historical events or the contemporary challenges of climate change – whatever the subject, the graphic novel’s unique combination of word and image can render it compelling.

Wednesday June 19th at 4 pm in David Goldman 313. All welcome!


The cover of Rain, the next graphic novel by Bryan and Mary Talbot, out in October 2019



Friday, June 14, 2019

Naked dating shows

Professor Angela Smith has published an article about the Channel 4 show Naked Attraction. This programme involves clothed participants viewing and commenting on six potential 'dates' as they stand naked in plastic pods designed to gradually reveal their bodies from the feet upwards. Angela explores how the shock of graphic nudity is ameliorated by the linguistic strategies of positive politeness with which all participants seem to collude and engage. Such amelioration, she argues, would appear to be a defence against accusations of voyeuristic and pornographic content on mainstream TV.



Thursday, June 13, 2019

Rare Birds by Natalie Scott

Rare Birds, by the poet Natalie Scott, who was awarded a PhD in English from Sunderland in 2015, is a collection of dramatic monologues which creatively re-imagines the story of Holloway Prison’s first one hundred years through the voices of prisoners, staff and others connected to its history, to explore some of the injustices of the penal system during this period. 

The poems voice women in roles other than that of criminal: there are social campaigners, comrades, as well as sisters, daughters, mothers, wives, lovers and companions. Although it has a historical context, the collection explores many of the themes which are still relevant today: human rights, equality, gender, identity, mental illness, social class.

Natalie received Arts Council funding to bring her work to the stage, and in May 2019 an ensemble of West End actors performed her piece in a workshop production at The Soho Theatre, supported by original music and songs from award-winning British musical theatre composers, and devised and directed by Simon Greiff.





You can find out more about Natalie's work at her website.

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SURE: Research from the University of Sunderland