19th January 5pm – Evening of Lightning Talks

The Postgraduate Forum have organised an evening of lightning talks in which several of our postgraduate students will deliver a five-to-ten-minute paper on their research, followed by a brief Q & A session.

Everyone is welcome to attend, please join us online on Tuesday 19th January from 5pm to hear about the fascinating research that is going on within our postgraduate community. 

For the Zoom information please email Leanne at l.smith28@newcastle.ac.uk

Speakers (in no particular order)

Harriet Palin (History) – ‘Educating England, c.1500-1640’

Harriet is a first year PhD History Candidate whose research looks at religious education in Early Modern England. In particular she is interested in media such as catechisms, hymns and prayerbooks and how such tools interacted as part of the pedagogic experience of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Harriet also considers at themes of childhood, educational barriers and aurality and is happy to discuss these topics as part of the wider history of education.

John Pearson (Archaeology) – ‘Getting Started with Glass Production Practice in Medieval Spain: The Fun and the Frustration’ 

John recently returned to higher education after a long absence. He finished a taught MA in Archaeology here at Newcastle in 2019 which catapulted him into research on medieval glass production practice in Islamic Spain. John has had two periods of craft production practice during his working life, from 1985-1991 as a craft bookbinder and from 2008-2017 as a guitar maker. Practical engagement with materials and ‘thinking through making’ are central to his current research archaeological research.

Alberto Murru (History) – ‘“Le polizie dell’Asse”. Police Collaboration between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany’ 

Alberto I started his PhD in 2017. He previously studied History in Bologna, Italy. His MA dissertation reconstructed the life of an Italian anti-propaganda organisation called ‘Anticommunist Study Centre’, which was created by the Fascist regime in the second half of the 1930s.

Craig Thomas (History) – ‘Peer Power: Scotland northern England under the 5th and 6th dukes of Buccleuch, c.1820-c.1914’ 

Craig is in the first year of his PhD in History. He previously completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Dundee. Craig’s paper will give a brief overview of his Collaborative PhD between Newcastle University and Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust which will examine the industrial histories of the Buccleuch estates in Scotland and northern England under the 5th and 6th Dukes of Buccleuch, c.1820-c.1914.

Zoe Ainsworth (Archaeology) – ‘Historic landscape change in Northumberland’s upland valleys (HiLand)’ 

Zoe previously studied for both her undergraduate and masters in archaeology at UCLan. She is currently undertaking an Northern Bridge Collaborative PhD in landscape archaeology with the McCord Centre for Landscape and Northumberland National Park.

Elly Polignano (Classics) – ‘Marcus Argentarius: critical edition, translation and commentary’ 

Elly is in the first year of her PhD. Her research focuses on the widespread literary form of the epigram and Elly’s thesis will offer the first critical edition and commentary of Marcus Argentarius’s thirty-seven epigrams.

Joe Redmayne (History) ‘The British maritime industry, 1914–19: split labour market, white labourism and colonial seafarers’ 

Joe Redmayne is a second year History PhD student and is interested in global labour history. His doctoral research situates the location of County Durham during the year 1919 transnationally, and explores the global implications of Empire on British society through regional working-class consciousness. Joe is particularly interested in the category of ‘whiteness’ or ‘white labourism’ to renew our understandings of class consciousness in an age of world empires.

Kevin Graham- (History) – ‘The Centre Ground of British Politics from 1918’

Kevin is a lecturer in Politics and Law and he currently works as a part time Associate Lecturer with the Open University. Prior to becoming a lecturer, he worked in Politics as an MPs Researcher and developed an interest in political history. He lives locally and has previously been a parliamentary candidate and a local Councillor. His PhD focuses on the development of centrism in Britain and the role this has played in both addressing and responding to political changes over a one- hundred-year period. 

Newsletter 30th October – 5th November

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.

Postgraduate Forum Seminars – Semester 1 Timetable

This year we have scheduled many exciting seminars and talks. It was absolute pleasure to get such a good turnout for our first proper seminar last week. Don’t worry if you’ve missed it, here is the timetable for what else is on this semester. Make sure to write the dates down in your calendars and be there (or be square!).

We are looking forward to seeing all your lovely faces!

