Category: Research in Focus

Research in Focus

Germans coming to terms with the crimes of the past: the role of the Wehrmacht in World War II

In his dissertation third-year history student Tim Marsella studied the changing understandings and representations of the role of the Wehrmacht (German armed forces in World War II) within modern Germany. He shows how a landmark exhibition in the 1990s challenged perceptions about the breadth of involvement in war crimes, but also how coming to terms with painful memories allowed German society to move on.

Wehrmacht soldiers training in 1942

Most students are aware when they start their degrees that they will be required to complete a dissertation in the final year of their course, and this prospect can seem quite daunting.What I would like to share is both my inspiration for this work and what I gained from doing it.

For myself, deciding the topic was one of the most difficult tasks. I decided that I wanted to base my research upon one of the most well-known historical events, the Holocaust, but was unsure on what focus point to take. What I was particularly interested in was how a nation, which had been involved in such a widespread, and atrocious crime was able to deal with its past in the present day. I approached, Dr Mathias Seiter (who would later become my first supervisor) to discuss my ideas I had regarding my dissertation. He helped to point me towards the role of the Wehrmacht (the combined German armed forces of the Second World War) in the Holocaust’s perpetration, as this had been a controversial topic. It quickly became evident that the reason for this controversy was that by condemning the Wehrmacht, an entire generation of Germans would be condemned. This is because such a large part of the German population had been a part of the Wehrmacht.

Luckily, I had the opportunity to visit the city of Berlin in the summer leading up to my final year of study. I was amazed at the level of work modern Germany had put into commemorating it’s past, even the criminal parts of it. This is most evident by the large ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe’, which sits in the centre of Berlin. I was also impressed by the museums of the ‘Topography of Terror’ and the ‘German Historical Museum’. Both museums demonstrate past crimes of the German state and its populace, and important for my dissertation, both highlight the Wehrmacht’s role in crimes. It was evident to me, that modern Germany views its crimes very seriously.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin

Over the year I planned, researched, wrote and changed my dissertation on different occasions. It was not a straightforward process. Luckily, I had two excellent supervisors, Dr Mathias Seiter and Dr Brigitte Leucht who both helped me to better my work. It was also fascinating to listen to their stories as both had witnessed the exhibition at the centre of my dissertation first-hand. What resulted was a dissertation which took a focus point of the Wehrmacht exhibition entitled War of Annihilation: Crimes of the German Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944 (1995-1999) by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. This exhibition would be used to examine the changing perception of the Wehrmacht within the German public conscious and would fit into the wider debate of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Germans coming to terms with the past). The dissertation was divided into three chapters, which looked at the changing ideas of the Holocaust and the Wehrmacht prior to the exhibition, the exhibition itself as well as its reactions, and finally whether the exhibition was able to change the idea of the Wehrmacht in present German society. The analysis was primarily literature based, but used some key primary sources, notable representations of the Wehrmacht within German popular culture.

Visitors to the exhibition War of Annihilation: Crimes of the German Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944 held from 1994-9 by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research

What this dissertation concluded was the Wehrmacht exhibition had a great impact on German society. The levels of guilt in which the Wehrmacht was implicated in varied between different representations, but no representation could deny the Wehrmacht being involved in crimes. Importantly, this idea of Wehrmacht being vital for the Holocaust is presented, the blame not just placed upon the ‘top Nazi’s’ and the SS. This has allowed Germany to be able to move on from its Wehrmacht’s criminal past and deploy as well as commemorate its new armed forces.

From doing this research I gained some valuable insights. What I discovered was the importance of both history and memory on human society. Notably, the exhibition caused a drastic change in perception for some individuals. For example, shockingly to some individuals, pictures of their relatives committing crimes were actually in the exhibition. Visitors were shocked to see their ancestors, who they believed were loving husbands, fathers or grandfathers committing atrocious crimes. People would tour the exhibition using magnifying glasses in fear of spotting a relative. Interestingly, people would react differently. Some wrote into the exhibition, sending in their personal family albums, some needed to visit psychiatrists or sought comfort through religion. Others would write into the exhibition team in defence of their family members, criticising the exhibition team, labelling them with names such as ‘communists’. Criticism reached a peak when there were clashes both inside and outside the exhibition venues, and there was even a bomb attack on the exhibition. A literal attempt at destroying the evidence. Importantly however, the exhibition was causing dialogue between generations and across all levels of society, all the way to the German Federal Government.

