UoP History’s Katy Gibbons has recently published a chapter in volume 1 of the Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism. This major multivolume work seeks to explore the complex and contested stories and experiences of Catholic communities in Britain and Ireland across 5 centuries, and to bring together aspects of their stories that are often approached separately.
Katy’s contribution explores the many challenges faced by Catholics in England, Wales and Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth, and how their responses were shaped by the specific local, national and international context. In particular, it considers the linguistic, political, ecclesiastical and legal frameworks in which Catholics negotiated their existence as subjects of a Protestant monarch, including the divisions this provoked amongst them.
The celebrated historian Natalie Zemon Davis died recently. In this post, our own Dr Katy Gibbons looks at how second-year students studying the ‘Debating the Past’ module, translated her most famous work into other media: emojis, memes and poetry!
What role does story telling play in history writing? How far can historians use their own imagination when discovering and relaying the stories of people in the past?
This is one of the many questions that we engage our students with as they look in depth at historiography, and think about how historians ‘do’ history. In our second year core module, ‘Debating the Past’, one of the texts that might be studied is Natalie Davis’ groundbreaking book, The Return of Martin Guerre. First published 40 years ago, it reveals how a 16th century peasant community, and individuals within it, respond to a unlikely yet true case of a missing person, identity theft and imposture. Years after Martin Guerre disappeared from his village of Artigat in South-West France, a man turned up claiming to be him and resumes his life in his family and community. When doubts crept in, a series of court cases ensued, with a dramatic conclusion. Davis’ book remains inspirational and much cited, not only for the interest of the story, but for the questions she raises about the role of the historian in creating their accounts of the past, and the role of imagination in history writing.
Thie Martin Guerre story is one which exists today in different media – a film (for which Davis was historical consultant) and play amongst others. When students study the book, in their seminars they are set a challenge: can they retell their own version of the story of Martin Guerre, using a different media? And having retold it, how does this help reflect on their responses to and analysis of Natalie Davis’ account?
We are always impressed by the creativity and imagination of our students! To give a few examples from last year’s graduating cohort, we had Martin Guerre through emojis from Rachel:
through memes from Pauline (a few of my favourites below):
and even through a poem from Charlotte!
Once students had shared their own story telling, they discussed the decisions about the emphasis they played on particular events, and on the actions of the different protagonists. This opened up an exploration of how other scholars have responded to and been inspired by the way Natalie Davis chose to tell the story, and, importantly, why it’s important to know and think about these stories.
This connects to a bigger question: how does thinking about this intriguing case of 16th century peasants help us to think about our own world, as well as our 21st-century approaches to the past?
Natalie Davis died very recently, after a lifetime of producing thought provoking and inspiring history, of encouraging others to ask useful questions, and of advocating for stories of marginalised people to be told. As historians (both lecturers and students) at Portsmouth,who continue to explore her unique contributions, we have much to learn by returning to Natalie Davis’ own words:
‘No matter how bleak and constrained the situation, some forms of improvisation and coping takes place. No matter what happens, people go on telling stories about it and bequeath them to the future. No matter how static and despairing the present looks, the past reminds us that change can occur … The past is an unending source of interest and can even be a source for hope’. [1]
[1] Natalie Zemon Davis, “A Life of Learning”, Charles Homer Haskins Lecture for 1997, ACLS Occasional Paper, No. 39 (1997), 23.
One of the questions we’re most frequently asked by students who will be joining us as first years in the autumn term is ‘”What reading do we need to do to prepare for the course?” All of the modules that you will be taking in the first year have reading lists, of course, but the vast majority of material on them is part of a publishers’ package purchased by the university library that you will only have access to after you start university. So, to get you going, our Admissions Tutor Dr Katy Gibbons has written the following blog offering guidance on things you can read or listen to to over the summer months. Whatever area or period of history you’re interested in, there’s lots here to peak your interests!
