Dr Xun Zhou, University of Essex xzhoug@essex.ac.uk Located at the foothills of the Great Wall in northern China, just south of Mongolia, is Shanxi province. Sun’s village is just outside of Datong city in northern Shanxi, an old coal mining town also famous for the ancient Yungang Buddhist Grottoes. Until the 1950s, there had been … Continued
Edda Nicolson, University of Wolverhampton @Edda_Nicolson This blog by Edda Nicolson was commended in the 2020 SHS Postgraduate Prize. ‘May I ask the delegate, if he has any charge to make against the Gasworkers’ Union, to make it definitely? At the present moment I am the Chairman of the whole of the organisations in this … Continued
Joseph Saunders, University of Glasgow j.saunders.1@research.gla.ac.uk @joe_saunders1 This blog was commended in the 2020 SHS Postgraduate Prize. In her will of 1638 Anne, widow of James Boler bequeathed her husband’s estate to her children with ‘such increases and improvements’ as she had made. James had been a bookseller and member of the Company of Stationers, … Continued
Stephen Tate, Blackburn College University Centre stephen.tate@blackburn.ac.uk It’s an irony not lost on me that my book examining the history of the sports journalist was published in the same month that sport went into global lockdown. Athletes were sent home, fixtures suspended and stadiums emptied. Press boxes were under lock and key. To keep the … Continued
Ellen Smith, University of Leicester ecss3@leicester.ac.uk @EllenCSSmith We are pleased to share this blog by Ellen Smith, runner up in the 2020 SHS Postgraduate Prize. Several times during my research project, on family life in British India during the long nineteenth century, I have reflected on how privileged I am to read, almost daily, personal … Continued
Kate Brooks, Bath Spa University K.Brooks@bathspa.ac.uk We are pleased to share this blog by Kate Brooks, the winner of the 2020 SHS Postgraduate Prize. In 1851, Joseph Lowe was working as a barber in Willenhall, Staffordshire, with four children and a house servant named Jane. Willenhall was an overcrowded, impoverished district, known for locksmithery and … Continued
Professor Ian Forrest, University of Oxford ian.forrest@oriel.ox.ac.uk We are delighted to share this blog about Ian Forrest’s Trustworthy Men: How Inequality and Faith Made the Medieval Church (Princeton University Press, 2018), the runner-up of the 2020 SHS book prize. No-one had really noticed the ‘trustworthy men’, but as I pondered this medieval administrative term I … Continued
Loretta Dolan, University of Western Australia loretta.dolan@uwa.edu.au @loretta_dolan In 1599, a young girl of no more than twelve years of age called Maud Preece, told a Chester magistrate who was interviewing her about the theft of a hat, that she had been brought to the city four or five years previously. She could not remember … Continued
Dr Deniz Arzuk, University College London @denizarzuk https://changingchildhoods.com/ On June 1st, after 10 weeks of lockdown, primary schools in England have reopened for children in Years 1, 6, and Reception. Yet, the initial reports suggest that turn-out is low, and parents are still unconvinced and hesitant to send their children back to school. This is … Continued
Kate Brooks, Bath Spa University We may never know the exact number of deaths caused by this pandemic, not just because of Government obfuscation. Establishing a definitive cause of death is not as straight forward as it may seem, and the current debates about numbers can be read as yet another iteration of an almost … Continued
