Latest Posts
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Women’s Voices: From Slavery to the #MeToo Movement – Fairbrother Lecture 2019
The end of the American Civil War offered emancipated African American women the right to bring rape charges against white men for the first time, leading to an escalation in disclosures of sexual violence. In this lecture, History Ph.D. student… Continue reading
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Royal Death and Burial: Reading Abbey in Context
by Prof. Lindy Grant It takes a real effort of the imagination to see the past glory of Reading Abbey, founded in 1121 by King Henry I of England as his intended burial house, in the battered remains surviving today.… Continue reading
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Battleaxes and Benchwarmers’ Trip to Parliament
By Beckie White, 3rd Year Archaeology & History student On Tuesday 12th March 2019, a group of final year History students at the University of Reading took a trip to Parliament. This trip was undertaken by students enrolled on the… Continue reading
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Finding Evidence of Holy Healing: The Case of St Robert of Knaresborough
by Dr Ruth Salter My research explores the experiences of pilgrims who sought out miraculous cures through saint cults in medieval England. A key resource for this topic are the hagiographical sources which include reports of the posthumous miracles (collected… Continue reading
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The 1975 European Community Referendum: The First of Two … or of Three?
by Dr Linda Arch On 5 June 1975 the UK held a referendum in which the electorate were asked the following question: Do You Think that the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)? Voters were… Continue reading
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Department seminar series, spring term 2019
All seminars are held on Wednesday at 4:30–6pm in Edith Morley 128. Refreshments are provided and all are welcome! Wednesday 23 rd, January, Professor Rebecca Rist (Reading), ‘Were Medieval Popes Anti-Judaic or Anti-Semitic?’ Wednesday 6 th February, Dr Dafydd Townley… Continue reading
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‘To err is human; to forgive, divine’ – Medieval popes and the concept of papal infallibility
By Professor Rebecca Rist. My research focuses on the history of religious culture and the medieval papacy, and especially the relationship between popes and specific social and religious minority groups, such as Jews (in my recent book, Popes and Jews,… Continue reading
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Midnight Mass, the Stone Roses, and ‘cuddling boys’: Recollections of Christmastime and New Year’s Eve in teenage girls’ diaries, 1970-1998
by Amy Gower, PhD student. Christmas evokes a sense of nostalgia in many of us, as a holiday wrapped up in tradition, family, and the home. Through my research into the diaries of teenage girls from the 1970s, 80s and… Continue reading
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‘A mixture of minds which cannot unite’: John Milton and no-fault divorce
by Dr Rachel Foxley The government’s current consultation (closing on 10 December) about making ‘no fault’ divorce quicker and easier might have drawn a robust contribution from the famous seventeenth-century poet and polemicist John Milton, if he were alive today.… Continue reading
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Magic, Medicine, Miracles: How Reading Abbey Helped to Invent Halloween
by Professor Anne Lawrence-Mathers On Saturday 27 October, I had the privilege of giving a public lecture for the Friends of Reading Abbey, in the presence of the Mayor of Reading, Councillor Debs Edwards. The event took place in St… Continue reading
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