July 2022

The next in our continuing series of blogs inspired by the BLM movement from students and staff is from Catriona, who has just completed her second year of study with us.  As another middle aged, middle class white person, I also wondered what contribution I could make to the quest for change, the need for… Continue Reading →

This week we are posting personal blogs from students and staff in History at the University of Northampton. Today’s post is by Joseph, a first year History Undergraduate.  When you look back in history and you see black people as slaves, then you see them segregated and treated as second class citizens and you think… Continue Reading →

Today we start a series of personal  blog posts from staff and students reacting to the killing of George Floyd and the protests here and around the world. The first of these is from Ursula, who has just completed her second year of study for a degree in History at the University of Northampton.  NB: Ursula’s… Continue Reading →

The Cratchits sit down to Christmas dinner  If, like me, you tuned in to watch the BBC’s latest adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol, I’m sure it will have left a lasting impression.  Over three nights a star-studded cast presented a much darker version of the tale of Scrooge than we are used… Continue Reading →

17 October 1961 In Black History month it is worthwhile underscoring how minority histories have often tended to be overlooked, covered up, or subsumed under majority narratives and ‘official’ memory. At the time of the Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris in 2015, for instance, the press and media all lamented what they claimed was the… Continue Reading →

I attended the Advance HE (formerly Higher Education Academy) teaching and learning conference, in Birmingham, for the first time this year Advance HE TL Conference 2018. Previous to this my experience of conferences was of academic history ones. Academics sometimes get a little bit too immersed in their own institutions. It seemed like a good idea… Continue Reading →

University is hard, and it’s hard to know how to prepare for it. To help, here are my top tips for new students. I made these tips from lessons I learnt from my first-year experience. 1. Know how much money you have. I know this sounds simple but it is very important. Before coming to… Continue Reading →

We’ve finished our most recent dissertation cycle here at Northampton. The marking is done and the results have been released. It seems a useful time to reflect as I prepare meetings to discuss projects with students for next year. We’ve had some great results, some fascinating dissertations, some of them first class. As the convenor… Continue Reading →

There are many skills a historian acquires: distilling information, debates and arguments; finding, reading and analyzing primary sources; writing and publishing research; dressing smart but casual; finding obscure conference venues; looking marginally interested in endless administrative meetings (with full knowledge that each second saps a small piece of our zest for life – See here for… Continue Reading →

I recently made a visit, with my colleague, Dr Caroline Nielsen, to Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire. Kelmarsh was built in the 1730s to a Palladian design by Francis Smith with the architect James Gibbs for the Hanbury family. The Hall retains many of its original features and 1000 acres of the original estate, including working… Continue Reading →

On 12 May every year the Mass Observation Project asks people living in Britain to keep a diary and submit it for posterity. They are building up a wonderful social history archive. Lecturer Rachel Moss has documented hers on her blog here. Meanwhile, our undergraduate student Ursula Watkins submitted the following: My Day 12th May… Continue Reading →

The internet has been filled with blog posts reminding us of the importance of self-care during the Covid-19 crisis. But what does comfort actually mean, both historically and today? Ruth Barton, one of our PhD students, explores. At the time of writing, it has been just over eleven weeks since I began my PhD at… Continue Reading →

Senior lecturer Mark Rothery writes about his recent interactions with the media, and what that means for historical research. Mark also discussed some of these themes on TALKRadio -select the 4:30-5:00 clip and go to three minutes in.  On 4th February this year the new Times Online history correspondent published an article called ‘Snowflakes are… Continue Reading →

Last night the University of Northampton hosted the 2020 Diamond Research Awards. These awards celebrate the research that is undertaken at the University of Northampton, the staff that make it happen, and the staff who supervise, develop and encourage our new up and coming researchers. We were absolutely delighted that our Senior Lecturer in History,… Continue Reading →

Writing and researching on a large scale certainly doesn’t follow a straight trajectory. You’ll chop and change and re-direct where you’re going just as you thought you were getting somewhere. Whilst it can be frustrating, it’s a part of the process.

To coincide with International Women’s Day (and Women’s History Month in the UK) this blog focuses on some of the female historians who have inspired my own research into women and gender in early modern England.  There were loads of women historians I could have blogged about, but the three I’ve chosen are those whose… Continue Reading →

Our lecturers choose to challenge gender inequality We were very excited that our lecturer Dr Rachel Moss and senior lecturers in English Dr Sonya Andermahr and Dr Phillippa Bennett received a prestigious Association of Commonwealth Universities’ gender grant for their project Supporting Women’s Writing in the Time of Covid-19. They join a prestigious list of… Continue Reading →

Our second year students taking the Dissertation Research Skills module were given an assignment to write a 500-word blog post that would serve as a  how-to guide for using a particular online archive or library catalogue. With the students’ permission, we’ll share some of the best posts here. This one is by Tom, who writes… Continue Reading →

Our second year students taking the Dissertation Research Skills module were given an assignment to write a 500-word blog post that would serve as a  how-to guide for using a particular online archive or library catalogue. With the students’ permission, we’ll share some of the best posts here. This one is by Nicole, who wrote… 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.

Our second year students taking the Dissertation Research Skills module were given an assignment to write a 500-word blog post that would serve as a  how-to guide for using a particular online archive or library catalogue. With the students’ permission, we’ll share some of the best posts here. This one is by Joseph, who has… Continue Reading →

Professor Matthew McCormack recommends: H. G. Cocks, Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in the 19th Century (I. B. Tauris, 2003). This is a fascinating study of homosexuality in late Georgian and Victorian Britain. We usually assume that the modern understanding of the homosexual man was invented at the end of the nineteenth century, with the rise of sexology… Continue Reading →

We are excited to announce that registration is OPEN for our conference on personal correspondence in English. The conference is to be held online 15-16 April. We have rich sessions on a range of topics related to personal correspondence across time and have structured the days to offer plenty of opportunities for reflection, discussion and… Continue Reading →

The University of Northampton History department is home to the Searchlight Archive, a unique archive collection of material documenting the activities of British and international fascist and racist organisations from the 1930s onwards. It is one of the most extensive and significant resources of its type in Europe. Daniel Jones, the Searchlight Collections Officer recommends:… Continue Reading →

Rachel Moss, Lecturer in History recommends: Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages: Robert Mills (Chicago, 2015) Densely written and packed with complex case studies, this lavishly illustrated leviathan of a book requires careful attention; it’s not a casual read. Nevertheless, this sensitive, imaginative work is bound to become a classic among studies of pre-modern gender… Continue Reading →