Visitors to the exhibition feared what they might find out about apparently loving family members.

Overall, what this dissertation has taught me is that daunting pieces of work can turn out to be very enjoyable. At the beginning, finding a place to start can be hard, and when ideas have to change throughout the topic, it can be tough. But by choosing a topic I enjoyed, and getting good supervision, I was able to complete a piece of work which I got great enjoyment from doing.

June 19, 2020
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. Tom is planning to continue onto an MRes, where his impressive skills at reading early modern handwriting, and patience with sifting his way through basement archives should come to further good use. – ed

Whether its Errol Flynn’s smooth-talking Captain Blood, or Johnny Depp’s rum-soaked Jack Sparrow, the pirate occupies a special place within popular imagination. A glint in the eye appears – well for me at least – to see sails catch the sea breeze, the thunderous sound of cannon fire and the sight of the notorious Jolly Roger flag unfurl in the salty sea air. It is a childhood feeling of freedom, fraternity and insouciance. But, within these multi-sensory interactions there are – rather sadly – misrepresentations which go beyond Davy Jones’ tentacles and Robert Louis Stevenson’s black spot!

My dissertation looked at the ways in which perceptions of the pirate have been driven and curtailed by a series of archetypes in the historiography of sixteenth-century piracy. I examined the very complicated nature of Tudor maritime law and the even murkier local privileges that had been granted to regional governments in the medieval period to show that piracy was a communal crime rather than a crime committed by an individual.

I would be lying, however – as I sit here writing this – if I said I had always planned to write my dissertation on Elizabethan piracy – a subject I have come to embrace. In fact, (my slightly protracted) dissertation journey started on my second day at University. While I always had the intention of writing my dissertation on early modern maritime history – even before I joined University – a chance meeting with Dr James Thomas, a true master of everything wooden-world related, although sadly no longer at the University, altered my somewhat naïve attitude to the subject. He showed me in the very few minutes that I sat and spoke with him the need to look beyond certain key individuals and the need to view the bigger-picture. My dissertation, although without his guidance, is a sum of what he, along with every other history lecturer at the University, has taught me as an undergraduate over the three years. I am indebted to James Thomas particularly for not only his personal insight, but also his research which I hope to have followed – if only loosely and in a different historical time-frame.

Overall, my dissertation took no structured form in its embryonic stages, but I knew I wanted to focus on the smaller social dynamics within historical coastal communities. My argument never stayed the same and adapted and was enriched with every unit that I completed. In particular, a second year unit co-ordinated by Dr Fiona McCall who would later become my dissertation supervisor – positively altered my critical approach to early modern social structures and Tudor court systems. In a weird sense, the unit gave my dissertation a kind of hybridity where I appropriated elements of crime history and understandings of state formations, which I then blended with forms of maritime history to reinterpret the Tudor pirate.

While the dissertation was fundamentally driven by my individual research, it drew heavily on the apparatus and advice / teaching I had been exposed to – perhaps subconsciously at times – across the three years. Archival research was two-words – which as a twenty-year-old – filled me with dread going into the third year. For historians, however, as for Elizabethan state officers, the brazen English pirate of the sixteenth-century has been an elusive figure; historical records are far from forth-coming. My initial research drew a blank. Searching deeper I realised that to gain any access to relevant sources would take effort on my part – and a boat load of it! I had to adopt the role of the detective – as much as the historian – with a lot of suspects, little clues and no circumstantial evidence. The pirate was hidden away in the dark recesses of time and history, but also the archive!

The Discovery engine on the National Archives website proved an invaluable tool in my quest of the pirate, and initial searches showed certain documents that had potential, but not necessarily relevance. My dissertation, as a study, was driven by the local dimension of piracy, and by combining key word searches with certain geographical locations narrowed my search immensely. I realised quite early on that Southampton Records Office held the majority of documents pertaining to my area – which was initially but somewhat unimaginatively Portsmouth! Having recorded all the document reference numbers, I went the archive. Stepping off the train at Southampton central station my first emotion was to get straight back onto the train. I felt archival research was beyond me, in both my years and capability. Unfortunately for me I had realised I hadn’t bought a return ticket!

