History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

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Hans Holbein ship with sailors

Cut-throat communities, angry noblemen, and a noseless pirate! My journey through the joys and horrors of writing a dissertation

By on June 16, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

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 […]

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Welcome_to_the_Falkland_Island cropped

Four years on: graduation to employment

By on April 7, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Public History

In this blog post, graduate Chloe Anderson considers her time at Portsmouth and its influence on her career. Chloe comes from the Falklands Islands originally, so is probably the student who has travelled the furthest to study history at Portsmouth.  As she writes below, she is now putting her history training to good use back home. We’re pleased that she offered to put this together for us, as it’s lovely to keep in touch with our graduates and to be able to share their success stories. Whilst some aspects of our course structure have changed since Chloe studied with us, the essential aspects she discusses (our approach, the support and […]

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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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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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WLA_vanda_Powder_flask_Adam_and_Eve

Material Culture – Adam and Eve Powder Flask, Austria ca. 1600

By on August 22, 2019 in Learning in Focus

Tom Underwood, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog entry on the Adam and Eve Powder Flask for the Introduction to Historical Research module. Tom discusses the flask’s importance as a marker of social standing in the Renaissance period. The module is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth. In the Abrahamic religions Adam and Eve are the symbol of life, the creation of humankind, the genesis of man. Firearms, on the other hand, are representative of quite the opposite, death, destruction and a complete collapse of humanity that would not look entirely out of place in […]

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