Received from Anna Clark (St. John’s, University of Oxford) Event Overview ‘Women and Worlds of Learning’ is an interdisciplinary conference focused on the place of women within higher and further education. It is taking place 12th-13th April 2024 at the University of Oxford. Programme Friday 12th April 9.00-9.30: Welcome 9.30-10.30: Keynote 1 Annalisa Obeo (University of Padua) – The University of Women: On the experience of writing a history of women academics and students in Padua 10.30-10.45: Tea Break 10.45-12.15: Session 1 ​Panel 1 – The Place of Learned Ladies within Medieval Worl ..read more

by Thomas Leng (University of Sheffield) In February 1973, an article appeared in Past and Present by a young American historian, with the deceptively prosaic title ‘The Civil War Politics of London’s Merchant Community’. Here, the author traced the emergence of a succession of merchant groupings linked to changes in the structure of overseas trade which unfolded in the 80 years up to the outbreak of civil war, culminating in a cohort of ‘new men’ who rose from England’s early colonial exploits, and who differed from the traditional trading company merchants who preceded them. Whereas the latt ..read more

Received from Dr. Laura Flannigan (St. John’s College, Oxford) Popular Knowledge of the Law in Early Modernity – one-day online workshop (3rd April 2023) Join us for an exciting online workshop exploring Popular Knowledge of the Law in Early Modernity. This one-day event will feature short papers and discussion on the study of law and litigiousness from new and established researchers in the field. Kindly supported by a workshop grant from The Past and Present Society, papers will be given in person at St John’s College, Oxford. Due to limited capacity at the venue for this event, additi ..read more

by Barbara Taylor (Queen Mary, University of London) What is solitude? The question tends to stop people in their tracks. The commonsense definition – an absence of other people – clearly won’t do, first because one can be wrong about this, that is be in the presence of others when one thinks one isn’t, but also because being with others is for many people the most solitary condition of all. Isolation, seclusion, privacy: none of these are solitude, although some may be preconditions for it. Sometimes aloneness is lonely – for some people unbearably lonely: ‘Solitude,’ the poet John Donne wrot ..read more

by the Past & Present editorial team Saturday 3rd February 2024 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Edward Palmer Thompson (best known by his publication initials E.P.). E.P. Thompson was a key member of the Communist Party Historians Group out of which Past & Present emerged. However, he is widely remembered today for his pioneering approach and significant contribution to the study of social history, exemplified by the work The Making of the English Working Class, as well as his trenchant interventions in the fields of historiography and politics. E P Thompson addresses anti-n ..read more

by Will Pooley (University of Bristol) Where did “Doubt and the dislocation of magic: France, 1790–1940” my piece in Past & Present No. 262 come from? All origin stories are, of course, excuses. Historians are no more immune than anyone else from inventing their own pasts to suit the present. After all, historical fictions are fun. So let me tell it like this: I wanted the piece to do what the Wild on Collective have called ‘historically grounded theory’. I wanted to take seriously the possibility of ‘alternative epistemological inquiries, orientations, or starting points’. Historians are ..read more

by Suzie Cloves (Manchester Metropolitan University) As part of Disability History Month 2023, Past and Present funded an event designed to answer “How can we best use sound to support access to heritage?”. This was hosted by Manchester Centre for Public Histories + Heritage (MCPHH) and its aim was to generate practical ideas that would encourage thoughtful use of sound to support access to heritage. The discussion was recorded so it could be shared as a freely available podcast and transcript, which you can find on the MCPHH blog. “I believe that our futures are defined by the elements ..read more

Received from Edmund van der Molen (University of Nottingham) Event Title: Gender and Sainthood c. 1100 – 1500 Conference Date: 5th – 6th April 2024 Location: History Faculty, University of Oxford Organisers: Antonia Anstatt (Merton College, University of Oxford) and Edmund van der Molen (University of Nottingham) Full Programme Registration Link This conference is supported by the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, the Hagiography Society, the Past & Present Society, and the History Faculty, University of Oxford. Past & Present is pleased to support this event ..read more

Received from Susannah Bain, James Cogbill, Annabel Hancock, and Bee Jones (University of Oxford) Two day workshop taking place at Worcester College, University of Oxford 12th – 13th January 2024. Programme available here. Past & Present is pleased to support this event and supports other events like it. Applications for event funding are welcomed from scholars working in the field of historical studies at all stages in their careers. Past & Present logo, 2017 all rights reserved The post Programme for Scales of Governance: Local Agency and Political Authority in Eurasia, 1 ..read more

Received from Rachel Collett (University of Liverpool) and Alfie Steer (Hertford College, Oxford) Date: Friday 28 June 2024 Location: People’s History Museum, Manchester M3 3ER Keynote speakers: Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal, and Hilary Wainwright 2024 marks the 45th anniversary of the publication of the seminal socialist-feminist text, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism. Within its pages, activists Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright wove sharp political analysis and personal reflections in their respective essays. The text sought to unify the various r ..read more