If you’re looking for some history-related reading/listening for the summer, you’ve come to the right place! You’ll find here some suggestions from the UoP History team of things that we have enjoyed, and that can spark some thinking and reflecting on history, and on the connections between the past and the present. If you read/listen carefully, you might also spot some of the historians who will be teaching you in September!
These novels engage with the past in a number of different ways. They also cover topics and themes that you will come across in the course of your degree.
Please note – you are not obliged or expected to buy any of these, but if you are interested, perhaps you could look out for a second hand copy, or visit your local public library!
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith, her Maid and Holofernes’ Head, 1613, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Members of the History and English Literature teams at the University of Portsmouth are excited to be launching “Disrupted Authority” – a research project that focuses on the early modern period (1450-1700) and brings together the work of English Literature’s Dr Jessica Dyson and Dr Bronwen Price, and History’s Dr Maria Cannon, Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Fiona McCall.
This is a particularly timely project in the light of the current shifting and unpredictable political landscape. The key themes of this project – authority, power, gender, religion – invite comparisons with how people and groups today understand and represent their positions and rights within political and social structures. The early modern period has never looked more relevant!
Common to all our research is an awareness of the significance of the language used to describe authorities and those acting outside or against them. As current political discourse demonstrates, words matter. This project will explore how language itself, particularly relating to madness, martyrdom and misogyny, holds the potential to disrupt and construct authority.
The project is interested in the ways in which emotion, language, behaviour, performance, and writing set out to, or inadvertently, disrupt dominant modes of thought, governance and religious belief and, in turn, helped to shape authority in these areas. Bronwen’s research on the disruptions of women’s writing to the traditional authoritative modes of thought and production offers a literary counterpart to Katy and Fiona’s historical consideration of gender and religious authority at a parish, national and international level. Maria’s work on family structures and household authority aligns with Jessica’s work on theatrical representation authorities, as both consider ways in which emotions can be seen to disrupt or reclaim authority.
We’re looking to reach outside the University of Portsmouth to build a network of scholars working on early modern disrupted authority, and work with non-HEI partners to bring our research and its contemporary relevance to a wider audience. We’ll be running a series of workshops and networking events to facilitate these interactions – details to follow. Key outcomes of the project will include an open access database, ‘Religious Conflict in the Parish, 1645-1662’, which will make available searchable data drawn from legal records.
If you’d like to take part in our 2020 conference, ‘Disruptions and Continuities in gender roles and authority 1450-1750’, please see the cfp here. Future events will be announced here.
In this blog, Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Maria Cannon discuss the different ways in which the History team (both staff and students) at the University of Portsmouth have worked with the Mary Rose Museum, and highlight some ongoing and future projects.
The History team at Portsmouth is very fortunate in having a number of award-winning museums on our doorstep, and staff and students benefit from this. Only 10 minutes walk from the History team at Milldam building is the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and one of the museums housed here is the world-leading Mary Rose Museum. Now housed in a bespoke setting, the museum is able to offer an immersive experience – a sense of being on board the ship itself as you walk alongside the remains of the ship, and an unrivalled collection of artefacts that offer a unique snapshot of Tudor life.
For a number of years, we have had connections with
the Mary Rose Museum. It has offered opportunities for our students to
volunteer, undertake placements and to have paid employment during the course
of their studies.
History students undertaking a placement at the Mary Rose Museum
More recently, the History team has been working
with the Museum in a number of different ways. These collaborations have
brought benefits to the staff and students at the University, and to the Mary
Rose Museum. We hope to continue these collaborations, boosted by the
newly-inaugurated Portsmouth Heritage Hub.
Our collaboration with the Mary Rose currently
includes:
– A CPD training day for teachers of A-level History. Read more about the day here.
– The highly successful annual
Heritage, Arts and Culture Careers Fair. Hosted by the Mary Rose, and organised
by the student-run History Society at the University, this offers students a
chance to network with representatives from a wide range of organisations
within the city and beyond. It is one of the highlights of the academic year!
