Contemporary British History Now

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Date / time: 13 September, 9:00 am - 6:30 pm

Location
King's College ondon


Contemporary British History Now

What is Contemporary British History Now?

Keynote speaker: Professor Patrick Wright, FBA, Professor of Literature and Visual & Material Culture, Department of English, King’s College London

This conference launches King’s Contemporary British History (KCBH), a cross-departmental interdisciplinary research initiative at King’s College London, which will seek to set new agendas in the field. As the inaugural KCBH event, this day will break the traditional conference format by revisiting major debates and ‘big books’, and asking where they stand now. These conversations will be grounded in the current cultural and political moment, looking to the future as much as to the past.

Our approach is based on a sense that historical debate about key issues in the history of the United Kingdom in the twentieth century has become rare, as a look at historical journals will testify. We contend that such retrospection is essential to revitalize discussion and refashion new research agendas. As Susan Pedersen has observed, ‘we could really use (and our students still more would benefit from) a set of competing, strong, partial, integrative frameworks’.

Debate has too often been projected back onto earlier historical periods, or left to those who are not professional historians with more presentist agendas. By debate we do not mean areas of new interest which have emerged, or new methods (of which there are many), but rather sites of sustained contention between positions. As part of this exercise we must also revisit path-breaking books, which engaged debates when immediately published or subsequently, and which have had high explanatory ambitions and sought to make large claims about the history of twentieth-century Britain.

For more information about the conference, check out our website: https://kcbh.kcl.ac.uk/conference/

We’re offering a limited number of travel bursaries to postgraduates and unfunded ECRs.

More information: https://kcbh.kcl.ac.uk/conference/travel-bursaries/

This conference is free to attend. You can register for the conference here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/contemporary-british-history-now-conference-tickets-35234245577