So, last Thursday the department for education (DfE) ordered schools in England ‘not to use resources from organisations which have expressed a desire to end capitalism’. This has prompted quite a strong reaction from many on the left (and not on the left) on the (quite reasonable) grounds that it appears to prevent teaching the… […]

This recipe is pretty easy and pretty healthy but also quite delicious! If you are missing your KFC or Nandos this might be a good way to pretend we’re all out of lockdown. For this you will need: A large frying pan, a meat tenderiser or rolling pin, some cling film, a spatula/cooking turner, and […]

Lecturer in History Dr Rachel Moss gives us a peek at the first known Valentine’s letter written in English. This post first appeared in a slightly adapted format on her blog. Every few years an enterprising reporter does a bit of googling and stumbles across the letter from Margery Brews to her suitor John Paston,… […]

This week, I was very pleased to support Emma Tyler present her second URB@N project for the History department at the University of Northampton. For those who have not heard of it, URB@N stands for Undergraduate Research Bursaries at Northampton, and is a scheme the university has been running since 2008. Basically URB@N gives students […]

  I think that everyone, from whatever political perspective, will agree that the events of Saturday night in Clapham were regrettable. The image broadcast to the world was of a large gathering of women protesting male violence and mourning the death of a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. For this vigil… […]

On Wednesday this week I will be moving into my open office space in the Learning Hub at the University of Northampton’s new Waterside Campus. I’m pretty excited about the change because I’ve been down to Waterside and it looks fantastic. In fact it has exceeded my hopes so far and I hope and believe […]

This killing of George Floyd has inspired several of our History students to write blog posts, this one is from Monique, one of our current second years.  My heart aches for my people, we have been through a lot. There is so much trauma, so many things we need to unlearn that the oppressor has […]

At the University of Northampton we use all kinds of interesting methods to assess our students! This piece of work by Nicole Brack was submitted as part of last year’s assessments for the Wars of the Roses module, and Nicole has given permission for us to share it. The relationship between Henry VII and Elizabeth… […]

As a recent Guardian editorial reminded us,  Nicky Morgan, former Education Secretary (who studied at Oxford, and is now ennobled and in the House of Lords) once said this about the subject area I practice within: ‘[In the past] if you didn’t know what you wanted to do … the arts and humanities were what… […]

Preparing teaching materials for a new term can lead to some surprising discoveries. My highlight this year, while getting things together for my history of Communism module, was coming across the Revolting Russians episode of Horrible Histories on Box of Broadcasts, the video streaming service for schools and universities. The show takes a typically light-hearted,… […]

CPD Training Event at the University of Northampton in partnership with UKAT UK Academic Advising and Tutoring! The History team at Northampton and the East Midlands Centre for History Teaching and Learning in HE is pleased to announce that booking is open for our upcoming inspiring workshop, ‘Managing Students in Distress’. Working with trainers from… […]

Remembering the Holocaust is something I have been involved with at my university since I started working here over ten years ago. As a researcher who focuses on more recent forms of fascist and far right politics, recalling the horrors of fascist violence has in many ways never seemed more important.  In recent years, antisemitism… […]

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… […]

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… […]