The experience of Italian Jews under the racial laws of 1938
Italy’s involvement in the persecution of Jews is often overshadowed by the horrors of Nazi Germany. Chanel Parker earned a first in her dissertation titled “Inscribed Otherness: The Role of Historical Integration on Italian Jews’ Experiences and Responses to the Leggi Razziali,” where she unveiled Italy’s historically understated role in anti-Semitic prosecution, and investigated how […]
Communal music on board the Mary Rose: the significance and after-life of a shawm
For the second year module, The Hidden Lives of Things, taught by Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Mary Cannon, for their assessment, students have to produce an ‘object biography’ for a historical artefact. Francesca Raine chose to look at one of the ten surviving musical instruments found on the Mary Rose and what it can […]
Polar Exploration and the Imperial Imagination: the social influences that drove arctic explorers to risk all
Most histories of polar exploration focus on the biographies and psychologies of heroic, driven individuals. Matthew Voyce’s UoP BA history dissertation, Polar Exploration and the Imperial Imagination 1845-1922: Race, Science and Competing Approaches, sought to go beyond this to understand the complex ways in which these events connected with the broader social influences and ideas […]
Creating an identity through clothing: a Renaissance merchant’s fashion book
For the second year UoP History module, The Hidden Lives of Things, taught by Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Mary Cannon, for their assessment, students have to produce an ‘object biography’ for a historical artefact. Sadie White chose a sixteen-century German fashion book. Described as “The First Book of Fashion,” Matthäus Schwarz of Augsburg’s Klaidungsbüchlein or Trachtenbuch […]
A virtual tour of the British Museum
On 9 May 2024 some of our UoP history third-year students did a virtual reality tour of the British Museum as part of their option, ‘Collecting the World: From Cabinets of Curiosity to the British Museum’ taught by Dr Alexandra Ortolja-Baird. Thanks to, @cci_digital_studios, for hosting the session.
Tin Cans and Relics: The Royal Navy’s over-age destroyers in the Second World War
Although Winston Churchill argued for the importance of building new destroyers, at the outset of the Second World War in 1939, many destroyers in the fleet were aged, and of limited practical value. In a paper given on Wednesday 8 May, Dr Jayne Friend examined the careers of these destroyers in the context of propaganda, […]