mortiz070

Once again, the School of Culture was well represented at the annual Sunderland Libraries Literature Festival, with talks by Dr Geoff Nash on the sea as literary imagery from Anglo-Saxon poetry to the novels of Amitav Ghosh; Dr Delphine Doucet on 'religion at the dinner table - a sixteenth century dialogue'; Dr Miguel Gomes on the Codex Amiatinus.  The festival also saw the launch of the latest offerings from Spectral Visions Press - the School's own in-house student-led publishing company.

  Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the British Academy, Being Human is a national festival promoting public engagement with humanities research. Between 17 and 23 November 2018 , the School of Culture is hosting a series of public talks looking at this year’s theme of ‘Origins and Endings’ through the lens of Sunderland’s local history. The topics range from the Wearside origins of English republicanism to the end of heavy industry in the city. All are free to attend and open to all. Click on the links to find out about these events. The North East Coast, the Sea and its Dangers (Dr Peter Hayes) A Place Fit for Heroes? The End of the First World War in the North East (Dr André Keil) Suffrage and Beyond in Sunderland: The City’s First Female MP  (Dr Sarah Hellawell)   The Lilburne Family and the Origins of English Republicanism (Dr Delphine Doucet)

The latest edition of Codex   has been published. Are you interested in Newcastle's invasion preparations during the Second World War, North East miners and political reform in the 1830s or gender stereotyping and children's language? If so, visit Codex for articles on these topics and more from our class of 2018 graduates in the School of Culture.

A recent piece in the paper reports on Dr Sarah Hellawell's research on the often overlooked role North East students played in the First World War. Read all about it here .

Dr Sarah Hellawell (Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Sunderland) The first School of Culture Research seminar of the academic year will take place on 14th November 2018. Dr. Sarah Hellawell 's paper is entitled ‘A strong international spirit’: the Women’s Co-operative Guild and Interwar Internationalism’. Established in 1883, the English Women’s Co-operative Guild (WCG) was a mass membership association of working-class housewives and mothers. During the First World War, the Guild was an outspoken critic of militarism and maintained an absolutist pacifist response during the interwar years. Internationalist ideals and activities relating to peace, co-operation and the citizenship of women influenced the WCG during the 1920s and 1930s. Yet, the impact of internationalism upon the Guild has previously been overlooked by historians. This paper examines the dynamic between the international, national and local dimensions of the WCG.  The seminar will start at 4 pm in...

  Matthew Thomas, a third year history undergraduate, has received a bursary from the Society for the Study of Labour History , enabling him to visit Norfolk Record Office and collect important documents regarding the Burston School Strike, the longest strike in British history (1914-1939). The findings from this research will be revealed in Matthew's dissertation, a study of the role of school strikes in labour history. The main focus is on the Burston and Washington/Usworth strikes, which were vastly different in their execution, but had similar aims. Matthew's research in Norfolk unearthed some invaluable documents, including a copy of the school log book for the Burston and Shimpling School which describes the conduct of the school and gives details of the attendance rates and disciplinary action under Mrs. Higdon, the headmistress and wife of a Labour activist. This material helped Matthew to provide the necessary context for the dispute between the lo...

Dr Sarah Hellawell will be speaking on the theme of 'Students in the North East of England and the Aftermath of the Great War' at an event held by the North East Labour History Society . She will explore the impact of the First World War on student life in the North-East, shedding light on the student-led initiatives to foster a greater sense of internationalism during the interwar years. This research is part of the ‘ British Ex-Service Students and the Rebuilding of Europe Project, 1918-1922 ′ led by academics at Northumbria, UCL and Sunderland Universities in connection with the National Union of Students and the North-East branch of the Workers’ Educational Association . It has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s WWI Engagement Centre at the University of Hertfordshire.   April 3rd 2018 at 7pm Old George Inn Old George Yard Newcastle, NE1 1EZ

PhD candidate Patrick Low has published an article on the changing presentation of punishment, in particular execution. This topic has been at the heart of much criminal historiography. However, little work has been done to examine the transition outside of London. Newcastle offers a fascinating perspective on any national picture of capital punishment, as it adopted changes far later than most, including close neighbours like Durham. In this article - which appears in Law, Crime & History - Patrick questions why so late a transition occurred and what the motivating factors were. Focusing on executions between 1844 and 1863 it shows that far from being led by London, the decisions were largely reactive to immediate crises, chief amongst them an unruly crowd, and not underpinned by any ideological bent. In short, it will argue for caution in speaking of a unified national change in punishment when even to speak of a regional one is problematic.   Read 'The changing p...

