Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen
Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen
Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen
The Centre for Imperial and Global History is delighted to report that Dr Ryan Hanley has been awarded a prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize. Here’s what he will be working on:
The Philip Leverhulme Prize will enable me to lay the foundations for a new global history of British antislavery since the late eighteenth century. This long-term project will explore how Britain’s antislavery interventions around the world and throughout modern history resulted in partial victories, unexpected consequences and sometime perverse compromises. It promises to contribute to how we understand metropolitan activism, humanitarian imperialism, the history of international relations, and contemporary anti-trafficking politics, across a very long timeline. This project will result in a major new monograph, Unfinished Business: An Incomplete History of British Antislavery, under contract with Oxford University Press and slated for publication in 2032, in time for the bicentenary of passing of the Abolition of Slavery Act in 1833.
You can read more about the scheme and other winners here.
Marc-William Palen and Richard Toye
University of Exeter
Richard Toye, Professor of Modern History at the University of Exeter, needs little introduction to readers of the Imperial & Global Forum. Toye is a leading historian of modern British politics, the British Empire, and postwar internationalism. Among his previous publications are The Labour Party and the Planned Economy, 1931-1951 (2003), Churchill’s Empire (2010), Arguing about Empire: Imperial Rhetoric in Britain and France, 1882-1956 (with Martin Thomas, 2017), Winston Churchill: A Life in the News (2020), and, with David Thackeray, Age of Promises: Electoral Pledges in Twentieth Century Britain (2021). Toye is also former director of the Centre for Imperial and Global History and the host of the Imperial & Global Forum’s ‘Talking Empire’ podcast series. You can follow him on Twitter/X @RichardToye and on Threads @Richard_John_Toye. His newest publication, Age of Hope: Labour, 1945, and the Birth of Modern Britain, will be published with Bloomsbury on 12 October 2023, in advance of the 100th anniversary of the first Labour government in 2024. Age of Hope is the subject of our interview today.
MP: Briefly, how would you summarize Age of Hope?
RT: It is an attempt to put the Labour government of 1945 into long-term perspective. This involves both going back to the 1880s, when many of its leading figures were born, and forward to the present day, when its legacy continues to be felt. Although I hope that readers of all political persuasions can profit from it, I don’t attempt to be absolutely politically neutral. Especially in the conclusion I make some suggestions about how the Labour Party might learns some of the lessons of the Attlee era as it stands (probably) on the edge of power.
Continue reading “Age of Hope: A CIGH Interview with Richard Toye”| Location: | Exeter |
|---|---|
| Salary: | From £41,732 on Grade (F), depending on qualifications and experience. |
| Hours: | Full Time |
| Contract Type: | Fixed-Term/Contract |
| Placed On: | 4th October 2023 |
|---|---|
| Closes: | 24th October 2023 |
| Job Ref: | R64106 |
This full-time post is available from 01/01/2024 – 31/12/2024 on a fixed-term contract (maternity cover) in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS). This role offers the opportunity for hybrid working – some time on campus and some from home.
The role
You will have responsibility for the design, development and production of teaching and learning material and deliver either across a range of modules within the field of Modern History. The ability to teach on the history of internationalism and modern eastern Europe will be necessary.
You will work with the Director of Education and Student Experience to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of teaching programmes in accord with the Faculty’s education strategy and implementing the External Affairs strategy. You will also contribute directly to foundation teaching in one or more of the discipline areas in the Faculty and to the development and implementation of innovative teaching practices across the Faculty.
Continue reading “Job Klaxon: Lecturer in Modern History (E&S)”
Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Cross-posted from the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Research
University of Exeter
We are inviting expressions of interest from post-doctoral researchers considering making an application for the 2024 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships scheme. The call opens 1 January 2024. The closing date for applications is 22 February 2024 at 4pm and further information and guidance can be found on the Leverhulme Trust’s website. We will be supporting a limited number of applications for the scheme and there will be an internal sift for candidate selection.
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships aim to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, but who have a proven record of research. The expectation is that Fellows should undertake a significant piece of publishable work during their tenure, and it is hoped that Fellowships will lead to a more permanent academic position, either within the same institution or another institution. Approximately 145 Fellowships will be available in 2024.
Continue reading “Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships”
Kensa Broadhurst
University of Exeter
Cross-posted from A Study of the Cornish Language from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century
Last week I was in the very privileged position of attending the PhD Academy at Venice International University. The week long course promised to improve research practice and transversal skills for young scholars, but in reality it offered far more than that. Nineteen PhD researchers from sixteen nations, based in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas and representing the widest possible range of research topics, alongside faculty staff from Italy, Belgium, and Slovenia, came together to both learn from each other and share experiences and ideas. It was a true example of international collaboration between well-established scholars and those just setting out on their research journeys. For me, it was incredible to be at an academic event and be the only representative from the United Kingdom. As such, it allowed me to gain a wide range of valuable insights, alongside getting to know a group of people who are all either leaders in their field, or with the potential to be so in the future. All this, in one of the most beautiful settings in the world (and one which offers many research questions of its own), Venice.
Venice International University is a collaboration between nineteen universities from all over the world. It offers summer schools (such as the one I attended in June on Linguistic Landscapes), the PhD Academy, and opportunities for undergraduates to spend a semester at the university on the island of San Servolo, located between the historic centre of Venice and the Lido. As such, the university is a true example of both interdisciplinarity and international collaboration.
Continue reading “Interdisciplinarity and International Collaborations”
Peter Whitewood
York St John University
From the beginning, Russia has framed its invasion of Ukraine as necessary for the defence of the country. According to Vladimir Putin, Nato’s deliberate and aggressive encroachment into a region once dominated by Moscow is to blame, as the west seeks to dismember Russia. By extension, Ukraine – a country, according to Putin, without agency and turned into a Nato military outpost – is little more than a pawn in Washington’s nefarious game.
Some conspiracies in Russian propaganda come and go – notably the absurd claims that the US had developed bioweapons sites across Ukraine. But Putin’s core geopolitical framing of the war has remained consistent: Nato and the forces of the “collective west” represent an existential threat to Russia.
Given the popular notion of rival geopolitical blocs and the “no-limits friendship” between Moscow and Beijing, comparisons to the former cold war are commonplace. Commentators and academics are keen to scrutinise various similarities and distinctions. But there is an underappreciated comparison between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and another act of aggression a century earlier: the Red Army’s invasion of Poland in 1920 under Vladimir Lenin.
Although more than 100 years ago, the Bolsheviks framed this conflict in strikingly similar terms to the conspiracies running through Russian propaganda today. Continue reading “Russia’s disastrous decision to invade Poland in 1920 has parallels with Putin’s rhetoric over Ukraine”
Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen
Alun Withey
University of Exeter
Cross-posted from Dr Alun Withey
As my new project on the history of travel, health risk and preparation begins to get underway, one of the things that I am thinking about is the place of travel within early modern medical remedy culture. What kinds of conditions could befall travellers? What did early modern people think that the processes of travel, and different kinds of transport, could do to their bodies, and what types of remedies were available to deal with them. Research is still at a very early stage, but there are already some interesting hints that remedies were available to treat a variety of travel-related conditions.
Before the broadening of travel in the 18th century, many journeys were relatively short, and local. As a great deal of work has shown in recent years, the early modern population was surprisingly mobile. People travelled from parish to parish, and from rural to urban areas as they visited market towns to buy and sell goods. Perhaps the majority of journeys were taken on foot, on horseback or on a cart or, for those with means, in small carriages. By the later eighteenth century, post carriages were also available to private passengers.
Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen
Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen
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