Monthly Round Up: May

News

Dr Aileen Fyfe and her team presented the report Untangling Academic Publishing, which has invited responses from all over the world!

Congratulations to Professor Chris Given-Wilson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, who has been shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Wolfson History Prize for his book Henry IV

Dr Caleb Karges, who graduated in 2016 after completing his PhD ‘”So Perverse an Ally” Great Britain’s Alliance with Austria in the War of the Spanish Succession’ has won the André Corvisier Prize. Congratulations!

Staff Activity

On 9th May, Professor Given-Wilson discussed his book Henry IV on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking

Dr Emily Michelson presented the paper  “Converting the Jews of Rome: New, Old and Failed Tactics,” at Agents of Conversion, a conference at Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters

Professors Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov gave public lecture on topic “Towards Modernity: Roma Awaking in the Interwar Period in Eastern Europe” on May 11 in the SEELECTS – Slavic and Eastern European lecture series, organised by the Research group Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Ghent University

Between 22 and 25 May, Professors Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov presented the paper ‘Politics of Multilingualism in Roma Еducation: Between Two World Wars and its Current Projections’at  “The politics of Multilingualism: Possibilities and Challenges” organised at the University of Amsterdam

In May, Dr Emily Michelson presented the paper “Defining hate speech and Jewish resistance in early modern Rome”

Publications

The Heirs to the Throne Project, The Royal Annual 2017

Emily Michelson, ‘Conversionary Preaching and the Jews in Early Modern Rome‘, Past&Present, Vol. 235, No. 1, (2017), pp. 68-104.

Colin Kidd and Gerard Carruthers, (eds.), The International Companion to John Galt (Association for Scottish Literary Studies: Glasgow, 2017)

Colin Kidd, ‘Satire, Hypocrisy, and the Ayrshire Renfrewshire Enlightenment’ in, Colin Kidd and Gerard Carruthers, (eds.), The International Companion to John Galt (Association for Scottish Literary Studies: Glasgow, 2017) ,pp. 15-33.

Class Trip ‘The German Hercules’: Martin Luther and Germany

Blog written by Ffion Bailey

Our intrepid historical adventurers set off from St Andrews bright and early on a fine Thursday morning for a few days of Lutheran fun, neither ‘celebrating’ the ‘jubilee’ of the beginning of the Reformation in 1517, nor embarking on a pilgrimage to buy Lutheran relics (or Playmobil figurines), but commencing an exploration of the places that were key to Luther’s Reformation.

Our journey began with a walking tour of the Wartburg, where Luther hid under the protection of Frederick the Wise after the Diet of Worms. Although disappointed by the lack of donkeys at the castle, which welcomed Luther in his day, buses were an adequate substitute for our enthusiastic bunch to reach their destination. Despite feeling rather worse for wear after tasting some German beer(s) the previous night, the brightly reconstructed nineteenth-century rooms, castle views and interesting gift shop souvenirs rallied the group. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Eisenach house offered further entertainment later in the day, where highlights included the hanging pods designed for listening to some of the composer’s greatest hits, and one class members’ debut as a pedal pusher in a musical demonstration.

Our study and research continued after hours, as the Leipzig crew sampled the local nightlife with traditional German beers and food, as well as finding a Scottish bar to remind us of home, thus successfully emulating Luther’s alcohol-laden table talks.

Our adventures brought us next to Wittenberg, a town at the heart of the Lutheran Reformation, although seriously lacking in much hustle or bustle today. Must-see sights included the brand new and well-equipped train station which welcomed us and set high hopes for our day in Luther’s university town. We also visited the famous doors of Castle Church, redesigned in the nineteenth century, where Luther allegedly nailed his 95 Theses, the beautiful Cranach the Elder Wittenberg Altarpiece, and of course Luther’s house. From receiving a stern and disapproving look from a member of staff when we held a Luther’s works story time in the Luther Room, to learning all about the animals the family kept at their home, and reading the many interesting pamphlets from Luther’s day in the printing room – hours of fun were had at the Luther House. This was undoubtedly the best part of everyone’s trip, with two members of the class particularly taking their time to soak up all the facts and learn about each display in minute detail, to everyone else’s delight…

The fun continued in Berlin, where some of us attended a number of church services to truly immerse ourselves in Lutheran theology, and others explored art galleries, set off sightseeing and getting lost around the Brandenburg Gate, and found the best place for breakfast. However, our planned itinerary later that day was cruelly cancelled due to the distraction and disruption of striking staff at all Berlin airports, which left everyone extremely disappointed to miss another museum visit. The solution of course was clear and we found a quaint bar to help drown our travel-dispute-related sorrows. Online comments stated that the barman was Mephistopheles himself, and that the basement bar was a parallel universe, although these claims can be neither confirmed nor denied.

