Latest Posts
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Our Best of 2024: Film and TV
In our December series, members of the department reflect on the books, films, TV, music, art, exhibitions and experiences that shaped their year. Today, we ask colleagues that their favourite film or TV show was this year. Jeremy Burchardt Yasujiro… Continue reading
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Our Best of 2024: Books
In our December series, members of the department reflect on the books, films, TV, music, art, exhibitions and experiences that shaped their year. First up, we asked colleagues what their favourite book of the year was. Jeremy Burchardt The best… Continue reading
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The Power of Art: Here and Now
As we start to wind down ahead of the winter vacation, Dr Dina Rezk reflects on the power of the arts to engage us and enrich our thinking. A few months ago, a friend sent me a flyer of a… Continue reading
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Great Stenches, Horrible Sights, and Deadly Abominations: the Stenton Lecture and Symposium 2024
The Stenton Lecture is an annual lecture by an eminent historian, hosted by the Deparment of History, named in honour of our founders, Sir Frank and Lady Doris Stenton. Here, two of our PhD students, Stephen Evans and Caroline Johnson,… Continue reading
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Local Women’s Liberation – locating Women’s Activism in Reading
Amy Longmuir explores women’s activism in our town in the 1970s. As a lifelong Reading resident, when one of the largest towns in the UK comes up in my research on the British Women’s Liberation Movement, I am particularly interested… Continue reading
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Black History Month 2024: Black Musical Cultures Beyond Borders, Part 2 – Transatlantic Exchanges
In the second of our two Black History Month blogs, Dr Benjamin Bland (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of History) reflects on the importance of transatlantic exchanges and identities to the history of Black musical cultures in the… Continue reading
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Black History Month 2024: Black Musical Cultures Beyond Borders, Part 1 – Staff Selections
Paul Robeson, world famous baritone, leading Moore Shipyard (Oakland, CA) workers in singing “The Star Spangled Banner” in 1942. We are marking Black History Month this year by celebrating the diverse history of Black musical cultures. This culminates in an… Continue reading
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My Summer in the Archives: the Papers of Nancy Astor
This summer, our undergraduate student Courtney Murch spent time in the Reading Special Collections working with the papers of Nancy Astor, the first woman MP to take her seat in Parliament. Turning 18 in 2022 did not only mean that… Continue reading
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“History needs to be about the present as far as I’m concerned”: an interview with Polyp
The artist Polyp began drawing political cartoons over forty years ago, while still a student. After a period as a care worker, he got his big break producing searing satirical cartoons for the New Internationalist magazine. Alongside a growing body… Continue reading
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History around Reading: Basildon Park
Here in Reading, we’re fortunate to be surrounded by history – the ruins of Reading Abbey, reminders of the English Civil War, and the Victorian prison where Oscar Wilde penned his famous ballad. This summer, we’re exploring that local history.… Continue reading
READING HISTORY 