We are delighted to announce the line-up of speakers for the two plenary sessions at our next annual conference, which will be hosted by Keele University on 11-13 June 2018.

The keynote lecture will be given by Keith Wrightson, Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History at Yale University. Keith has long been a hugely influential figure in early modern history – and social history more widely – for his pioneering use of microhistories.

The conference will also feature a plenary panel on History & Diversity, with Drs Miranda Kaufmann, Meleisa Ono-George and Jonathan Saha.

Miranda is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, part of the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Among her publications on early modern Black history is her recent book Black Tudors: The Untold Story.

Meleisa is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Director of Student Experience in History at Warwick University. In addition to her research on the intersections of race, gender and sexuality in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century Caribbean and British Empire, she is also currently involved in pedagogical research on student engagement, particularly in relation to BME student experience, student-community engagement, and inclusivity in teaching and the curriculum.

Jonathan is Associate Professor of Southeast Asian History at the University of Leeds. He is actively involved in equality and inclusion work, especially around gender inequality. He co-organised a symposium on postcolonial education, which brought academics and community activists together to discuss race and pedagogy, and a workshop for Black and Minority Ethnic Historians to discuss problems of racism and under-representation in the discipline.

In addition to this session, the conference will see a new strand on histories of Diversity, Minorities & “Others”, which you can find out more about here.