An exhibitor from University of Portsmouth’s Careers and Employability service talks with recent graduate Nia Picton-Phillips at the 2019 Heritage, Arts and Culture Careers Fair
– A forthcoming session at a Children’s History Society Workshop, which explores how to engage children with historical research at museums and heritage sites. To sign up, book here.
– Discussions about the development of
the Mary Rose Digital Archive
– The integration of objects from the
Mary Rose collection into specialist undergraduate teaching: as part of the new
Second Year Module, ‘The Extraordinary and the Everyday: People, Places and
Possessions’ students will be offered the opportunity to visit the Museum and
conduct research on their artefacts
– On the research front, we are also excited to now be working with both the Museum and colleagues in the Science Faculty at Portsmouth, considering how evidence from DNA analysis can help us to discover more about the crew of the Mary Rose, and to revisit older assumptions about the population of early modern England (for more info click here). Katy and Maria, alongside Dr Garry Scarlett and Dr Sam Robson in the School of Biological Sciences, are part of a cross-disciplinary project, funded by the University, to develop this work further.
Watch this space for
future developments on these and other projects!
In this festive-themed blog, Dr Katy Gibbons, Senior Lecturer in History, recommends a few texts that feature a link to Christmas. Katy specialises in the religious and cultural history of 16th century England and Europe, and teaches amongst other units, a Special Subject ‘Conflict, Conspiracy, Consensus? Religious Identities in the Reign of Elizabeth I’.
With Christmas fast approaching, no doubt many historians are adding reading material to their Christmas lists! For some historians, though, Christmas is the focus of the research they carry out – and there is a wealth of academic history that considers the changing significance of this festival over many centuries. So, for our blog readers, here are our pick of history-writing about Christmas, each of which is connected to the research and teaching activity of History at Portsmouth. All of these are available for our current students via the University Library – so, happy Christmas, and happy reading!
1). Given the central importance of Christmas to the Christian Calendar, what happened when England’s Christian population was divided by the Reformation? Did Protestants and Catholics begin to find separate ways in which to mark Christmas? Here Phebe Jensen considers festivity and Christmas celebrations amongst Catholic families in Protestant Britain:
2). What did Christmas-lovers do in 17th century England, when the celebration and ‘merriment’ of Christmas was officially outlawed by the authorities in the Commonwealth period? How ‘popular’ a move was it, and did people resist or ignore these demands? Here Christmas is part of Bernard Capp’s wider consideration of Puritan attempts to regulate all kinds of social behaviour:
3). Christmas as we think of it today is often seen to be a Victorian ‘invention’. Here Neil Armstrong considers one aspect of the Victorian Christmas – the practice of sending Christmas greetings cards:
4). Perhaps one of the most famous Christmas scenes relating to the global conflicts of the 20th century is that of the Christmas truce on the Western Front. Revisiting this is particularly relevant given the 2018 centenary of the end of the First World War. Here Terri Blom Crockers offers a challenge to older interpretations of what the truce meant:
5). And, finally, Christmas is a time when much TV (and films) are watched! It also sparks the production of Christmas-themed material. Some of this has spooky content, such as the adaptations of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Here Derek Johnston considers the significance of the Christmas Ghost Story in a number of different formats and contexts:
And before you settle down to watch that festive film, have a read about the ways in which Christmas has been rendered on film in this edited collection from Mark Connelly:
https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/port/items/888707?query=region+religion+patronage&resultsUri=items%3Fquery%3Dregion%2Breligion%2Bpatronage
https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/port/items/1296826?query=england%27s+culture+wars&resultsUri=items%3Fquery%3Dengland%2527s%2Bculture%2Bwars
http://jvc.oup.com/2013/12/21/christmas-greetings-2/
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/portsmouth-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4012423
https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/port/items/1214412?query=christmas+history&resultsUri=items%3Fquery%3Dchristmas%2Bhistory%26offset%3D10
https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/port/items/507971?query=christmas+at+the+movies&resultsUri=items%3Fquery%3Dchristmas%2Bat%2Bthe%2Bmovies