In this post, Rachel E. Johnson introduces her new book — 'Voice, Silence and Gender in South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Struggle. The Shadow of a Young Woman' — which is published in the Society's 'New Historical Perspectives' series with University of London Press. Central to the monograph is the figure of Mary Masabata Loate. Between 1976 and 1986, Masabata Loate appears in court records and newspaper articles as a school student activist, a beauty queen, a terrorism suspect, a political prisoner and finally a murder victim. Her death in 1986 at the height of the State-of-Emergency violence was remembered in ways that obscured her complex relationship with anti-apartheid politics as a teenager and young woman. While lacking lacked the materials to write a conventional biography, Rachel has created what she terms 'a shadow biography' of this young woman. Rachel's monograph is the 21st title in the Society's 'New Historical Perspectives' series for early career historians. This, and all other titles in the series, are published free, Open Access, and in paperback print.

The work of disciplinary sub-panels (including that for History) is fundamental to the Research Excellence Framework. Subject panels form the heart of REF, responsible for assessing and grading scholarly outputs, impact and research cultures across the UK HE sector. The steering group of REF2029 currently invites applications to join the sub-panels that will set the criteria and then assess submissions for the next research exercise. On 7 March, the Royal Historical Society held an information event to consider the role and workload of the REF2029 History sub-panel, and how historians interested in submitting for the our disciplinary sub-panel should proceed with an application. This post summarises a discussion between former History sub-panel members and prospective panellists, setting out both the rewards of panel membership and extent and burden of the work.

In this post Chakali Chandra Sekhar introduces his new article,  ‘Rediscovering Hitavadi: A Forgotten Pioneer of Telugu Vernacular Print and Missionary Journalism’, recently published in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'. 'Hitavadi' was the first Telugu-language literary journal, founded in 1862 by Rev. John Edmund Sharkey of the Church Missionary Society. Emerging from the turbulence of post-1857 colonial India, 'Hitavadi' was conceived as more than a religious tract. It was a radical endeavour and a transformative force in shaping the vernacular public sphere in Telugu-speaking regions of colonial South Asia.