Wednesday 18th October, 1-2pm, Armstrong 1.03

Tom Whitfield, Archaeology PhD candidate, Newcastle University

‘It’s Always Sunny in Colonial Williamsburg’ – The Virginian Gentry have an Identity Crisis [1764-1775]

Wednesday 1st November, 1-2pm, Armstrong 1.03

Ayshah Johnston, History PhD candidate, Newcastle University

‘”Pity My Distress”: Pauper women’s appeals for aid under the 1880 Poor Relief Act in Barbados’

Wednesday 8th November, 1-2pm, Armstrong 1.03

Thomas Stewart, History PhD candidate, Edinburgh University

‘The impact of the 1973 Dundee East by-election on the SNP in Dundee’.

Wednesday 22nd November, 1-2pm, Armstrong 1.03

Roberto Ciucciove, Classics & Ancient History, Newcastle University

‘A controversial tribunician statute: the plebiscitum Claudianum at the beginning of the Second Punic War (218 BC)’

&

Floor Huisman, Archaeology PhD candidate, Durham University

Backwater economies? A foodway framework for examining wetland worldviews in the prehistoric past

Wednesday 8th December, 1-2pm, Armstrong 1.03

Christopher Whittaker, Archaeology Masters, Newcastle University

Breedon Hill, Leicestershire: an archaeological investigation at a multi-period hilltop site.

&

Rowan Thompson, History PhD candidate, Northumbria University

‘England expects every man will do his duty’: Trafalgar Day, Naval Commemoration and National Identity, 1895-1939

Wednesday 13th December, 1-2, Armstrong 1.03

Madeleine Pelling, History of Art PhD candidate, University of York

Writing the Museum: Mary Hamilton’s A Catalogue of Curiosities at Bulstrode and Horace Walpole’s The Duchess of Portland’s Museum

Newsletter 23rd-29th October

Hi all,

Here is our newsletter for this week! You will notice there is no PGF Seminar this week 🙁 but we have compiled a number of other super interesting events for you! Unfortunately, some of the seminars will overlap, so unless you have a Time-Turner (in which case, please give a seminar on that!) you will have to choose wisely.

GREEK ARCHAEOLOGY MASTERCLASS BY PROFESSOR FRANÇOIS LISSARRAGUE (EHESS AND CURRENT LEVENTIS VISITING PROFESSOR AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY)

Date/Time: Wednesday 25 October 2017, 13:30-15:00.  Venue: Room 2.49, Armstrong Building.

ARCHAEOLOGY RESEARCH SEMINAR: ‘LIVING WITH MONUMENTS: RECENT RESEARCH ON NEOLITHIC ACTIVITY AT AND AROUND AVEBURY.’ BY PROFESSOR JOSHUA POLLARD (SOUTHAMPTON).

Date/Time: Wednesday 25 October 2017, 16:00. Venue: Room 2.16, Armstrong Building. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/seminars/item/recentresearchonneolithicactivityatandaroundavebury.html

HISTORY RESEARCH SEMINAR: ‘MARRIAGE, SLAVERY AND ARABIAN IDENTITY IN LATE ANTIQUITY.’ BY MAJIED ROBINSON (UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH)

Date/Time: Wednesday 25 October 2017, 16:00. Venue: Room 1.05, Armstrong Building.

In this talk, Majied Robinson will demonstrate how statistical analysis of gender relations amongst the tribe of Muhammad can be used to create a new narrative of tribal and ethnic belonging in early Islamic history. Among the topics addressed will be the political and economic origins of Mecca, the emergence of the Quraysh as a distinct tribal entity, and Arabian ethnogenesis in the post-conquest period. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/seminars/item/marriageslaveryandarabianidentityinlateantiquity.html

CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY RESEARCH SEMINAR: ‘BODY AND ARMOUR: HEROIC WARRIORS IN ATTIC VASE PAINTING’ BY PROFESSOR FRANÇOIS LISSARRAGUE (EHESS)

Date/Time: Wednesday 25 October 2017, 17:00. Venue: Room 2.50, Armstrong Building. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/seminars/item/bodyandarmourheroicwarriorsinatticvasepainting.html

