Cut-throat communities, angry noblemen, and a noseless pirate! My journey through the joys and horrors of writing a dissertation
Below, the first of a series on this year’s bumper crop of student dissertations, from my own supervisee Tom Underwood. Tom was one of the most prepared and organised students I’ve ever supervised, but as he mentions below, also still honing his dissertation down to the wire, and we were blown away with the results. […]
Sinister Stalin, the Cold-War Octopus
The cartoonist David Low’s depiction of Stalin as an octopus, published in 1948, sits within a long-standing tradition of monstrous, dehumanised depictions of political enemies. Octopi in particular have been used in the past to represent the sinister ambitions of Prussia, Britain, France, Nazi Germany, America and the oil industry, amongst others. But as second-year […]
Young people need to learn more about the history of racism in the US and Britain
In the light of the worldwide anti-racists protests taking place across the world, two current UoP students, Lois Marriott and Becca Francis, argue passionately for the need to educate young people about the history of black people’s experience of racism. We both chose to take units during our history degree that would help us understand […]
The 1911 census: the government and the suffragettes have a conversation
A 1911 census form provides evidence of the ways in which the suffragettes challenged state authority. This piece was written by second-year UoP history student Ashleigh Hufton for the second-year module, Danger! Censorship, Power and the People. Forms articulate conversations between two parties, argues Dobraszczyk, in an article on the Victorian census. [1] A 1911 […]
From fresher to history graduate to financial consultant
Below, former student Connor Jones reflects on his time at Portsmouth. Like many history students, Connor did not come to university with a strong idea of his intended career, but this did not matter so much, because our Portsmouth history degree provides many of the skills employers are looking for. We note that Connor’s role […]
Summer vacation 2020: a virtual tour round Marseille
In this post, PhD student and Gale ambassador Megan Ison shows that even under lockdown conditions, our horizons need not be limited, as she takes us on a virtual vacation in France, using Gale primary sources, to get us in the mood for that holiday we plan to take, next year … Summer 2020 – […]