XV Annual Conference of the Research Network on the History of Idea of Europe University of East Anglia, School of History – Norwich 19-21 June 2024    The geo-cultural relationship between Europe and Russia has been a source of intrigue for scholars, historians, philosophers, novelists, and politicians since at least the late seventeenth century. Catherine the Great envisioned Russia as a blend of ‘European sophistication’ and ‘Slavonic values’, while Fyodor Dostoevsky saw the Russian soul as a ‘complex mosaic, woven with threads of European rationality and Asian mysticism’. The deb ..read more

Fig. 1 State opening of Parliament By Dr Jérémy Filet and Calum Cunningham With the release of Season 5 of The Crown on Netflix in November 2022, a worldwide audience gained access to a somewhat romanticised version of the adult life of the new monarch of the United Kingdom. The series depicts a reformer Prince of Wales, who has novel ideas about society and the defence of the environment. Is this image of the modernised monarch even remotely close to reality? On the eve of King Charles III’s coronation, let us question the continuity and modernity of the British monarchy. While the classic di ..read more

By Iker Itoiz Ciaurriz Firstly, for those who might be unfamiliar with the topic, can you give us a brief overview of the history of race and power in Mexican-Japanese Relations?   Histories of race cannot be understood without reference to issues of power and change. However, most histories of race have been framed with a North Atlantic focus, reproducing and maintaining a Eurocentric approach that dominates most of the social sciences and humanities. My research on race and racism in Mexican and Japanese relations seeks to break through this nearly insurmountable barrier to decentre b ..read more

Fig 1: Franco and members of the Seville government in a Holy Week procession in 1940 By Claudio Hernández Burgos and César Rina When it comes to understanding contemporary cultural processes and political dynamics, the study of festivals and popular rituals has traditionally occupied a secondary and anecdotal position in historiography. It has been interpreted as a banal issue, and even a social practice in clear reversion within the paradigm -today surpassed- of secularization. However,  dialogue with other disciplines such as Anthropology or Cultural Studies has shown the importan ..read more

Figure 1: 1938 pamphlet issued by the Negro Commission of the National Committee of the Communist Party, USA By Dr Sherzod Muminov For a few early decades of the twentieth century, Japan came to be seen as a champion of the colonized peoples around the world. Behind this image stood Japan’s meteoric rise as the first non-white nation to join the great power club. It had achieved this status through its victory in the Russo-Japanese War—a remarkable feat for a nation that only a half-century prior had been under threat of colonization by European empires. Japan’s victory was met with elation th ..read more

Fig 1: Demonstration of The Comité Mondial Des Femmes Contre la Guerre et le Fascisme demanding female vote By Dr Jasmine Calver Political discourse over the last few years has been dominated by discussions and warnings about extremism, particularly the rise of the new extreme right across the globe.  How and why modern extremism attracts certain women and how these women are consequently deployed to encourage more women to join have also been consistently debated in discourse about the rise of the radical right. Parallels have been drawn with earlier far-right movements, particularly int ..read more

Figure 1: Poster of the Campaign Against Racist Laws By Amy Grant Beginning my research into anti-deportation campaigns in Britain during the long 1980s was a depressing experience. I became enveloped by account after account of families and individuals being torn apart by ever-tightening and often arbitrarily administered immigration laws.[1] It became clear that the ‘hostile state’ began its inception long before Theresa May first infamously championed it in 2012, but, our means of resistance, channels of appeal, and overall sense of hope have only declined since the ‘80s.[2] Eventually, how ..read more

Fig. 1 Black History Month display at UEA Library How libraries – and librarians – are grappling with decolonisation and why this matters By Jenny Whitaker and Grant Young This is probably self-evident – especially to historians – but libraries are not neutral entities. They are highly constructed. They have legacies and biases and have been both beneficiaries and instruments of colonialism. They amplify certain voices in the literature and neglect or supress others. While much of this has been shaped by others in the knowledge economy – authors, publishers and their distributors, researchers ..read more

By Aaron de Souza For the last ten years or so I’ve been deeply interested in ancient Nubian cultures of the Second Millennium BCE – in particular the so-called ‘Pan-Grave’, ‘C-Group’ and ‘Kerma’ cultures.[1] I can’t tell you exactly what about them it is that intrigues me so much, but a big part is the objects that these communities made and used. Quite simply, the objects are beautiful. Sure, pharaonic stuff is dazzling, too, but ancient Nubian objects have a simplicity, sophistication and timelessness that I find quite special. And everything feels distinctly human – you can really sense th ..read more

Figure 1: Sketch of the life of Frederick Douglass in Special Memorial Murder (1895) By Becky Taylor Black History Month is often a time when I reflect not only on how Black British histories inform my own research on histories of marginalised and racialised groups – Gypsies and Travellers, refugees, the vilified poor and migrant populations – but also on the leading role Black historians and historians of Colour have had in shaping our – and my – understanding of those histories. Last year had me reading History Workshop Journal’s inspiring ‘virtual special issue’ that saw a group of its edit ..read more