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History
While studying a History course at BGU, you will explore a range of fascinating topics spanning a number of historical eras, in a variety of local, national and global contexts; from pirates in the early modern Atlantic World to civil rights campaigners in the 1960s. As well as learning about the people in the past on this undergraduate degree, you will investigate how people today engage with history and consider how the past can be brought alive. If you don’t have, or don’t think you will attain the normal tariff points for studying at BGU, click here to view the Foundation Year version of this course. -
History with Foundation Year
While studying a History course at BGU, you will explore a range of fascinating topics spanning a number of historical eras, in a variety of local, national and global contexts; from pirates in the early modern Atlantic World to civil rights campaigners in the 1960s. As well as learning about the people in the past on this undergraduate degree, you will investigate how people today engage with history and consider how the past can be brought alive. -
City of Lincoln's Festival of History
BGU's Professor Andrew Jackson designs content for literary trail! -
Reflections on Black History Month at BGU
Throughout October, Bishop Grosseteste University hosted a month-long programme of free events to celebrate Black History Month. The events included academic lectures, story-telling session and exhibitions that highlight the contribution of Black poets, educators, activists, athletes amongst others during this global month of celebration. Each of these sessions were designed to be educational, but also to engage and entertain in different ways while challenging received ideas and knowledge and were available to staff, students, guests and the wider public via live-stream where applicable. Dr Sheine Peart, Reader in Access, Equality and Inclusion and Project Lead for Black History Month at BGU, said: “As we reach the end of October I would like to offer some personal reflections on Black History Month at Bishop Grosseteste University 2021 which has been a resounding success in countless different ways. “The month-long programme of events was planned by a multidisciplinary University wide team and from the outset the ambition was (borrowing words from the BBC charter) to entertain, educate and inform while at the same time celebrating the multiple ways the global community has been enriched by contributions of people’s from the African diaspora. Benefiting from the skills and knowledge of University colleagues and invited contributors, each event fed into this ambition and provided new insights to the participating audiences while simultaneously honouring the common bonds which unite us and engaging with the challenges which confront us. “Through poetry, music, song, film, thought-provoking talks and story-telling sessions the audience learned of the ways Black peoples had enriched local, national and international communities including the innovative education strategies of Beryl Gilroy (the first Black Headteacher in London) and the ways the Reverend Sonia Baron in her work with the national government is currently challenging inequalities in work based and other spaces to provide better opportunities for everyone. “BHM at BGU will return in 2022 with another programme of events which will be open to students, staff and the wider public. We look forward to welcoming you to our next celebration and invite you to keep watching for future announcements.” -
BGU history lecturer reveals hidden stories about women in the publishing trade
Dr Rose Roberto, Lecturer for History at Bishop Grosseteste University and Teaching Resources Librarian has co-edited a two-volume collection of research on women's history named Women in Print. The research covers the diversity of roles women played as authors, designers, producers, distributors and readers of books from the 1400s onward. To a greater extent, the history of the printing and publishing trades in the West which has been dominated by narratives of men, despite women always having been involved. From cloistered nuns who served as scribes and illuminators for codexes we now call textbooks that were distributed in medieval university cities, to eighteenth century widows and daughters who created art and managed family engraving or printing firms, to women employed as translators, illustrators, authors and photographers during the industrial age, these two volumes, which compile the historical research of an international group of scholars setting the record straight. Women in Print, are part of the ‘Printing History and Culture’ series published by Peter Lang. Women in Print 1: Design and Identities contains eleven chapters incorporating case studies of design aspects of a printed work, or more broadly about design issues related to the business of publishing. Edited with Artemis Alexiou (York St John University) both editors have selected chapters which focus on specific individuals and their career as female artists, compositors, editors, engravers, photographers, printers, publishers, scribes, stationers, typesetters, widows-in-business, and writers. Each chapter also offers an examination of women as active participants and contributors in the many and varied aspects of design and print culture, including the production of illustrations, typefaces, periodical layouts, photographic prints and bound works. This volume explores the visual material that they produced. The second related volume, Women in Print 2: Production, Distribution and Consumption contains selections covering professional relationships between two or more women or a business network in which aspects of their roles in production, distribution and consumption of the printing trade are explored and further analysed. It was co-edited by Caroline Archer-Parré of Birmingham City University and Christine Moog of the Parsons School of Design in New York. Series editor John Hinks is also credited because of his work organising the conference and guiding the manuscripts through delays, mainly caused by two years of a world-wide pandemic, to publication. Chapter 6, 'Working Women: Female Contributors to Chambers’s Encyclopaedia’, authored by Rose Roberto reflects her discovery of women writers and the exploration of archives spanning Philadelphia to Edinburgh, and London to Manchester. So far she has uncovered 25 female encyclopaedia contributors. Besides reflecting on the lives of these women and how they came to participate a transatlantic encyclopaedia project spanning more than three decades, this chapter also traces the evolving process whereby women achieved status as professionals throughout the 1800s as various fields in different trades developed. Some names in this chapter such as Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) and Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929) are familiar. Others are less-known, but just as interesting. According to the editors of the Romantic Illustration Network (RIN), 'While most histories until the last forty to fifty years often treat women’s histories "as outstanding anomalies" in cultural and professional fields dominated by men, the aim of the scholarship in this collection . . . show that women were always present. It approaches the lives of women – and writing about their lives – as part of a process which reveals complex individual histories.' Both volumes are available for BGU staff and students at the BGU Library. Or you can purchase your own copies at the Peter Lang website. Dr Rose Roberto with the new publications -