Getting back to the UK became our next class mission. Collectively, we missed seven flights, had a further six cancelled, caught trains from Berlin to Hamburg, Vienna and Amsterdam, and even booked non-refundable hotel rooms mistakenly for seven months in advance in the Dutch capital – if anyone would like to buy these rooms from us please get in touch. With our numbers dwindling and seemingly re-enacting ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, or perhaps Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’ (minus the murder element and basically unlike the plot at all) the three remaining adventurers still stuck in Berlin desperately tried to return to St Andrews. Punished with flight delays and the Forth Road Bridge closure, we finally returned to The Bubble after twenty-eight hours of travel, where we will continue to study Luther from a safe distance. Dispersed across Europe, all members of the infamous 2017 Luther field trip could now truly understand Luther’s difficulties traveling through Germany.

Our thanks go to Dr Heal for organising the trip, showing us the sights, and most importantly getting us home. Half the class having converted to Catholicism, and all being very reluctant to leave Scotland for the foreseeable future, this was all in all a very successful trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monthly Round Up: April

News

Professor Guy Rowlands has presented his inaugural lecture ‘Glamping with Guns. Louis XIV, the Camp of Compiègne, and the Origins of the Modern Military Exercise’.

Professor John Hudson has received the 2017 St Andrews Students’ Association Teaching Award in the ‘Excellence as a Dissertation/Project Supervisor’ category.

Dr Nina Lamal has received a three-month Rome Award from the British School in Rome. She will be at the BSR from January to March 2018 working on collections of seventeenth-century Italian newspapers.

Staff Activity

Dr Chandrika Kaul delivered a public lecture on ‘The BBC and India’ at the FCSH/Nova, Lisbon, on 6th April.

Dr Sarah Easterby-Smith gave a public talk  on 11th April, entitled ‘Science at Sea: Eighteenth-century botanical collecting,’ to the Dollar History Society.

On 15th April, Professor Michael Brown gave the plenary lecture entitled ‘Brexit and “the New British History”: A Late Medieval Perspective’ at the conference Borderlines XXI: Authority in the Medieval and Early Modern World, held at University College Cork.

On 19 April 2017 Dr Tomasz Kamusella delivered a talk on ‘Imagining Nations: Ontological and Epistemic Objectivity’ in the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia.

Two days later Dr Tomasz Kamusella provided a Summing-up Commentary for the international conference on ‘Identities, Categories of Identification, and Identifications between the Danube, the Alps, and the Adriatic,’ held in the National Museum of Contemporary History, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

On 27 April, Dr Ian Bradley and Dr Douglas Galbraith gave the talk ‘Singing the Protestant Faith: the Musical Legacy of the Reformation’ as part of the St Andrews Reformation Institute seminar series.

New Publications

Josh Arthurs, Michael Ebner, and Kate Ferris eds. The Politics of Everyday Life in Fascist Italy. Outside the State? (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)

Bridget Heal and Joseph Koerner, eds. Special Issue: ‘Art and Religious Reform in Early Modern Europe’, Art History, Vol 40, No 2 (2017)

Curiosity, Empire and Science in Eighteenth-Century France Class Trip

Maggie Reilly (Zoology Curator) explains some of the taxonomic challenges faced by the Hunterian’s curators. Photo attrib. Sarah Easterby-Smith, CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0

Blog written by Jamie Hinrichs, PhD student

On 8 March, Dr Sarah Easterby-Smith’s undergraduate module ‘Curiosity, Empire and Science in Eighteenth-Century France’ travelled to the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. Additional members of this expedition included a visiting lecturer from the School of Art History and a few postgraduate students – of which I was one. Although the holdings of the museum were unlikely to relate to my PhD thesis topic, and although I was lacking contextual knowledge of the eighteenth century and notions of “empire”, what historian-in-training could resist an invitation to a museum? Furthermore, what human being could resist an invitation to spend a day in a museum with Dr Easterby-Smith? I certainly could not.

The Hunterian is Scotland’s oldest public museum, founded in 1807. It was built upon the bequest of Dr William Hunter (1718 – 1783), a physician and anatomist by trade and a devoted collector at heart. His wide array of curiosities illustrates the exchange of ideas that lay at the heart of the Enlightenment era. Hunter collected with the purpose that the items would be used within an institutional environment in the future. Within his will, Hunter included provisions for the University of Glasgow to build a museum to hold his collections and stipulated that the collection would be kept together as a whole after his death.

The historic value of collections in general was put best by one of the curators:

“The history of collecting is not just about the past, but about our present.”

