Is Maggi Hambling’s ‘A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft’ attuned to the intellectual accomplishments of the woman it was created for, or to the particular struggles of women in the present? Vic Clarke investigates.
Historians’ Watch
Henry Dundas: Naming Empire and Genocide
How do we name empire and genocide, the structural violence embedded in our built environments, and why does it matter? Melanie J. Newton unpicks the contested legacy of Henry Dundas, eighteenth-century imperialist & “Uncrowned King of Scotland”
Amy Coney Barrett, Enoch Powell and IVF politics
When it comes to IVF politics, have the British been too quick to paint Americans as occupying the anti-scientific fringe? Laura Beers responds after the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court.
The Fifth Pan-African Congress, 1945: A Landmark Moment in British Radical History
In October 1945, delegates from across the world gathered in Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall, half a mile south of St Peter’s Field, to take part in the Fifth Pan-African Congress.
Sex Work and Police Violence in the Archives
How should historians respond to acts of violence in the official archive? Catherine Phipps considers the life of Samia, an Algerian-French teenager, arguing that the epistemic attacks she faced highlight the urgency of historical work which takes account of police violence against sex workers.
Police, Press & Race in the Notting Hill Carnival ‘Disturbances’
On the 7th May 2020, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, news broke that this year’s Notting Hill Carnival would be cancelled. Set to take place this August Bank Holiday weekend, the cancellation was a first in the Carnival’s more than fifty-year history. A few weeks […]
Why We Need Black History in UK Schools
Jason Arday on why interweaving Black history into our curriculum paves the way for a more consistent and informed approach towards addressing structural and institutional racism.