Artefacts, Not History: the debate about Colston's statue and Britain's imperial past
Dr W. Jack Rhoden, Programme Leader for History at BGU, discusses the role of statues in the study of history -
Lecturer’s new article reveals the early history of book collecting by the Cavendish family
Dr W. Jack Rhoden, Programme Leader for History at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), has had an article published in the Midland History journal outlining the early history of book collecting by the Cavendish family. The article, the first such study of its kind, seeks to reveal the extensive book collecting activities of one of the most wealthy and powerful aristocratic families of early modern England. It analyses the early modern book collecting activities of the Devonshire branch of the Cavendish family as an example of elite cultural capital accumulation across multiple generations. Speaking following publication, Dr Rhoden discussed what readers and prospective students could expect from the article: “The article will be of interest for those who like book history along with anyone who has visited Chatsworth House and Hardwick Hall and has a general interest in the history of the Cavendish/Devonshire family. It is also linked to our level 4 module - HIS404: British Libraries, Museums and Archives: A History of Collection, 1600-2000 which provides a general history of British libraries, museums and archives from the collections of wealthy individuals in the early modern period to more middle and working-class collections and the ultimate establishment of state-supported national and public institutions from the mid-18th century to the present day beginning with the British Museum.” The article, which is now available here to online subscribers of the Midland History journal, is the product of work originally undertaken during Dr Rhoden’s time as a post-doctoral researcher at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. You can read his full series of blogs, which delve into the intriguing history of a library that has evolved over 400 years, by clicking here. -
In memory of Margaret Elwell: one of the first history lecturers at Bishop Grosseteste University
Stories from the history of Bishop Grosseteste University are being told in a series of blog posts. In this instalment, Abigail White researches one of the first people to teach history a BGU. -
Hull’s Historic Docks and Ceremonial Culture Explored in Lecturer’s Award-Winning Essay
Dr Michael Reeve, Lecturer in History at BGU, has won the 2020 Gordon Forster Essay Prize, awarded by the Northern History journal, for his article exploring Hull’s historic docks and civic ceremonial culture. The piece, entitled ‘'An Empire Dock’: Place Promotion and the Local Acculturation of Imperial Discourse in ‘Britain’s Third Port’', looks in detail at civic ceremonial culture in Hull in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a specific focus on new dock openings. This includes the grand opening of the 'Joint Dock' in east Hull in June 1914. This state-of-the-art dock was later known as King George Dock in honour of George V, who opened it with his wife, Mary, the Queen-consort. The article is concerned, in particular, with the way the British empire figured as a symbol and motif in dock openings and the promotional materials that surrounded them. Speaking following the article’s publication, Dr Reeve discussed what drew him to the subject: “This area of history has long interested me as a native of the port city of Hull, where I grew up just a stone's throw from the King George Dock. I kind of stumbled upon the topic when trying to develop a blog post about urban culture and civic ceremony during the First World War about three years ago (most of my work to date has focused on this conflict)! I ended up developing it into something much broader, related to the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth century history of the British empire and its impact on urban culture in culture in coastal places. I found the opening ceremony for the dock fascinating and thought that it had clear connections to historical accounts I had read about imperial citizenship, as well as a wider research concern I have with 'coastal-urban' experience and identities in history. When I got into the archives (mainly the Hull History Centre and the British Newspaper Archive), I found a wealth of material to go on, from colourful brochures and ticket stubs, to richly-detailed newspaper accounts and planning documents. The article should be of interest to students enrolled on modules related to the British empire and identity (such as the third-year module, The Sun Never Set and the Blood Never Dried: The British Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century and the first-year module, History of Identity) and those researching local historical topics and methods. It will also relate to the MA Social and Cultural History module, City and Countryside in Transition 1870-1914, given its focus on urban historical change.” The article is currently available to download for free (for a limited time) by clicking here. To find out more about how you can uncover new adventures on a History course at BGU, visit our website, book onto one of our Open Events or speak to a member of our Enquiries Team. -
Professor Adrian O’Sullivan (Aidrean Ó Súilleabháin)
Honorary Professor of Intelligence HistoryThe main focus of Adrian O’Sullivan’s research is on the history of Allied and Axis covert operations (espionage, counterintelligence, and security) in the Middle East during the Second World War. More generally, he also enjoys discovering all kinds of neglected narratives of the secret world and using innovative interdisciplinary techniques to interpret them.
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