ARCHAEOLOGY RESEARCH SEMINAR: ‘IBERIAN ENTANGLEMENTS: THE USE AND REUSE OF ATHENIAN POTTERY IN ANCIENT SPAIN’ BY DR DIANA RODRÍGUEZ PEREZ (OXFORD)

Date/Time: Thursday 26 October 2017, 16:00. Venue: Room 2.16, Armstrong Building http://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/seminars/item/iberianentanglementstheuseandreuseofathenianpotteryin ancientspain.html

—————————————————————————-

And to finish off the exciting events for this week, if you’re looking for a trip to Durham:
The Modern European History Group at Durham has the following event:

‘THE GREEK COLONELS’ – REFIME, THE TRANSNATIONAL ANTI-TORTURE CAMPAIGN AND THE RISE OF GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS’ BY KONSTANTINA MARAGKOU (LSE); SEMINAR

Date/Time: Thursday 26 October 2017,  5.15pm. Venue: History Department, Seminar Room 1.

Enjoy, and we’ll catch you next week!

The PGF Committee

Lunchtime talks at Durham University

If you are looking for more opportunities to talk about your research, we offer you another one – organised by our friends in the Department of Archaeology at Durham.

The Prehistory of Eurasia Research group has started a series of lunchtime talks. Meeting times are each week on Tuesday from 1-2pm. In these informal sessions members of the group and others working on prehistoric topics present their latest research with each presentation being c. 20-25 mins long and followed by a few questions and discussion.

They are currently looking for papers on any topic within Eurasian Prehistory. It is another great way to get your research out there! Just email Floor Huisman at f.j.huisman@durham.ac.uk to get more information and available dates.

 

14th Annual Postgraduate Forum Conference Program

14th Annual Postgraduate Forum Conference

School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Newcastle University

19th May 2016

‘Movement’

Time Programme
9.00-9.50 Registration and coffee (Armstrong Reception Rooms)
9.50-10.00 Chair’s welcome (Armstrong Reception Rooms)
10.00-11.30 Panel I: Cultural movement (4 papers)

chair: tbc

(Armstrong Reception Rooms)

Fernando Sanchez (Trinity College, Dublin) “(Re)constructing cultural distinctiveness: cultural diplomacy or propaganda? The 1977-1979 touring exhibition, Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.
Amber Roy (Newcastle University) “Identifying movement and use in ground and polished stone”
Lakshmi-Pearl Quigley (University of Edinburgh) “Movement and ‘In‐between‐ness’: Liminality in theories about difference in ‘race’ and gender history”
11.30-12.00 Tea/coffee I (Armstrong Reception Rooms)
12.00-13.30 Panel II: Movement and positioning (3 papers)

chair: tbc

(Armstrong Reception Rooms)

Lorena Zanin (University of Leeds) “Who comes, who goes and who stays: movements and interests in the North eastern corner of Italy straddling the foundation of Aquileia.”
Sara Borrello (Newcastle University) “Moving Matrons: The case of Servilia”
Kimberley Foy (Durham University) “’Keeping State’: Space, performance and languages of diplomacy at the Early Stuart Court, 1603-1642.”
13.30-14.30 Lunch (Armstrong Reception Rooms)
14.30-16.30 Panel III: Social movement (4 papers)

chair: tbc

Gorka Etxebarria (University of the Basque Country) “From the imminent breakup with Francoism to the Basque National Liberation Movement: the role of ETA armed organisation in a changing political environment (1974‐1983)”
Oznur Ozdemir (University of Leeds) “Re‐evaluating an Early Islamic Mass Movement: Looking at the Abbasid Revolution from an

Economic Perspective”

Emilio Zucchetti (Newcastle University) “Clashes and riots in ancient Rome: a postmodern perspective on Roman social struggles.”
Thomas Whitfield (Newcastle University) “’Nothing but Serjeant Glynn is to be heard in the streets’– The role of movement in creating a radical nexus in later-eighteenth-century Newcastle upon Tyne.”
16.30-17.00 Tea/coffee II (Armstrong Reception Rooms)
17.00-18.00 Keynote address (room G17)

chair: tbc

Graham Smith (Royal Holloway) “Movement in oral history: Revisiting Mrs Smereka remembering her Ostarbeiter journey”
18.00- Prize giving and wine reception (Armstrong Reception Rooms)
19.30- Dinner at Piccolino

