History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Archive | Learning in Focus

Learning in Focus

Ashleigh in Brussels

Realising and communicating a love for history, at Portsmouth and beyond

By on February 26, 2025 in Alumni, Employability, Learning in Focus, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

Ashleigh Hufton is remembered with great affection by the history team as a student who contributed keenly to history seminars from the outset and worked hard to develop her skills further during her studies in history at the University of Portsmouth from 2018 – 2021.  Ashleigh has since been enjoying great success teaching history at secondary level.  Below she writes about her studies at Portsmouth, and what she has gained from them since graduating.   What I enjoyed most about my history studies at Portsmouth It is difficult to pinpoint the most enjoyable part of my degree because I genuinely loved every moment of being a student at the University […]

Continue Reading 0
nina simone cropped

“How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?” – studying Nina Simone and her times

By on October 16, 2024 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Below Pauline Standley describes the experience of studying for a master’s degree in history (MRes) at Portsmouth.  She looked at the role of Nina Simone as a civil rights activist, a feminist, and someone who reflected the broader socio-political shifts of her time.  Pauline’s supervisor was Dr Lee Sartain. Nina Simone. For many, her name immediately brings to mind her iconic, richly textured voice, often accompanied by signature sounds of the trumpets and piano in timeless classics like “I Put a Spell on You” or “Feeling Good”. While these songs undoubtedly capture her unshakeable legacy, Nina Simone is also a reservoir of intersectional experiences that reveal much about the socio-political […]

Continue Reading 0
Ikusgela_-_bell_hooks_lemazaina cropped

The different experiences of black and white women within the US feminist movement

By on August 14, 2024 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Recent UoP history graduate Rebekah Sistig’s dissertation looked at how inherited racism divided members of the second-wave feminist movement in the USA.  She discusses her research below, with some good tips on breaking down the process. Rebekah’s supervisor was Dr Lee Sartain. Angela Davis, Betty Friedan, bell hooks and Gloria Steinem – all icons of the second wave feminist movement in the US, all women who dedicated their lives to fight against sexism. But were they truly united in their fight against the patriarchy? Was the supposed ‘sisterhood’ all it was chalked up to be? Judging by their contrasting books, organisations, ideologies, and social groups, I think it may not […]

Continue Reading 0
shenyang cropped

Researching the role of the Western powers in concealing Japanese War Crimes

By on August 7, 2024 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Recent UoP history graduate Benjamin Taylor wrote his third-year dissertation on Japanese war crimes, discovering that the US and other Western states played a far larger role in the cover-up than has been previously acknowledged.  Below he writes about the trial and error process of writing his dissertation, and how the guidance of his supervisor, Dr Rudolph Ng, has been vital. My chosen topic for my dissertation was an investigation of the cover-up that has surrounded Japanese war crimes. Specifically, my dissertation sought to answer two questions: has there been a cover-up surrounding Japanese war crimes? And two, if so, which country was most instrumental in creating and perpetuating this […]

Continue Reading 1
Graduation 2024 cropped

Graduation Day 2024

By on July 17, 2024 in Events, Learning in Focus

It is always a proud day for us as tutors to see students we have nurtured since they were freshers step up onto the podium to receive their degrees.  We love chatting to students after the ceremony to talk about their experience of the course, moved by the stories of students who have got there despite having to navigate difficult obstacles, catching up with students we taught several years ago, and hearing about what students are planning to do next.  It is also great to tell students how much we appreciated some of their wonderful final year work, which hardly seemed possible when they were the ‘noisy’ group of post-covid […]

Continue Reading 0
Benin bronze cropped

An African slave trading commodity washed up off the Isle of Wight

By on July 15, 2024 in Learning in Focus

Many of our UoP history students take the opportunity to do voluntary work in one of the many museums in Portsmouth or nearby.  Second-year UoP History Isobel Turtle started volunteering even earlier.  Having decided to defer her university entry,  she started working at the Isle of Wight shipwreck centre in 2021.  It’s given her lots of unique opportunities to learn how a museum works: highlights have included seeing how a museum becomes accredited by the Arts Council, how grants and funding are secured and used, how exhibitions are created from scratch, working on databasing the collection, helping with visiting school groups and managing volunteers. She has worked her way up […]

Continue Reading 0