SC8/1/1 – Southampton’s Admiralty Court Book

I persevered, I knew that to write the dissertation on the subject I wanted would require some degree of internal strength – which at this point was lacking. Going into the archive – which I initially couldn’t find, but that’s a story for another blog – I was confronted by everything that I expected; a dimly-lit, deathly quiet basement reminiscent of the IT Crowd. But, despite the appearance I was met by the most friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff. Seeing, and touching, 500-year-old documents is an unbelievable experience. At many points I had become so captivated by what I was touching that I had forgotten why I was there.

Archival research is something that necessitates patience. Be prepared to be given a box full of documents, transcribe Elizabethan writing in your mind and on paper, only to find there was nothing of pertinence to your argument. Countless train journeys and days spent in the archives may from the out-set appear laborious and futile, but through it you can develop some invaluable – and some less valuable – skills. I have become a more patient person; I can also fully read and transcribe even the most difficult Elizabethan writing. But I have also gained some memories. Sitting in the archive touching the signatures of Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster, and Dr Judge Julius Caesar – a well-known figure in the Elizabethan piracy world – can be an exhilarating moment – if you’re that way inclined!

SC8/1/1 – A page within the book displaying the complicated, but highly fascinating, nature of Elizabethan documents

I lost count of my trips to the archive, and it became something I enjoyed rather than loathed. My dissertation, and archival, journey had brought me before some of the most interesting documents I have ever had the privilege to read. From angry mayors trying to protect their piratical behaviour within Portsmouth’s waters to pirates that have been identified by their victims through their distinctive facial features, reading through unpublished material can be hugely exciting, especially when it offers information that goes against the current scholarship.

SP 12/132 f.1 – The hardest document that I have had the pleasure to transcribe. Early modern writing can be hard to decode and can make you feel like you want to give-up at first. But, weirdly, after a while they become easier to read

My dissertation journey has been a long one, but also one that I have devoted the most hours of my life to. At many points I have felt like I have been stranded on an island, surrounded by a sea of documents (this is the last nautical pun, I promise!). But the opportunity has offered me a lot of freedom and has enabled me to formulate my own judgements as a trainee-historian. I feel lucky to have had a supportive dissertation supervisor that has pushed me further and further – even to the last days before submission! Without Fiona McCall’s guidance I would not have produced the dissertation in the forms it is currently in. Her support and constructive criticism helped shaped my research, but also sharpen my analytical tools. I cannot wait to continue researching my topic and get back to the archive!

June 16, 2020
From Margins to Centre? An undergraduate conference on marginalised histories

At Portsmouth we were delighted to have not one, but two students presenting their work at the recent ‘From Margins to Centre’ conference at the University of York – a testament to the innovative and exciting research our students are devising and doing. In this blog post our second contributor, third year student Amelia Boddice, discusses the conference and where her paper fitted into the themes of the day. As well as building her employability skills, the conference prompted some thought-provoking reflections on the nature of historical enquiry: Amelia clearly got lots out of the day – just as it should be! The whole history team here at Portsmouth pitched in to support Amelia’s preparation and secure the internal funding so she could attend, and we’re pleased to be able to feature this post.

I was invited to speak at this conference, on government solutions to racism in the British education system c.1976-1985 with a focus on the policy of dispersal. This was the first time I have prepared a paper for a conference and delivered a talk in front of more than a handful of people. But the helpful feedback I have received from individual/group presentations during my undergraduate degree helped to prepare me for this moment. I was apprehensive but ready for the challenge as marginalised histories is something I have been passionate about since my second year of university study. During the conference I was inspired by the range of topics covered by each of the panellists and the passion with which each person delivered their talks. It was also encouraging to see the diversity of the audience; I felt like I had found a place to discuss freely a topic which was so important to me and be received with friendliness and open discussion. It felt like a safe space to talk about issues within the historical field and to feel hopeful that we were all doing our part to shed light on topics previously under-researched. Some of my favourite talks included Farida Augustine’s paper on Identifying West Africans in the French resistance, Joe Moore’s paper on Marginalised groups in the Miners’ strike and Tallulah Maait Pepperell’s paper on Feminism, pacifism and aristocracy: the politics of Irene Clyde.

