PGF Conference Programme

It’s that time of year again: the sun is out, the birds are singing… and the PGF Conference is soon!

The theme for this year’s conference, if you didn’t know it yet, is Individuals and Communities. We have a great day lined up for you, some interesting papers from across the disciplines and across the country (and beyond!), so come along to the Research Beehive on campus on 20th May. There will also be posters on postgraduate research.

You can find the programme here.

UPDATE: The research beehive can be found at number 25 on the campus map.

You can follow us @NewcastlePGF for information and live tweeting. Use the hashtag #PGFConference to join the discussion.

Individuals and Communities: the 13th Annual PGF conference

20th May, 2016

Humans are often considered ‘social animals’, existing only within larger groups, though still maintaining a unique identity. This interdisciplinary one-day conference seeks reflect on the shifting relationship between individuals and communities across history. Defining the relationship between the individual and a (or several) social group(s) is difficult task. A community and an individual often construct carefully curated identities, which are either mutual or distinct. Humans have constantly created communities, approaches to the study of which are wide-ranging and indeed interdisciplinary. Equally, throughout our history individuals have emerged and their eminency has endured the test of time. Prominent and conspicuous these great individuals stand as role-models and exempla. Yet others, individuals who are not famous (either in their own, or our time) often prove to be just as important. What role can we, as historians and archaeologists, play in reviving and bringing back the individual from a historical period, ancient or more modern? Can we restore their agency? How important is the individual experience in society? How are communities organised?

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

· Individuals in communities

· Individuals outside communities

· Outsiders and exile

· Individuals in history

· Agency

· ‘Great-Man’ theory

· Public and private religion

· Organisation(s) and landscape

· Social roles

· International relations

· Social communication

· Family

· Gender and sexuality

· Creating society

· Class and race

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

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to l.emslie@ncl.ac.uk by Friday 1st April 2016. If you have any ideas, questions or enquiries, please feel free to get in touch.

PGF Lunchtime Seminar

The next lunchtime seminar is Wednesday 20th, at 1pm, in Armstrong 1.04.

John Bagnall (History) will be talking to us about :

The New Official History: Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands Crisis

‘Earlier this year, Charles Moore released the second of his three volume official biography of Margaret Thatcher. Moore was given unrivalled access to, not only Thatcher herself, but her wealth of private papers concerning her time as British Prime Minister. His first volume, published in 2013, ended with the Falklands Affair of 1982 and the second volume, picks up from this point and continues until the end of her time in office. The Falklands Affair was a dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. The dispute garnered international tension when a nine week conflict was fought between the two nations in 1982. Moore’s work uses Thatcher’s own papers and memory of the affair to give a new account of the conflict. As this work was undertaken before the source material was released for public research purposes, it is at the forefront of study of 1980s British Political history.

This paper aims to examine what Moore adds to the existing knowledge of the Falklands Affair in the context of Lawrence Freedman’s two volume Official History of the Falklands Campaign published in 2005. Freedman too was given access to source material from government departments before it was released to the public and produced, at the time, the most comprehensive study of the Falklands Campaign that had been done. This paper compares the work done by Moore to the work of Freedman to highlight what new insights Moore has offered on the Falklands Affair. This paper scrutinises the source material used by each author as well as their methodologies and conclusion to produce an analysis of how much has been added by Moore to our understanding of one of the most crucial aspects of Thatcher’s Britain, the Falklands Affair.’

Come along for discussion, tea, coffee and biscuits!

12th Edition of our E-Journal – Call for Papers!

Call for Papers

12^th Edition of the Postgraduate Forum E-Journal

School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University

Disruptions

The theme of this year’s issue of the PGF E-Journal seeks to reflect on the way in which “disruptions” have shaped historical disciplines and processes.

Studies of history are littered with the disruptions of peoples and places, politics and religion, memory and belief, but the term itself is rarely used. Does the concept of disruption offer any new perspective, and how do we recognise and define these disruptions? Does the term disruption have any genuine utility? Can we look at disruptions on a macro and micro scale? How do we deal with disruptions to scholarly narratives when new theories, interpretations, and material are discovered?

We are seeking abstracts for papers of 4000 words. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

Historiographical Disruptions
Material Disruptions
Disruptions of Landscape
Political Disruptions
Social Disruptions
Economic Disruptions
Ideological/Philosophical Disruptions
Religious Disruptions
Medical Disruptions
Urban or Rural Disruptions
Disruption of Memory
Natural or Environmental Disruption
Textual Disruptions
Narrative Disruptions

Please send abstracts of 250-300 words along with a CV to Amy Shields (amy.shields@ncl.ac.uk) by 28^th August. If your paper is selected, the deadline for the final paper will the 2^nd October.