History@Portsmouth

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Learning in Focus

Image courtesy of Rebecca Hams

Two years done, and each year getting better!

By on September 19, 2017 in Learning in Focus

Are you just about to start your second year studying History? This blog is written by Jess Jenkins, and in it she thinks back on her second year of studies and offers advice on how to make the most of your experience. Jess is just about to start her final year. Two years done, and each year getting better! I am now going into my third year as a History student at Portsmouth University and my second year has only left me feeling ridiculously eager to proceed into my final year. The second year as a history student is a year that you can tailor to your interests and pursuits […]

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What to expect in your first year as a History student

By on September 16, 2017 in Learning in Focus

Are you just about to start your first year as a History student? Starting to wonder what it will be like? Then read this blog written by one of last year’s ‘freshers’, Eleanor Doyle. In the blog Eleanor reflects on her experience when starting this whole new chapter in her life, from induction week worries to enjoying life both inside and outside the lecture room. Eleanor is just about to start her second year of studies. When you start at university it can be difficult to know what to expect. For most people, it’s their first time away from home and there is a lot more independence than at school or college. It […]

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Re-using the past: history on film.

By on August 4, 2017 in Learning in Focus, Public History

In this blog Dr Rob James, senior lecturer in history, reflects on the issue of ‘truth’ in historical feature films, revealing how filmmakers have frequently used past events to comment about contemporary situations. Rob specialises in researching people’s leisure pursuits, and teaches a number of units on film and the cinema, including his second year option unit ‘The Way to the Stars: Film and cinema-going in Britain, c. 1900-c. 2000’ and the final year Special Subject strand ‘Cinema-going in Wartime Britain, 1939-1945’. As James Chapman has noted in his masterly book Past and Present: National Identity and the British Historical Film, ‘a historical feature film will often have as much […]

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Men of the 16th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 1st Infantry Division wade ashore on Omaha Beach on the morning of 6 June 1944

Personal Experiences of D-Day: Told through the words of the veterans by Jessica Harper and Katy Hodges

By on June 6, 2017 in Learning in Focus, Public History, Research in Focus

Jessica Harper and Katy Hodges, third year history students at the University of Portsmouth, wrote the following blog entry on the research they conducted as part of a final year group research project. Along with fellow final year students Hannah Coulouras and Phillip Gerrish, Jessica and Katy looked into veterans’ experiences of D-Day in June 1944. As well as presenting their findings as part of the unit’s assessment, the students also gave a public presentation at Portsmouth City Museum. The final year group research unit is co-ordinated by Dr Robert James, Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural History at Portsmouth. Personal Experiences of D-Day: Told Through the Words of the […]

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Using Visual Sources: Edward Armitage’s Retribution (1858)

By on June 1, 2017 in Learning in Focus

Rozene Smith, a second year history student at the University of Portsmouth, wrote the following blog entry on how historians can use Retribution (1858) to reflect on representations of the British Empire for the Introduction to Historical Research Unit.  The unit is co-ordinated by Dr Jessica Moody, Lecturer in Modern History and Heritage at Portsmouth. Studying a “Museum of Empire” unearths a reality of the British Empire as a cornucopia of peoples and cultures, and an ‘archive’ equally monumental and multifarious.[1] W. J. T. Mitchell championed the ‘pictorial turn’ and the resurgent ubiquity of images in what became an increasingly visual-oriented culture.[2] The work in question is that of Edward Armitage, student of […]

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Using Official Sources: The Chadwick Report (1843)

By on May 4, 2017 in Learning in Focus

Rozene Smith, a second year history student at the University of Portsmouth, wrote the following blog entry on how historians can use The Chadwick Report (1843) to understand 19th century social reform for the Introduction to Historical Research Unit.  The unit is co-ordinated by Dr Jessica Moody, Lecturer in Modern History and Heritage at Portsmouth. The nineteenth century witnessed an obsessive fixation on empirical and factual data, culminating in a fetishisation of valuable official documents.[1] Consecutive parliamentary acts passed in this period secured centralised funding for official state record-keeping and began the process of establishing a governmentally-sanctioned Public Record Office.[2] Between 1832 and 1846, over one hundred Royal and Parliamentary commissions […]

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