Dr Sarah Hellawell The School is pleased to welcome to its ranks Dr Sarah Hellawell, who has been appointed Lecturer in Modern British History. Before joining us Sarah taught at Northumbria University, where she also completed her doctoral research. Her PhD examined the British Women’s International League (WIL), an organisation that campaigned for peace, disarmament and international law, alongside goals for women’s rights. Aspects of this research have been published in Women’s History Review and in a forthcoming book chapter for an edited collection on the history of the Union of International Associations.  In 2017, Sarah was Research Associate on the ' British Ex-Service Students and the Re-building of Europe Project, 1919-1926 '. She conducted archival research in London and the North-East of England on the history of student activism after the First World War.  Funded by the AHRC World War One Engagement Centre at the University of Hertfordshire and led by academics a...

An illustration from The Present You are never too young to debate questions of politics. That is the view of Dr Peter Haye s, Senior Lecturer in Politics.  He has just published a book called The Present , which introduces young readers to contested political issues through a story concerning Father Christmas. “Father Christmas is magic but his Christmas gift giving involves him in a number of serious real-world issues,” Peter explains. “These issues include the working conditions of people making Christmas presents; the regimentation and surveillance that underpins our modern consumerist society; the increasingly hard border between those within the industrial core and those outside it, and the contribution of consumerism to global warming.  All of these international political issues lie behind the annual appearance of Father Christmas.” The Present does not try to answer what we should do about all this, but it does raise questions, and encourages children and ...

New Perspectives on the Great War, 6 December 2017, 4.30pm, Reg Vardy RV213 Ann-Marie Foster (Northumbria University): Family and Individual Remembrance as a Way of Breaching the Divide During the First World War, 750,000 British soldiers perished. As Adrian Gregory has argued, this means that roughly 10 per cent of the British population lost a close relative. Disasters provide a useful theoretical framework for examining experiences of loss in the Great War. Much like the loss of a Pal’s battalion, an explosion in a colliery could decimate a mining community. Miners often lost close friends and relatives, and newly created widows grieved using largely the same artefacts and ephemera as those who lost a loved one in war. Similarly, for those directly involved in the disaster, men who volunteered for rescue parties would have had to confront the mutilated remains of their companions, if the disaster was such that bodies could be recovered at all. This paper therefore explores individ...

The latest edition of Codex has been published . Are you interested in riots in South Shields or Turkish Gothic literature? If so, visit Codex for top work from our class of 2017 undergraduates at the School of Culture.

PhD student Patrick Low is organizing a one-day conference to mark 150 years since the end of public execution. It takes place on June 6th 2018 at the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle. The event will encourage interdisciplinary insights as well as welcoming scholars from any stage in their career. Subjects for papers may include, but are by no means limited to: The legislative build up to the 1868 Act The effect of the 1868 Act and its aftermath The broader changing nature of punishment Media representations of executions Individual cases and crimes The role of the execution crowd The wider impact and awareness of public executions Capital Punishment in the arts – including visual, design, performance, media, music and literary genres The science of punishment Global and provincial perspectives on capital punishment  The website has more details, including a call for papers.

Dr Kevin Yuill (with Joe Street of Northumbria University) has edited a book entitled, The Second Amendment and Gun Control, Freedom, Fear, and the American Constitution (Routledge 2018). The collection of essays situates discussion about gun controls within contemporary debates about citizenship, culture, philosophy and foreign policy as well as in the more familiar terrain of politics and history. It features experts on the Constitution as well as chapters discussing the symbolic importance of Annie Oakley, the role of firearms in race, and filmic representations of armed Hispanic girl gangs. It asks about the morality of gun controls and of not imposing them. Published in the spirit of open debate about contentious subjects, it is finely balanced between those who favour more gun controls and those who oppose them. Dr Yuill’s chapter - 'From Virtuous Armed Citizen to "Cramped Little Risk-Fearing Man": The Meaning of Firearms in an Insecure Era' – argu...

