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Research

Interview with recent PhD graduate, Dr Louise Fairbrother

What was the subject of your research? My research looked in detail at how the town governments of Southampton and various other English towns organised their industry and trade in the sixteenth century.  It focussed specifically on the way in which they controlled the groups involved.  In Southampton’s case, this was by the use of devices such as licences, oaths and ordinances on the three groups of the burgesses, the freemen and the strangers. Continue reading →

The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, World’s Richest Man

  At a ceremony in Lisbon last Thursday His Excellency Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal, helped launch Jonathan Conlin's new biography of the Anglo-Armenian oil baron Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955). Published in English by Profile Books as Mr Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, World's Richest Man, Jonathan's book coincides with a year of festivities marking the 150th anniversary of Gulbenkian's birth. Continue reading →

Translating Darwin, Translating History

The history of science and of scientific knowledge offers lessons in many ways of thinking about the world we live in, past and present, scientific and beyond. Katalin Straner, Lecturer in Modern European History at Southampton, is writing a book on the translation and reception of Darwinism and evolutionary theory in nineteenth-century Hungary and the Habsburg Empire. Continue reading →

What is Musical Germanness?

This month sees the publication of Dreams of Germany: Musical Imaginaries from the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor, which Neil Gregor has co-edited with University of Southampton musicologist, Thomas Irvine. Here, Neil considers some of the ways the book rethinks both the histories of national identity and modern and contemporary music. Dreams of Germany: Musical Imaginaries from the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor is a book about music and ‘Germanness’. Continue reading →

Envisioning Emperors

Alan Ross is currently a visiting scholar in the Classics Department at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, where he is working on Late Antique literary culture. He recently published a co-edited volume with Brill, entitled Imagining Emperors in the Later Roman Empire. Here, he tells us why we need another book about emperors. Continue reading →

On White Fury

October sees the publication of Christer Petley’s major new study of slavery and abolition. His book tells the story of the struggle over slavery in the British empire — as told through the rich, expressive, and frequently shocking letters of one of the wealthiest British slaveholders ever to have lived. Here, Christer reflects on the choice of the title: White Fury. The title of the book was decided late on. Continue reading →

The Agincourt Campaign of 1415: The men who fought in Clarence and Gloucester’s Retinues

Michael Warner, PhD candidate at the University of Southampton, has recently been awarded the inaugural ‘Agincourt Scholarship’ by the Military Order of Agincourt in recognition for his contribution to the history of the Battle of Agincourt. He gives us an insight into his research and findings. The men who served on the 1415 campaign and fought at the Battle of Agincourt have indeed been remembered.[1] Shakespeare guessed it right. Continue reading →

The final and fateful sojourn of the Iranian Revolutionary and Scholar, Dr Ali Shariati (1933-1977), in Southampton

This year, as part of the group project module, my students* explored the brief stay, in Southampton, of Dr Ali Shariati, who is recognised as the ideological father of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. His short stay in the UK and unexpected death on 18 June 1977 have been shrouded in myth. Both scholars and the wider public have thought that Shariati died in London. Information on Shariati’s time in Southampton was sparse and hazy. Continue reading →