History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

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Public History

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Bridging the gap between the academic and non-academic worlds: Engaging the public in academic research

By on July 12, 2022 in Learning in Focus, Public History, Research in Focus

In this blog Reiss Sims, who has just gained a first-class degree in History at Portsmouth (well done, Reiss!), discusses a project he worked on last year with some of his fellow History students for the module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Dr Mike Esbester. As part of their project, the students looked into how academic historians take their work ‘out of the academy’ and into the public realm. Reiss and his fellow students interviewed our Dr Karl Bell, who researches all things supernatural, to find out how he has tried to engage the wider public in the history he studies. Last year, as part of our assessment for […]

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Accidents on the railways: A story of heartbreak and loss

By on June 30, 2022 in Learning in Focus, Public History

University of Portsmouth History student Jenny Leng produced a blog for the Railway Work, Life & Death project as part of her work on the second year core module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Mike Esbester. Mike co-leads the RWLD project along with Karen Baker (Librarian, National Railway Museum) and Helen Ford (Manager, Modern Records Centre) with the assistance of Craig Shaw (Volunteer Administrator, NRM). In this blog, Jenny uncovers the stories of Portsmouth railway workers Godfrey and Albert Linegar, who were both involved in accidents at work, one resulting in heart-breaking loss. To read the blog, click this link.

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Name and shame: how I reclaimed a lost identity

By on April 7, 2022 in Learning in Focus, Public History, Uncategorized

The history blog is very pleased to host this guest blog.  In it Jeremy Schultz explains the reasons behind his grandfather’s decision to change his Jewish surname at the outset of World War II, and his own recent decision to change his name back again.  Jeremy is a psychotherapist, and the brother of Deborah Shaw, Professor of Film and Screen Studies at the University of Portsmouth.  Jeremy’s family history illustrates many of the historical issues encountered by our history students in their study of twentieth-century history: the pogroms in Tsarist Russia that drove many Jews to emigrate; racial prejudice during the 1930s against Jews in both Germany and Britain; the […]

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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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Empire and its afterlives 2: How do you teach history with primary sources?

By on September 17, 2021 in Learning in Focus, Public History

This is the second post in the Empire and its afterlives series. The introduction can be found here. Primary sources represent a wide range of materials which historians can draw on, and students made the most of this diversity. The podcast episodes included discussions of armed forces recruitment posters, political speeches and pamphlets, as well as a board game, a novel, and a series of photographs by a renowned photojournalist. Two of the students selected a recruitment poster from the Second World War as their recommended source, but suggested different ways of including it into the English and Welsh curriculum. Drawing on two articles on active remembrance and military multicultural heritage […]

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The ‘Whitechapel Horrors’ – Victorian newspapers report Jack the Ripper as gothic fiction

By on May 4, 2021 in Learning in Focus, Public History

The ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders in East London in the late Victorian period have become infamous. In this piece, first year UoP history student Seamus McLoughlin looks at how an article in a Victorian newspaper was of its time in choosing to ignore known facts about the case, or any compassion towards the victims, in favour of speculation, sensation and gothic horror.  This piece was originally written for the first year ‘Fragments’ module, which looks at primary sources, and is taught by Dr Maria Cannon and Dr Katy Gibbons. Over a hundred and thirty years later, Jack the Ripper’s murders are still regarded as some of the most infamous acts […]

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