Beckie Rutherford, University of Warwick b.rutherford@warwick.ac.uk @B_Rutherford_ We are delighted to share this blog, which is winner of the 2022 SHS Postgraduate Prize. You can read the announcement here. In 1980, Nabil Shaban (a disabled student and aspiring actor) and Richard Tomlinson (an English lecturer at Hereward College in Coventry) co-founded Graeae Theatre Company. It … Continued
Andy Holroyde, University of Huddersfield @AndyHolroyde On 29th April 1946, the doors of the Remploy Factory in Bridgend, Wales opened to admit the company’s very first group of disabled workers. Conceived towards the end of the Second World War, Remploy was established by the British Government to provide sheltered employment – a term used to … Continued
Clare Burgess and Olivia Wyatt, University of York @clareburgess6 @oliviawyatt1999 At the end of February, amid staff strikes and growing rumours about an as-yet unfamiliar disease, we stood at the front of an auditorium and opened a conference that had been nearly a year in the making. We were nervous, and felt a little like … Continued
Dr Susan Anderson, Sheffield Hallam University @DrSusanAnderson In around 1490, Leonardo da Vinci sketched a figure in one of his notebooks that has become known as the Vitruvian Man. As Leonardo’s notes record in his characteristic mirror-writing, the sketch is drawn according to the ideal proportions of the human body, as described by the Roman … Continued
Pat Thane is Research Professor in Contemporary British History at King’s College London and the Honorary President of the Social History Society. She is a leading authority on the political, social and welfare history of modern Britain. Amongst her many publications are ‘The Foundations of the Welfare State’ (Longman, 1996) and ‘Old Age in English History: Past Experiences, Present Issues’ (Oxford University Press, 2000).
In her contribution to the Research Exchange, she reflects on how she came to settle on the key themes for her new survey of twentieth-century Britain’s social and political history ‘Divided Kingdom: A History of Britain, 1900 to the Present’, published by Cambridge University Press in August 2018.
