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Learning in Focus

Sophie AIDS research poster cropped

Marginalised Histories – presenting undergraduate research on AIDs at a conference

By on March 10, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

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 […]

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Black Cultural Archives V3

Students visit the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton

By on March 5, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

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. 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 […]

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Goblin scullery maids, ghostly miners and cannibal sailors: my experience of studying for a PhD at the University of Portsmouth

By on February 24, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Dr Eilís Phillips followed three years of undergraduate study at the University of Portsmouth with a three-year PhD on Victorian monsters, supervised by Dr Karl Bell, Reader in History at the University.  Her work is an inspiration to many, not least to my own students studying ideas of the monstrous in the 17th century Civil War context.  Impressively, while studying with and teaching at the University, Eilís has combined her academic studies with regular performances as a musician at many locations in Portsmouth and the surrounding areas – ed.   My PhD was a three-year, CEISR-funded interdisciplinary project which used an approach based in History – grounded in historiography – […]

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Self-identity under slavery: Frederick Douglass narrates his story

By on February 14, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Joshua Bown, a first year History student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog entry on the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, for the Fragments module, which looks at the possibilities and challenges of using primary sources for historical study. The module is co-ordinated by Dr Katy Gibbons, Senior Lecturer in History at Portsmouth. The use of egodocuments as a primary source for historians has provided both significant and controversial contributions to the field. As Laura Sangha puts it, the potential advantages of studying these personal documents seem obvious, in that they may ‘reveal what an individual actually thought and felt about […]

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Windsor Castle

Life after Graduation

By on February 12, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Public History

One of our recent graduates tells us how the skills he gained studying at Portsmouth, and the volunteer experience he gained while studying, helped him secure an exciting job in the heritage sector.  For security reasons, he has not been named. Having graduated in the summer of 2019 and with a firm understanding that it was now time to get back into the world of work, the task was on to find a job, one that both stimulated me and used the great many skills learned through the three years at Portsmouth. Upon entering university I knew that my one objective was to better myself in both educational values and […]

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How I learned to stop worrying and chose my dissertation topic

By on January 30, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

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 […]

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