Visiting the Hunterian Museum reminds us that primary resources are truly a menagerie, a mix of preserved insects, herbariums, minerals, taxidermy, coins (the narrative and portraiture found in each), preserved medical specimens, military medals (and the story each one tells), shells, sketch books, paintings, journals, letters, personal book collections, and more. Collections like the Hunterian’s, are the circus-spectacular of the of the primary resource world – prepare yourself to marvel at its curiosities.

Maggie Reilly and Anne Dulau (Art Curator) discuss the sloth specimen. Photo attrib. Sarah Easterby-Smith, CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

While the collection itself is certainly impressive, what’s perhaps even more impressive is the degree of devotion and passion the collection’s curators displayed. Our group was treated to a full day of engagement with specialists who gave us mini-lectures on each part of the collection. They presented the information almost as if they were boiling over with excitement to tell someone a long-held secret.

For the history student, visiting a museum collection like this and engaging with those that work with these materials daily, illuminates history as a vibrant field of future career possibilities. The overall experience shed light on the grand array of potential employment paths that involve historical research beyond the traditional route of becoming a professor. For example: you might become a numismatic expert (with a silver pocket watch), develop an exhibition on British historic military medals (even though you studied twentieth-century, cultural European history), take charge of shifting through thousands of shells in a historic collection to discover which belonged to the original collection (thereby playing Sherlock), fascinate wide-eyed visitors by explaining just why there is a pig with two bums in a glass display case (and yes, it was born that way), and risk your life by handling a taxidermized sloth which, should you break the specimen’s skin, would leak arsenic on your hands (gives a new thought to the connotation “slothful”). Anyone who says history is dead, dull, or dreary is truly misinformed.

Articulating the fast-paced nature of working in a museum, subliminally comparing it to a journalistic lifestyle, one curator said:

“That’s museum life. You finish one project and immediately dive into the next with little time for reflection.”

The experience provided me with plenty to reflect on. If you are past due for a dose of curiosity and want a peek through different windows into the past, I highly recommend an expedition of your own to the Hunterian Museum.

ISHR Reading Weekend 2017

 

Photo attrib. Ellen Colingsworth, CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

On April 7, the members of the Institute of Scottish Historical Studies traveled from various places to the Burn in Edzell for the highly anticipated ISHR Reading Weekend 2017. Mlitt students, PhDs, postdocs, professors and former lecturers were all part of this fantastic event, and with the sun shining brightly upon arrival, the weekend was off to a great start.

The Friday started gently, as after tea, cakes and dinner, the Mlitt students associated with the Institute presented their preliminary plans for their theses. Sarah Minnear spoke about her exploration of gendered bloodfeud in Scotland, especially the role of women in these conflicts. In examining both urban and noble contexts, a fuller picture of this violent practice will emerge. Daniel Leaver talked about his research about the early twentieth century Scottish National Party, analysing the extent and variety of ideas the party had about Scottish Independence. By studying party leaders’ documents and other political writings, a clearer idea of the legacy of this period for the SNP’s thought can be discussed. After probing questions had been answered, the group dispersed to play games, have a drink and catch up with one another.

Monthly Round Up: February and March

News

Dr Shanti Graheli was recently awarded the Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellowship in Comparative Literature and Translation at the University of Glasgow, for a duration of three years. Dr Graheli has also recently won a Major Grant from the Bibliographical Society.

Professor John Hudson has been awarded a European Research Council ‘Advanced Grant’ of over two million Euros for a project entitled ‘Civil Law, Common Law, Customary Law: Consonance, Divergence and Transformation in Western Europe from the late eleventh to the thirteenth centuries’.

Dr Nina Lamal has  received a Major Grant from the Bibliographical Society to conduct research in Italian archives and libraries for her project on Italian newspapers entitled, ‘Late with the news. Italian engagement with serial news publications in the seventeenth century (1639-1700)’.

Staff Activity

The Heirs to the Throne project has now launched a podcast series, based on their Heir of the Month essays.

On 15 March 2017, Dr Tomasz Kamusella delivered the lecture on ‘Imagining the Nation: Ontological and Epistemic Objectivity,’ in the Departamento de Filología Moderna at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain.

Professor Carole Hillenbrand gave a presentation on 15 March to UN ambassadors and delegates in the United Nations Office in Geneva at an event entitled ‘Islam and Christianity, The Great Convergence’, organised by The Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue.

Dr Bridget Heal has written an article in History Today entitled, ‘Martin Luther and the German Reformation’.

On 23rd March, Professor Elena Marushiakova and Professor Veselin Popov took part in the Workshop ‘Roma Communities in a Global Perspective: Myths, Constructions and Discourses’ in University of Helsinki.