Amelia presenting her paper

I was especially inspired to hear the keynote speaker, Catherine Hall, say “if there are issues taught in your department, say so.” This emboldened me, it made me realise that questioning things, opening the margins and discussing concepts such as intersectionality is not being rebellious against the historical status quo but rather part of being a historian. These are issues faced in our society today, part of living life, everything is intersectional to an extent and understanding these nuances and asking further questions is essential. We should not accept things just because they seem to be the authority on the topic, whether that be an influential text or a key historiographical argument. Upon reflection, my dissertation rebels against the historiographical status quo, as it asks whether Catholics only used items to pray in the Elizabethan household. What evidence is there for this? What about the prayer manuals of the period? Did every household have access to religious items and/or did every household conform to the set standard for religion? On the other hand, to what extent were Elizabethan Protestants iconophobic? So, now it is clear to me that I have always been questioning the historical status quo but I need to take this further and use my platform to discuss the issues which really matter to me. This is because, as Catherine Hall stated, what starts at the margins can begin, slowly and surely, to unpick the centre. What was once marginalised history can become the norm; the history we teach to the younger generations should reflect the society around us. It should include diverse nationalities, ethnic origins, ages, abilities and sexualities. We need to find new histories and make new stories.

Recusant pendant found on the Isle of Wight

I would like to say thank you to Clare Burgess and Olivia Wyatt for inviting me to be a panellist at their conference and for being so organised and welcoming. I would also like to thank Katy Gibbons and Mike Esbester for being so encouraging and helpful in organising everything in addition to their useful feedback on my paper.

Photo credits:

Courtesy Olivia Wyatt & Clare Burgess.

May 5, 2020
Building Supernatural Cities

In this post, Karl Bell, reader in cultural and social history, talks about his new book Supernatural Cities: Enchantment, Anxiety and Spectrality, bringing together scholars from across the globe working on the relationship between supernatural beliefs and urban cultures. He describes what the book is about, and what he learned from the process of international academic collaboration.

In my most recent book I brought together and led an international group of scholars in an exploration of magic, monsters, ghosts and storytelling in urban cultures around the world. Examining these ideas from the late eighteenth to the early twenty-first century, Supernatural Cities: Enchantment, Anxiety and Spectrality (Boydell and Brewer, 2019) challenges the assumption that supernatural beliefs and magical practices died out under the impact of modern urbanisation. Engaging with urban supernatural cultures across five continents, the contributors demonstrate how such ideas played a role in evolving urban cultures, and how they continue to serve a cultural function up to the present day. Underlying the broad historical and geographical scope of the book is the argument that the supernatural has continually been adapted and updated to accommodate and express our cultural, economic and environmental fears.

Heart Amulet from the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

The book takes its title from my faculty-funded research project (www.supernaturalcities.com), and originated from the project’s first conference, held at the University of Portsmouth in 2016. Both the conference and the subsequent book brought together a diverse range of academic approaches, with contributions from historians, geographers, anthropologists, folklorists and literary scholars. When approached by the publisher, Boydell and Brewer, to develop it into a book, I was encouraged to expand the scope beyond a predominantly European focus. This represented an ambitious scaling up from my previous research and publications, which have focussed on magic, ghosts, and urban legends in nineteenth-century Britain.

To facilitate that broader scope, I had to seek out scholars around the world who shared an interest in the themes of the book, and that led to a fascinating trawl through Academia.edu. Long before we were all working online due to the Coronavirus, this meant collaborating with scholars who I have never met, in places as varied as Russia, South Africa, the USA and Australia. Given that a third of the contributors were complete strangers to me, I was hugely impressed by their consummate professionalism and the way they got behind the publication.

My previous book editing experience was as a co-editor on Port Towns and Urban Cultures (2016) (See http://porttowns.port.ac.uk/port-towns-book/), a collaboration with fellow UoP historians, Professor Brad Beaven and Dr Rob James. For Supernatural Cities, the challenges of structuring the book, reviewing chapters, and steering it to completion fell solely to me. This necessarily resulted in a slower process and, again, I was impressed with the contributors’ patience and commitment. Engaging with chapters that ranged from witchcraft in nineteenth-century Paris, to the Goat Man scare near Washington DC in the 1970s, to Manchester’s post-industrial psychogeography and the ghost lore of twenty-first century Beijing certainly took me out of my comfort zone. However, as I have repeatedly found in my research, it is often when we dare to take that step that we develop as scholars.