Once again, several members of the School of Culture will be taking part in the Sunderland Libraries Literature Festival (download the full programme here ). These events feature our staff/students: Colin Younger (Senior Lecturer): Expressive Writing as Therapy, City Library @ Museum & Winter Gardens, 10th October 3-4.30pm This workshop will explore expressive writing approaches to support mental health well-being as part of Mental Health Day. Dr Alison Younger (Senior Lecturer): Folklore and Fable in the North East, Houghton Library, 16th October 2-3pm This session will explore the extraordinary folklore and fables of North East England. Short Story Competition Launch , Waterstones, The Bridges, 16th October 5pm In association with Waterstones, the University of Sunderland will launch a Short Story Competition. Dr Geoff Nash (Senior Lecturer): The Gothic Terrorist: from Robespierre to Jihadi John City, Library @ Museum & Winter Gardens, 18th October 5-6.30pm Gothic, terroris...

Leanne Smith receives her prize (Photo: Sunderland Echo) Leanne Smith, who graduated this summer with a First Class degree in history has won the annual Sid Chaplin Memorial Prize for the best undergraduate dissertation on North East history. Her study, entitled The Struggle Over Female Labour In The Durham Coalfield, 1914-1918 , examined how the Durham Mining Association (DMA) resisted pressure from colliery owners and the government to accept the introduction of female labour during the First World War. Leanne's research made use of the holdings of the university's North East England Mining Archive and Research Centre (NEEMARC) and her work will be published in the journal of the North East Labour History Society . You can read Leanne's interview in the Sunderland Echo here .

PhD student Patrick Low has taken on the role of Online Exhibition Creator for the University of Leicester's Harnessing the Power of the Criminal Corpse. This Wellcome Trust funded project e xplores the criminal corpse from the disciplines of archaeology, medical and criminal history, folklore, literature and philosophy, revealing the ways in which its power was harnessed, by whom, and to what ends in Britain between the late seventeenth and twentieth centuries. Patrick was approached by the project team after they had read his blog on execution in North East England: Last Dying Words . You can visit the website here .                                   William Heath (1829): Burke and Hare suffocating Mrs Docherty for sale to Dr Knox;                  satirizing Wellington and Peel extinguishing the constitution for Catholic eman...

Politics senior lecturer Dr Peter Hayes has co-written an article for the journal Child: Care, Health and Development. The authors show how girls adopted internationally from some states have been found to have high rates of early puberty, including early menarche. Explanations for the link between international adoption and early puberty include post-adoption catch-up growth triggering puberty, and under-recorded age. Hayes, P. and Tan, T.X. (2016) Timing of menarche in girls adopted from China: a cohort study . Child: care, health and development. 42(6): 859-862.

Culture Research Seminar Series  Faculty of Education and Society The School of Culture is pleased to announce the new season of research seminars. All sessions except otherwise stated will be in Reg Vardy 111 10th February 12 noon, Priestman 115 : Iain Rowan (Sunderland University) New approaches to storytelling in the digital age 24th February 4pm: Dr. Kevin Yuill (Sunderland University) Rebels against the infinite: Attitudes to suicide in the fin-de-siecle USA 24th March 5-7pm, City Library @ Museum & Winter Gardens : Dr. Mary Talbot (author of The Red Virgin ) and Dr. Laura O’Brien (Northumbria University) Revolutionary women: Imagining Louise Michel 7th April 4pm : Dr. Delphine Doucet (Sunderland University) Priestcraft, civil religion and toleration in the early modern period 12th May 4pm: Dr. James Koranyi (Durham University) Fascist Divisions: a Romanian German "historians' dispute" at the end of the Cold War 9th June 4pm : Dr. David Fallon (Sunderland Univ...

Culture PhD student Patrick Low  has been asked by Newcastle's Live Theatre to co-convene a panel for a post-performance talk on pseudoscience for their latest play called, Harriet Martineau Dreams of Dancing . The talk is to be given by Dr Ella Dzelzainis, Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at Newcastle University and co-author of Harriet Martineau: Authorship, Society and Empire (2010). More details about the event, which takes place on 20th November 2016, can be found here .