Hi everyone!
With the days getting shorter, the temperature dropping, and clouds gathering, we can truly say: ‘Winter is coming’. The PGF Committee, however, wants to stay in denial for a little while more, so our very own History PhD candidate Ayshah Johnston will take us to the warm, tropical island of Barbados during the second PGF Seminar of this semester! We hope to see you there (we have hot drinks to keep you warm!) or at one of the other seminars this week!
Best wishes,
The PGF Committee
PGF SEMINAR: ‘”PITY MY DISTRESS”: PAUPER WOMEN’S APPEALS FOR AID UNDER THE 1880 POOR RELIEF ACT IN BARBADOS’ BY AYSHAH JOHNSTON (HISTORY PHD CANDIDATE NEWCASTLE)
Date/Time: Wednesday 01 November 2017, 13:00. Venue: Room 1.03, Armstrong Building.
The historiography of Poor Relief has focused largely on the oppressive laws to which the poor were subjected for over a century after emancipation, and on the evolution of relief practices from meagre allowances and compulsory almshouse admittance to developed social assistance policies and modern medical care. This paper moves away from these discussions towards an illumination of the experiences of people living in poverty through a selection of letters written by paupers to the Inspector of Poor in St. Philip, Barbados, seeking relief for themselves or their families. In a parish where, according to contemporary observation, the Poor Law Guardians applied the harshest criteria in determining suitability for relief, these rare surviving letters are a poignant window onto the hardships, fears and hopes of the poor in late nineteenth century Barbados. By presenting these touching vignettes this paper seeks to reveal a level of care and advocacy within families and communities which challenges the official notion that abandonment and weak kinship ties were the root causes of destitution. While they could not influence the law, the writers did their utmost to plead their cases and persuade the Poor Law Guardians to assist them. Ayshah is in her third year of a PhD on Poor Relief in the Anglophone Caribbean, a collaborative doctoral award from Newcastle University and The National Archives. She is a museum educator and specialises in fusing academic research with public engagement. Her passion besides history is literature and she is a three-time winner of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s annual short story competition, with two of the stories subsequently published in an anthology of winning entries. Refreshments in the form of tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided!
ARCHAEOLOGY RESEARCH SEMINAR: ‘THE NORTHERN PICTS PROJECT: LATE ROMAN AND POST-ROMAN SOCIETIES IN NORTHERN BRITAIN C.300-900 AD’ BY DR GORDON NOBLE (ABERDEEN).
Date/Time: Wednesday 01 November 2017, 16:00. Venue: Room 1.04, Armstrong Building.
The Picts are a ‘lost people of Europe’ and a past society of enduring public fascination. First mentioned in late Roman writings as a collection of troublesome social groupings north of the Roman frontier, the Picts went on to dominate northern and eastern Scotland until late first millennium AD. Northern Picts is a project that aims to uncover the archaeological traces of Pictish society in northern Scotland.
Read more about the project here. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/seminars/item/thenorthernpictsproject.html
CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY RESEARCH SEMINAR: ‘THUCYDIDES’ PERICLEAN SPEECHES’ BY PROFESSOR ELIZABETH IRWIN (COLUMBIA).
Date/Time: Wednesday 01 November 2017, 17:00. Venue: Room 2.50, Armstrong Building.
Find more information here http://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/seminars/item/thucydidespericleanspeeches.html
ARCHAEOLOGY TALK: ‘THE EXTENDED LIFE COURSE AND PREHISTORIC EUROPEAN MORTUARY PRACTISES’ BY CHRIS FOWLER
Date/Time: Thursday 2 November, 15:00. Venue: Room 2.49, Armstrong Building (one off room change to the usual strand schedule).
Chris Fowler will be presenting (part 2) of his talk on “The Extended Life Course and Prehistoric European Mortuary Practises”. Feedback from different periods and disciplines welcome.