The Goat Man of Washington D.C.

The book sets out three ways of understanding the relationship between the supernatural and the urban environment. The first section on enchantment considers the empowering influence of magical beliefs and the ability of folkloric tales to transform and enrich our understanding of the urban environment. Examples are drawn from Paris, London, Limerick and the emerging modern cities of South Africa. Focussing on less positive aspects, the second section uses the supernatural and the Gothic to explore social fears, environmental anxieties, and the demonising of various urban ‘others’. Here, case studies are drawn from New York, Manila, Washington D.C., Tokyo, the post-Soviet era industrial cities of the Urals, and the London Underground. The third section explores ghosts, spectrality, and their links to haunting, historical guilt and trauma, and memory. Chapters focus on the Australian goldfield town of Ballarat, Mexico City, Beijing and Manchester. Across the collection, and the broad geographical sweep of its examples, it is fascinating to see the way these themes prove universal while taking on their own local cultural and historical expressions.

H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror at Red Hook (1927)

The book seeks to make an important contribution to our understanding of how urban environments, both past and present, inspire our imaginations, prompt cultural insecurities, and generate spatial fears. If it helps stimulate greater multidisciplinary discussion between scholars of the supernatural and urban cultures, and if it can encourage dialogue between eastern and western perspectives (and northern and southern hemispheres), then it will have more than fulfilled my ambitions and hopes for the project.

For a full outline of the book’s contents see https://boydellandbrewer.com/supernatural-cities.html. If inspired to read more, Supernatural Cities is available as an ebook via the University Library

April 23, 2020
Marginalised Histories – presenting undergraduate research on AIDs at a conference

In this blog post, third year student Sophie McKee reflects on her poster presentation at the recent ‘Marginalised Histories’ conference at the University of York. We were excited when the conference came up and encouraged our students to apply, working with them on their proposals and securing funding to support attendance. This was a great chance to disseminate their research, experience another aspect of the world of the academic historian, and gain value experience to enhance their employability. We were therefore delighted that Sophie was accepted to present a poster, based on her dissertation research.

Fiona McCall has asked me to write a blog post about attending conferences. Now, I have only attended one conference, but within a few weeks that number is going to be pushing to two, so I thought now might be a time to reflect on the one that has been, and potentially psyche myself up for the one that is coming.

I study the AIDS crisis in 1980s and 1990s America. Often that elicits lots of questions, the most popular of which at the moment is: “have you seen the film Philadelphia?” to which I sigh heavily and say yes because I am well aware of the lack of representation on HIV/AIDS in popular culture. So, when the opportunity came up, to go to a conference on marginalised groups in history at the University of York I jumped at the chance. I am of the opinion that the AIDS crisis is one which not only is not academically investigated enough but is also not particularly known about in the UK. While the first cases of AIDS in the UK started around the early 1980s like in America, by the time that AIDS rose to national prominence in 1987 with the famous “AIDS: Don’t die of ignorance” campaign, there was a lot more information known about the disease.

For the conference, I was invited to present a poster. My dissertation examines the social and economic diversity of activists during the AIDS crisis. Many of the leading AIDS activists were middle class, white gay men who had previously been able to live within the closet and enjoy the privilege of “passing” as straight within the deeply homophobic social environment of 1980s America. Due to the physical manifestations of the disease, AIDS often forced people out of the closet and out of these powerful structures of privilege, forcing them to be marginalised. Modern discussions of this race and class element can often be problematic. At times, some voices online have attempted to apply their own ideas of diversity to the subject, when as we know, history doesn’t have the best track record of being the most equal. The “middle class, white gay man” trope can be used negatively and incorrectly when really, the men who were part of these organisations actively subverted expectations of privilege and class and fundamentally changed the way that the American Pharmaceutical companies tested and released AIDS medication to the market. While they do not conform to modern ideas of diversity, that does not mean that anyone is allowed to negate their achievements, for this is how history can be forgotten. This is what I was going to discuss in my poster.

