History Seminar Series, Sept-December, 2015

All sessions take place on Wednesdays at 4:30pm in Lipman room 121.

30 Sept

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom delegation
leaving the White House after meeting with President Roosevelt,
September 30, 1936. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Jon Coburn (Northumbria), "'I have chosen the illuminating death': Alice Herz, Norman Morrison, and immolation in American memory."   

14 Oct   
Sarah Hellawell (Northumbria), "'Peace is not a mere denial of war': the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915 – 1939."

28 Oct   
Graeme Morton (Dundee), "Adaptations to meteorological variation: indications from Scotland's history."

18 Nov   
Andrew Wathey (Northumbria), "Philippe de Vitry at Meaux."

25 Nov  
Mixed Humanities seminar: Tom Lawson, Julie Scanlon and Fiona Shaw.

9 Dec   
Sophie Cooper (Edinburgh), "'O’Meara was a far better Irishman than Rafferty': being ‘Irish’ in nineteenth century Chicago."

John Hulme, Northumbria University MRes Student, and North East War Memorials

Tony Henderson, “Northumbria University Academic in Call for North War Memorial to Mark Women's Efforts,” The Chronicle, April 3, 2015.  (See also this post.)

Labourers at Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company.

A huge workforce of women produced millions of shells in North East factories during the First World War.

In addition to these munitionettes, thousands more women took over from men in a range of other industries and other jobs.

Now a research project at Northumbria University is launching a debate on whether women’s war efforts should be recognised by a regional or national memorial.

John Hulme, a Master of Research student in history at the university, is also questioning why so few women appear on North East war memorials.

He will present his case in a research paper, titled “Commemorating the Women of World War One, Never or Now?” at a Master of Research symposium at Northumbria University on April 27, which will be open to the public. read on>>>

Commemorating the Centenary of the Women's Peace Congress of 1915

The following is a cross-post from the Histories of Activism Group.

On Monday, 20 April, the Histories of Activism group is organising an event at the Newcastle Lit & Phil to commemorate the centenary of the Women's Peace Congress of 1915 - a major international meeting held at The Hague. Over 1,200 women came together to coordinate their efforts to bring an end to the Great War. Following on from their meeting in the Netherlands, participants travelled to European capitals to lobby the representatives of the warring nations.  The event also resulted in the creation of the International Committee of Women for a Permanent Peace, which was later transformed into the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) - a major pacifist organisation that still exists today.

A century on, our 'Women as Peacemakers' evening will allow us to reflect on the history, legacy and ongoing relevance of the women's peace movement. The event is open to the public and will start at 6:00 pm.

Delegates to the April 1915 conference.

• Daniel Laqua (Senior Lecturer in European History at Northumbria University) will introduce the event by commenting on the history of peace movement up to 1914 as well as outlining the main features of the congress at The Hague.
• Sarah Hellawell (PhD candidate in British History at Northumbria University) will present findings from her doctoral research. She will focus on the British women who attended the congress as well as the subsequent creation of a British WILPF section. She will show how the British women's movement emerged from a section of the pre-war suffrage movement, and will also consider the tension between national loyalty to the British war effort and women's transnational efforts for peace.
• Ingrid Sharp (Senior Lecturer in German at Leeds University) will discuss the aims and achievements of the women at The Hague, explaining why it is important to remember them. In doing so, she will draw attention to the legacy and significance of this year's centenary, shedding light on the relationship between peace, women's rights and human rights.
• Jon Coburn (PhD candidate in US History at Northumbria University) will draw on his doctoral research on women's activism for peace in 1960s/1970s America. He will point out that women's groups have had a long and positive role to play in the American peace movement. He will highlight the connections between different waves of activism and demonstrate the enduring relevance of women's peace history for contemporary peace groups.

 Participation in the event is free. There is no need to pre-register, but if you would like to let us know that you are coming, you can do so via our Facebook page.

Exploring American Histories: A Survey Text for the Twentieth-first Century, October 15

Randall Stephens

click to enlarge

Here's the new poster for the 2014-15 American Studies Events and Research Seminars.  (See the picture at the bottom of the poster from the Selma to Montgomery March, 1965.)

I'd especially like to draw attention to the first in the American Studies Seminar series, co-sponsored with History.
On Wednesday, October 15 we have the pleasure to host Nancy A. Hewitt (Rutgers University) and Steven F. Lawson (Rutgers University) who will be speaking on: "Exploring American Histories: A Survey Text for the Twentieth-first Century," at 4:30pm in Lipman 033.

Says Professor Hewitt of her research and writing:

My interests include American women's history, nineteenth century U.S. history, women's activism in all its wonderful variety, women and work, the interplay of race and class with sex/gender, religion and reform, and feminism in comparative perspective. I am currently rethinking the grand narrative of American women's early political history--from Seneca Falls to suffrage--by placing the events of the period in a more global context and by taking seriously the versions of woman's rights embraced by African Americans, workers, immigrants, and American Indians. I am also working on a biography of nineteenth-century radical activist, Amy Post.

Says Professor Lawson:

My main areas of research have been the history of the civil rights movement, especially the expansion of black voting rights and black politics. My major publications include: Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944-1969; In Pursuit of Power: Southern Blacks and Electoral Politics, 1965-1982; Running for Freedom: Civil Rights and Black Politics in America Since 1941; and Debating the Civil Rights Movement (with Charles Payne). I have also written about the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson and his civil rights programs. I am also interested in the connection between civil rights and the political culture the late 1950s and early 1960s. In this vein, I have done research on civil rights, fear of conspiracies, rock ‘n’ roll, and the Payola Scandal of 1959-60.

The presentation "Exploring American Histories" next Wednesday will:

focus on the intellectual challenges faced by scholars in the humanities when they move from writing monographs and research articles to work on university level text books. But it also will consider the potential reciprocal benefits of that relationship. How might working with big themes and having to distill complex narratives and arguments feed back into good, innovative scholarship?  How does teaching inform the ways that scholars compose general text books?  How does the process of writing these differ from the process of writing monographs?

The talks will be followed by a Q&A session.

Humanities Postgraduate Research Seminar Series 2014-15

Megan Hunt

Join us for a chance to meet fellow PGRs and see them present on aspects of their research.

Seminars take place on alternate Thursdays, and we usually continue our discussions in the pub. If you have any questions, or would like to present your work next semester, please email megan.hunt@northumbria.ac.uk

All postgraduate students welcome!

Semester 1 Programme

16th October: Tracey Iceton, "Guest Starring...Using Real People as Characters in Creative Writing," 5pm Lipman 334.

30th October: Megan Hunt "'A Monster of the South': Cape Fear, 'White Trash', and the Oppositional Region," 5pm Lipman 334.

13th November: Allan Symons, "'Woman’s Been After You Ever Since’: Country Music and Misogyny in 1920s America," 5pm Lipman 334.

27th November: Lyndsey Skinner, "Keatsian Magazines," 4pm Lipman 303.

11th December: Jonathan Coburn, "'The Jakarta Problem': the Tyranny of Consensus in Women Strike for Peace," 5pm Lipman 334.