Having successfully completed a first-class degree in history at Portsmouth, followed by a master’s degree, Jaina Hunt is now in the midst of studying for a PhD in history. Below she writes about her thesis on early modern beauty standards and about her poster presentation which won awards in 2024. In addition to working on her thesis, Jaina has worked as a teaching fellow at Portsmouth, as a project administrator for the British Council, a PhD tutor for the Brilliant Club, delivering university-style tutorials to high-potential students from underrepresented backgrounds, and a research-assistant on a UoP BA/ Leverhulme funded project on young women and body image. Jaina’s PhD supervisor is […]
Author Archive | Fiona McCall
“War. It has got to come”. How the radical imperialism of Alfred Milner and Joseph Chamberlain pushed Britain into war with South Africa
Elliott Thomas’s enthusiasm for and seriousness about history was apparent to from the time I first taught him in his first year of studies, and he has contributed several pieces for this blog. For his dissertation he looked at the role of charismatic figures Joseph Chamberlain, Alfred Milner, and the writer John Robert Seeley in pushing ideas of radical, racist imperialism which at the turn of the twentieth century led Britain into a devastating conflict in South Africa. Elliott’s supervisor was Professor Brad Beaven. Elliott’s work has got better and better over the three years he has studied with us and it is great to see Elliott give a shout […]
Projecting youth, purity and marriageability: students reconstruct sixteenth-century beauty recipes
For their first year module, Beliefs, Communities and Conflicts, 1400-1750, UoP history students are asked to do a practical activity and then write a report about it, reflecting reflecting critically about how it relates to the themes explored in the module. This, the first of two posts, looks at what students learned from trying to reconstruct early modern cosmetics. The tutors on this module were Dr Maria Cannon and Dr Fiona McCall. Rosie Wells chose to adapt the recipe for Rose Lip Balm from Italian doctor Giovanni Marinelli’s Gli ornamenti delle donne (The Ornament of Ladies) (1562) a manual on female beauty containing recipes at first purporting to be taken […]
Violence at home, violence abroad – creative and lived African-American reactions to the My Lai Massacre
This is the first of two blogs by UoP second-year history student Gabriel Lawless, reflecting on the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Vietnam. This blog, drawing on oral histories, poetry, and political writing, explores how African-American voices interpreted and responded to the My Lai Massacre and the Fall of Saigon not as isolated incidents, but as part of a wider, politically entrenched pattern of violence. The exposure of the My Lai Massacre in 1969 to the civilian masses marked a decisive turning point in public perception of the Vietnam War. Reports that American soldiers had supposedly killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians came as a shock to those in the […]
Southsea castle ramparts (land side)
By Fiona McCall on May 14, 2026 in Learning in Focus, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized
By Ben Whiteman Beginning groundwork in 1813, the castle expansion would be overseen by Major-General Benjamin Fisherman and last until the finishing touches were made in 1817. Southsea castle spent much of the late 18th and early 19th century in a poor state of disrepair. Coastal erosion had taken parts of the western wall while an accidental gunpowder explosion in 1759 destroyed a large portion of the castle. The explosion is believed to have started from a large cooking fire in the east wing living quarters. It’s thought that sparks fell through the cracks in the old floorboards igniting the gunpowder storeroom below. However, this was never confirmed.[1] Tragically the […]
Southsea Castle courtyard
By Fiona McCall on May 14, 2026 in Learning in Focus, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized
By Charlie Wilkinson Southsea’s well was built in 1544, abandoned in 1814, covered over during later modifications and then rediscovered in the 1960s. That means it sat unused for over 150 years, during which: the garrison changed, the fort was remodelled, obsolete artillery (including stone shot) was discarded, domestic waste accumulated. This blog discusses three objects that were discovered inside the well at Southsea Castle: a wooden bucket and pulley, stone cannon balls and pottery flask fragments. Object 1: Wooden bucket and pulley system The original well was built against the inside of the Tudor curtain wall and equipped with a simple pulley block, an oak bucket, and a […]