One thing I loved about this experience was exactly what I have just done above. By being able to engage with my research, it gave me the opportunity to realise just how passionately felt about it. Lecturers, family, and friends would ask me what I was doing for this conference, and slowly but surely I had whittled down all this information that I had in my head to a few lines of a minute or so that I could succinctly explain what I was talking about and hearing it come out of my mouth made me feel more confident, I KNEW what I was talking about, it gave me pride in my work.

I will tell you this with love and for free. Academic posters are boring. They don’t have to be, we are studying some of the most fascinating things in the world but my goodness we don’t half make a boring poster. My poster was NOT going to be boring it was going to be COOL and FUN and MAKE A STATEMENT. Jokes aside, I was incredibly proud of the hard work I had put into it, so yes, I made it bold and hot pink and used the same font that AIDS activists used on their posters. This is because unlike a presentation, a poster needs to be eye-catching, and on the day of the conference, many people commented on the way it looked. (All of that thanks needs to go to my friend who helped me make it. Thanks, Bren!)

March 10, 2020
Students visit the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton

Third year student Amelia Boddice describes her first experience of visiting and using an archive, with other students of the Racism and Anti-Racism in Post-War Britain special subject, taught by Dr Jodi Burkett.

The group outside the archives; Amelia at right.

As part of my special subject, ‘Racism and Anti-Racism in Post-War Britain’ run by Dr Jodi Burkett, we had to come up with our own essay questions. At first this seemed quite a daunting prospect. As I looked through the topics and read more widely I decided to write about something I was truly interested in: the British government’s attempts at improving the everyday experiences of ethnic minorities in the 1970/80s. I wanted to touch on the themes of housing, education and policing. A trip was arranged for us to visit the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton to help us find our primary sources, as this was a documentary essay, or to find primary sources to use in our individual presentations.

For many of us, this was our first visit to an archive and so none of us really knew what to expect. We were asked in advance to look through the archive’s subject guides online and select some items which we might want to look at on the day. The archive’s staff were helpful and very accommodating in advising us further on what material they had available on each of our requests; this was done in the cases where we needed to narrow our selection: I had accidentally requested nine boxes of material on housing alone and would not have time to look at all of the material!

Upon arrival we were split into two groups and would alternately have time in the reading room and a tour of the archive. My group were taken to the reading room first. We were asked to leave our possessions in a locker room and take writing materials up to the reading room, which is common practice when visiting archives. We were each presented with the material we had requested and given a couple of hours to go through the boxes or folders of information. This was a very surreal experience as it really brought the history of the ethnic minorities I was studying to life! To look at and touch the official documentation or photographs confronts you with a new dimension of history which cannot be gathered from looking at sources online and so I really made the most of the time I spent in the reading room, taking notes and trying to understand the material in front of me. This meant that when it came time to write my essay I had done quite a lot of my source analysis. I also tried to enjoy myself, understanding this was an opportunity I would not get for a while, unless I went on to study at Higher Education or planned to write a history about another area of black history.

S.S. Empire Windrush

We paused for a lunch break and then began our tour of the building. We learnt the history of the building and why its location is important to preserving the history of the local area and its community. The project for preserving the history of the black community in Britain began in 1981 and found a home in 2014 in Windrush Square, Brixton, named after the SS Windrush.

Going to Britain? Pamphlet published by the BBC Caribbean Service, around 1959 ©BBC

Brixton itself has been known as a cultural epicentre for the black community since the post-war period and so this heritage site has been appropriately situated here. We were also introduced to some books in the gift shop which might be of interest depending on what we were looking at in our essay or what we were interested in general, for example, Black and British by David Oluoga and Brit(ish): on Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch. It was a very worthwhile trip for both widening my interest in the topic and also helping me to understand what careers are out there for those of us who are interested in archival work. I made sure to visit the exhibition on the Neil Kenlock Archive called ‘Expectations.’ I was presenting on the history of the British Black Panthers for this class and Neil Kenlock was their professional photographer. It was interesting to see his work displayed in person, rather than on an online database, and it brought the reality of what he was trying to portray to life. The photographs included many influential black leaders from the post-war period, showing them as leaders in their own right. This introduced me to many black leaders who I had not seen before, only read about, and it was interesting for me to consider what I had read about a person and place a face to their name.

I am very grateful to Jodi and the staff at the museum for making the process accessible to those of us who were new to the experience and for making the day so fun.

March 5, 2020