 

 

Call for Papers – 14th Annual Postgraduate Forum Conference

Call for Papers

14th Annual Postgraduate Forum Conference

School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Newcastle University

19th May 2017

 

‘Movement’

 

This interdisciplinary one-day conference seeks to bring together Postgraduate students studying histories relating to the theme of Movement. How do we study the past, not as static, but as dynamic and changing? How does the movement from one context to another change how we interpret evidence? What are the effects of movement on societies, material, and intellectual cultures? How has the idea of movement, or a movement, been used for political, social, or artistic purposes? We welcome any papers exploring the movement of people, objects, and ideas.

We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers from all postgraduate historians, classicists, ancient historians, and archaeologists. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Migration and population movements
  • Journeys and travel
  • Trade and connections
  • Social movements
  • Cultural, Literary or Philosophical movements
  • Scientific movements
  • Movement of/within the body
  • Movement of soul/emotions
  • Physical movement such as gesture or dance

We also invite poster submissions from postgraduate students. In order to offer the opportunity to present work in the earlier stages of research, poster submissions are not necessarily required to fit with the theme of the conference.

The PGF Committee is more than happy to announce that keynote this year will be presented by: Dr. Graham Smith (Royal Holloway, University of London), with a paper entitled “Movement in oral history: Revisiting Mrs Smereka remembering her Ostarbeiter journey”.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words nshspgf@ncl.ac.uk by 10th April 2016. If you have any ideas, questions or enquiries, please feel free to get in touch.

Tea/coffee and lunch will be provided, and the conference will be followed by a reception where there will be prizes for the best paper and poster. Afterwards, there will be an optional dinner, at extra charge.

Follow us at @NewcastlePGF

https://www.societies.ncl.ac.uk/pgfnewcastle/

History Lab 2017: Creating Dialogue.

histroy-lab

 

History Lab 2017: Creating Dialogue.

Teesside University, Wednesday 5 April 2017.

The Curve T1.01, 12:30 – 6:00pm

 

12:30 – 1pm: Registration

1:00 – 2pm: Welcome and Panel 1 – Thinking about Militarism and Peace (Chair: Sophie Roberts)

Rowan Thompson, (PhD, Northumbria University) ‘An essential institution in British aviation’: The Air League of the British Empire, Empire Air Day and the creation of ‘airmindedness’ in the 1930s

Jasmine Calver, (PhD, Northumbria University) The Comité Mondial des Femmes contre la Guerre et le Fascisme and the Comitern: French and Soviet women’s anti-fascist collaboration in the 1930s

2:00 – 2:20pm: Break

2:20 – 3:20pm: Panel 2 – Rediscovering History through Alternative Sources (Chair: Natasha Neary)

Laura Flannigan, (MA, York University) Edmund Dudley’s Tree of Commonwealth and discourses on royal morality in the early sixteenth century

Tracey Jones, (PhD, Teesside University) ‘Colliery Amazons and Venuses’: The ‘Picturesque’ Pit Brow Women of Wigan

3:20 – 3:30pm: Break

3:30 – 5:00pm: Panel 3 – Public History and Collaboration (Chair: Rebecca Saunders)

Judith Phillips, (PhD, Teesside University) National identity, gender, social class and cultural aspiration in mid-nineteenth century England and France: Josephine Bowes (1825-1874), collector and museum curator

Spencer Brown, (MA, York University) ‘What should York remember?’ A community history project

Harriet Beadnell, (PhD, York University) Organising Postgraduate Conferences – The pros and cons of planning student-led events and some tips on where to start

5:00 – 5:15pm: Break

5:15 – 6:00pm: Keynote – Dr Ben Roberts (Teesside University), Title TBC

6:30pm: Conference Dinner at Al Forno Restaurant, Southfield Road, Middlesbrough.

 

Please register via: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creating-dialogue-symposium-tickets-32689403887?aff=eac2    Registration closes on 24th March 2017.

