History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Author Archive | Fiona McCall

Peter Misch 5

Peter Misch (1909-1987): a holocaust survivor in wartime China

By on December 16, 2021 in Research in Focus

  On 8 December 2021 our own Dr Rudolph Ng, Lecturer in Global History, presented a fascinating paper tracing the extraordinary journey of a young geologist who fled Nazi Germany in 1936 and then taught for a decade in wartime China, before making a successful postwar academic career in the United States. If you missed the paper, we have a recording available, so do get in touch with one of us (rudolph.ng@port.ac.uk, robert.james@port.ac.uk, fiona.mccall@port.ac.u) Misch’s narrow escapes from the Holocaust and the Japanese invasion of China (1937), his capture by the Chinese Nationalists (1942), and the impending Communist takeover in China (1946) highlight the tumultuous reality of academic pursuits in […]

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Empire and its Afterlives 3: Using primary sources to avoid simplistic narratives of history

By on November 5, 2021 in Learning in Focus, Public History

This is the third post in the Empire and its afterlives series. The introduction can be found here and the second installment here.   Several students mentioned current debates around #RhodesMustFall in South Africa and the UK and the idea of decolonising the curriculum, in order to reflect on what that might mean for the teaching of colonial history and its legacies. They had worked on a range of publications and reflections on the topic in class, and drew on their own reading as well to inform their discussions of the curriculum. Some students outlined ways in which black history and black political philosophy could be made a full part of […]

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Women and dress

Exploring the transgressive use of clothing by female groups from the 1920s to the 1970s

By on October 21, 2021 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

Emily Jays graduated in Summer 2021 with a 2:1 in History and Sociology. Her dissertation was titled “Transgressing Gender Norms and National Identities Through Dress: Three 20th Century Case Studies”. This explored how clothing was used by flappers within 1920s America, butch lesbians and transgender women in post-1950 Britain and Muslim women and the veil in French Algeria and modern day France.  She is now studying a Master of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, with an intersectional approach on the relationship between working-class women, higher education and their habitus. She is about to start the process of applying for PhDs, in which she hopes […]

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The UoP History Society welcomes new faces

By on October 8, 2021 in Learning in Focus

Below, third year UoP history student Reiss Sims encourages new students to join our student history society. The beginning of a new academic year brings multiple opportunities: the chance to start new modules, to meet like-minded people, to take up a new sport or skill, or perhaps to join a society. Last year, during the height of the pandemic, a few second and third year students decided to take up the task of reviving the university’s History Society. The aim was to simply provide a space which offered students the opportunity to meet an array of people and to discuss the ups, downs, and curiosities of university life. More importantly, […]

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Church and People in Interregnum Britain

By on September 30, 2021 in New Publications, Research in Focus

In this post, UoP senior lecturer in history Dr Fiona McCall talks about her new book Church and People in Interregnum Britain, bringing together new research from scholars across Britain and further afield on the profound religious changes which took place after the British Civil Wars and how people responded to  them. From 1642-5, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, endured the first in a series of devastating civil wars, which split communities ideologically, politically and religiously.  These wars have been termed ‘the last of the wars of religion’ by leading Civil War historian John Morrill.[1]  In 1645, as the first Civil War approached its end, and the religious reformists gained […]

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King Charles I – a man of principle, not a “man of blood”?

By on September 24, 2021 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Many people instinctively blame King Charles I for the British Civil Wars. So recent UoP history graduate Connor Scott-Butcher’s decision to use his dissertation to challenge the idea, perpetuated by the regicides, that Charles was a “man of blood”, and the weight of historical argument ranged against him, always seemed to me a risky and provocative proposition.  Below, Connor writes about how he went about his research.  He gave a few sleepless nights to his supervisor, as well as himself, but the result was a balanced and well-structured argument, based around extensive use of contemporary primary sources. – Dr Fiona McCall. My topic for my dissertation was a thorough examination […]

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