Third year student Sophie McKee gives some frank and timely advice about the process of choosing a dissertation topic. I’m not bitter that she rejected my topic, really – ed. When Rob James asked me to write a blog post about writing about dissertations we both enjoyed a wee chuckle. For I, after going back and forth between centuries and subjects, had only just, very recently at the time, settled on a topic. Now wait a minute. Dissertations? You’ve just come into second year. You haven’t had a chance to process Star Wars, or Christmas, or the general election yet! How dare someone ask you to think about a dissertation! But here […]
Author Archive | Fiona McCall
Historical Association, Portsmouth Branch – Upcoming Lectures
The Historical Association in Portsmouth every year hosts a series of lectures by leading historians. All lectures begin at 7.00pm, finish by 8.30pm, and are held in Room 2/07, Park Building, University of Portsmouth, King Henry I Street, Portsmouth PO1 2DZ. Lectures cost £5 for members, £1 for visitors, and are free for students. For further information please contact see: Historical Association, Portsmouth Tuesday 11 February 2020 ‘After Bletchley Park: GCHQ From 1945 to Now’ Speaker: Professor Richard J Aldrich (University of Warwick) Tuesday 10 March 2020 ‘Joan of Arc: Woman, Warrior, Witch’ Speaker: Professor Anne Curry (University of Southampton) Tuesday 12 May 2020 ‘“Those Fancy Liquors/And Sky-High Kickers”: Skirt Dancing, Cancan, […]
New Seminar Series: A Global History of the Present Time
Have you ever reflected upon the possibility of a chronology of recent history which is decentred from that of Europe and North America? Excitingly, we are doing just that! Our new seminar series: A Global History of the Present Time is a joint seminar series organised by the University of Portsmouth Francophone Africa Research Group, Institut d’histoire du temps présent, Paris (IHTP-CNRS) and EUME Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. For our launch seminar taking place on Wednesday 29 January, Portsmouth’s own Dr Olivia Rutazibwa will be joined by Dr Reem Abou El Fadl from SOAS to encourage us to think about whether the end of the 1970s should be considered the […]
Volunteering with naval artefacts from World War I
Emily Burgess, a third year history student at Portsmouth, describes some of the things she has learned and some of the amazing artefacts she has got to work with on a daily basis in over a year spent working as a volunteer first for the National Museum of the Royal Navy and then for the Royal Marines Museum. She is now devising her own projects and events for the museum and has found the experience invaluable to her studies for her degree. During my first year at Portsmouth University I attended a history volunteer fair held in The Mary Rose Museum. It was there that I met my future supervisor […]
Local History on Stage
As part of his practice research PhD at Portsmouth, Vin Adams has written a play about the events here in 1642, just before Charles I raised his standard in Nottingham. The play will be performed in The Square Tower in Old Portsmouth, itself part of the action of the play, and brings to life many figures of the time including Queen Henrietta Maria, John Pym, Sir William Waller and, of course, George Goring. For anyone interested in local history, this should be an interesting exploration of Portsmouth’s part in one of the battles that prefaced the Civil War. Vin has been working on the project with Fiona McCall, senior lecturer […]
Seventeenth-century fortifications found at University of Portsmouth archaeological dig
Some of Portsmouth’s historic fortifications are being uncovered in two trenches on the site of the new University of Portsmouth Sports Facility in Ravelin Park. The walls that have been revealed would have protected the naval port during the 17th century, a major period of development for the port. A gun platform or embrasure has now been uncovered by the archaeologists, AOC archaeology. See the most recent article on the project in the University of Portsmouth News