Dr Emily Michelson presented two papers on the 27th and 29th of March: ‘Sixteenth-century Italian Sermons to Jews and to Christians’ at ‘Circulating the Word of God in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Transformative Preaching in Manuscript and Print (c. 1450 to c. 1550)’ at the University of Hull an ‘Exiting the Roman Ghetto: when was it dangerous and why?’ at ‘Ghettos’, an interdisciplinary research seminar at Birkbeck University of London.

Recent Publications

Josh Arthurs, Michael Ebner, Kate Ferris eds. The Politics of Everyday Life in Fascist Italy. Outside the State? (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

Shanti Graheli, ‘Aldo Manuzio e il Rinascimento Francese’ in M. Infelise (ed.), Aldus and the Making of the Myth (Venice: Marsilio, 2016), pp. 259-274.

Shanti Graheli, ‘Aldo e i suoi lettori’ in T. Plebani (ed.), Aldo al Lettore (Milan/Venice: Unicopli and Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2016), pp. 151-172.

Tomasz Kamusella, Język śląski, naród śląski. Więcej faktów, mniej mitów [The Silesian Language and Nation: More Facts, Fewer Myths], 2017.

Professor Frank Lorenz Müller, Royal Heirs in Imperial Germany: The Future of Monarchy in Nineteenth-Century Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg  (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017)

Jacqueline Rose, ‘The Godly Magistrate’, in Anthony Milton, ed., The Oxford History of Anglicanism, volume 1: Reformation and Identity, c.1520-1662 (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Undergraduate History Conference 2017

Puravi Kumar

This year I was very lucky to organise the Undergraduate Conference in St Andrews that took place on the 4th February 2017. As a society, it is one of our bigger events and we believe that it is an important way to engage those students interested in continuing with a career in academia. Thus, allowing them to present a research paper in a proper setting as well as having their papers published in a journal.

This year’s theme was “Identity in History”, which generated a lot of interest with applications and attendees to the conference. Considering the geopolitical affairs of 2016, the notion of identity had been prominent in most minds and was partly a reason to pick such an intriguing topic. However, identity has been present throughout history and one that continues to be debated in various contexts. Therefore, it became somewhat of an easy choice and we decided that this was an important topic to explore in the Undergraduate History Conference.

Overall, the day was a great success and an interesting experience for all those involved. I would like to thank the speakers again for their hard work and contributions as well as the generosity of the History Department of St. Andrews for their funding contributions.

Sophie Rees

My presentation at the History Conference focused on the oxymoron of female identity that was created and sustained in 1950s America by the American media. In the tumultuous aftermath of war, and in a desire to restore patriarchal stability, a restrictive image of a white, middle-class housewife became the female ideal, and forged an essential component of modern female identity. This idea inherently domesticated woman soon became popularised through the mass consumerism of the 1950s, and as such, the original white, middle-class women felt they lost their own individuality in the process. From this feeling of helplessness, the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s was forged, pioneered by Friedan, the archetypal white-middle class freedom fighter. In my paper, I therefore argued that the inherent problem of female identity in the 1950s was its failure to reconcile the individual with the mass, and the mass with the individual.

 
This was my first time presenting at a History conference, so naturally I was a bit anxious, but the inclusive and accepting atmosphere put me at ease. Everyone seemed to really engage with the topic that I presented, particularly in light of the current feminist uproar in the US, and asked lots of pertinent questions. I left the day with a greater understanding of a wide range of diverse topics, and felt empowered to go on to complete further historical research. After my undergraduate degree, I hope to pursue a postgraduate degree in gender history, focusing in particular on the role of women in the Ancien Régime in France. I would strongly encourage anyone thinking about pursuing further historical studies to take part in the Conference, as it is a fantastic public speaking opportunity and reaffirmed my desire to pursue the academic profession.

Natalia Zdorovtsova

At the Undergraduate History Conference, I spoke about the transient radical identity which was assumed by the Sans-Culottes during the French Revolution. This topic is of particular interest to me, as the French Revolution presented the politically and economically precarious conditions from which a robust, culturally unique Sans-Culotte subculture could emerge. In our current situation of global economic and social uncertainty, one cannot help but notice the emergence of radical groups, the members of which choose to adopt the social and ideological characteristics of their beliefs as the core, defining traits of their individual existences. It would be interesting to further investigate the psychology which drives identity-building, as well as the societal conditions which make it possible for such groups as the Sans-Culottes to thrive and continue to self-define.

In addition to this, I would like to expand my research into the topic of scientific empiricism. How has the pursuit of scientific inquiry and data-gathering been approached throughout the ages? What ideologies and technological advancements warranted the development of a universal scientific method? These are some of the questions which I seek to explore next in my research.