NEWCASTLE CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY RESEARCH SEMINARS, SPRING 2017

Please find below the programme for the Classics and Ancient History Research Seminars taking place this semester at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University. All seminars begin at 5.00 pm on the given day and, unless specified below, take place in Room 2.50 on the 2nd floor of the Armstrong Building. (A campus map may be foundhere.) Further details about the final session listed below, a commentary workshop on Hesiod’sTheogony led by Profs Jenny Strauss Clay and Athanassios Vergados, will be circulated in due course. I or Micaela Langellotti will be sending out a weekly notice in advance of each seminar, along with contact details about that week’s dinner arrangements. Any enquiries may be directed us at john.holton@newcastle.ac.uk and micaela.langellotti@newcastle.ac.uk.
 
All are very welcome to attend!
Wednesday 15th February
Young Research Panel (PhD candidates, Newcastle University)
Roberto Ciucciove: Lex Marcia Atinia: new strategies of communication and legislative productivity within the Romannobilitas at the beginning of the II century BC
Chris Mowat: An Intersex Manifesto: Naming the non-binary constructions of the ancient world
James Mullen: Beyond Persianization: the adoption of Near Eastern traditions by Alexander the Great
 
Wednesday 22nd February
Dr Rolf Strootman (Utrecht)
Global empire, local religion: Religious patronage and imperial integration in the Hellenistic Near East
 
Thursday 23rd February (Room TBC)
Dr Claudia Beltrao da Rosa (UNIRIO/Newcastle)
Images of the Gods in Cicero
 
Wednesday 1st March
Prof. Nicholas Purcell (Oxford)
Micro-global history puts the ancient Mediterranean in its place
 
Wednesday 8th March
Dr Jamie Wood (Lincoln)
From Cyprian to Priscillian: making and breaking bishops in late Roman Spain,ca. 250-ca. 400
 
Wednesday 15th March
Prof. Costas Panayotakis (Glasgow)
The collection of Latin moral maxims attributed to the playwright Publilius
 
Wednesday 22nd March
Dr Caroline Vout (Cambridge)
Classicism Meets Modernity: Greek and Roman Art in the Nineteenth Century
 
Wednesday 26th April
Dr Katherine McDonald (Exeter)
Writing women: understanding the goddess Reitia
 
Wednesday 3rd May
Dr David Lewis (Nottingham)
Occupational hazards: measuring the extent of the division of labour in the economy of classical Athens
 
Wednesday 10th May
Dr Oliver Passmore (Newcastle)
Deixis and Identity in the Odyssey
 
Wednesday 17th May
Dr Lisa Hau (Glasgow)
Pathos with a Point. Reevaluating ‘Tragic History’
 
Wednesday 24th May (Room 1.04, Armstrong Building)
Prof. Jenny Strauss Clay (Virginia) and Prof. Athanassios Vergados (Heidelberg/Newcastle)
Workshop: Commentary on Hesiod’s Theogony
 

Newcastle University Roman Archaeology Seminar Series, Semester 2 Winter/Spring 2017

All the following seminars are on Tuesdays at 18:00 hrs in Armstrong Building room 1.06

7 Feb 2017 – James Harland (York University)

‘The End of Roman Rule and the Adventus Saxonum: Rethinking Ethnicity in post-Roman Britain’

 

21 Feb – Simon Esmonde Cleary (Birmingham University)

‘The Mediterranean Mattered More: Imperial weakness and local responses either side of the Channel at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.’

 

28 Feb – Indra Werthmann (Durham University)

‘The Image of the Past: Reassembling identities through Roman objects in early Anglo-Saxon society, 5th to 7th century AD’

 

7 Mar – Barbara Birley (Vindolanda Trust)

‘Recent work at Vindolanda, excavations and artefacts’

 

14 Mar – David Breeze (Edinburgh)

‘Bearsden: Life in a Roman fort’

 

21 Mar – Alexis Haslam (Pre-Construct Archaeology)

‘Industry and Magic: Quarrying and Selective Deposition in Ewell, Surrey’

 

25 Apr – TBA

 

2nd May – TBA

All welcome.  Colleagues wishing to join the speaker for dinner are asked to contact Tatiana Ivleva (Tatiana.ivleva@ncl.ac.uk) in advance