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The Future of History at Roehampton

The Royal Historical Society is shocked and concerned by proposed redundancies and programme closures in History (and across all Arts and Humanities provision) at the University of Roehampton.

The terms of the Roehampton cuts are extensive.

The proposal is to make all 13.6FTE History posts redundant through voluntary or compulsory schemes and to require current staff to reapply for seven newly configured posts. In addition, the University seeks to close its History MA to new entrants from September 2022. If enacted, Roehampton’s cuts to History staffing will, in numerical terms, exceed those undertaken by any UK university in recent years. 

If the Roehampton proposal is extensive, it is also inexplicable.

By any measure, Roehampton is a successful History department. It performs extremely well in the 2022 National Student Survey and Guardian League Table, exceeding many Russell Group institutions. On its website, the University lauds its ‘world-class historians’ who combine academic study with ‘real-world experience’ and skills-building for successful graduate careers. It’s these same members of staff whose posts are now targeted for redundancy.

As in teaching so in research, the Roehampton History department is flourishing. 83% of Outputs were judged as ‘world leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent’ (3*) in the recent REF2021 exercise. This places Roehampton among the UK’s leading post-92 institutions for History. Roehampton’s historians are equally skilled at external grant capture: £1.67mn since 2014—a 550% increase in income generation compared with the previous REF cycle. Roehampton History has already demonstrated considerable growth in research culture since 2014. To squander opportunities for future growth will be a huge waste of talent, reputation and potential in favour of short-term solutions to current concerns.

The University’s stated reasons for cuts are declining student admissions, and its need to restructure degree programmes to meet Office for Students’ markers on graduate employability and professional status. 

The Society finds this explanation unconvincing. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, between 2014 and 2020 recruitment increased at Roehampton by 113% in History, far exceeding the University’s 68% increase across all subjects in this period. Of the 104 institutions in the HESA survey, only two saw a greater increase in FTE enrolments to study History than Roehampton. Likewise, any subsequent small decline in admissions has identifiable and exceptional causes—most notably A-Level grade inflation in 2020 and 2021. 

The University is right to stress the need for History degrees to prepare students for employment in a range of sectors. However, it’s mistaken to argue that Roehampton History must start again with a new degree and job profiles in order to do so. 

As a closer look at Roehampton’s existing History programme makes clear, these priorities are already in place. Skills training and employability are central to History at Roehampton and a feature at all stages of the BA course, including a compulsory module in ‘Applied Humanities: Professional Practice and Placement’. As a result, for 2017-19, 66% of ​​Roehampton History undergraduate leavers were in ‘graduate level’ careers or further study. 

The Royal Historical Society has written to Roehampton’s senior managers to address their presentation of the History department and reasons for cuts. We sincerely hope our communication is read as constructive and the start of dialogue. We hope too that it encourages those charged with university management not to act in haste when considering change. Rather, we invite them to work with the Society, and others, to develop valuable, attractive and sustainable programmes in the humanities, for the longer term. 

It is our great concern that once disbanded—whether to meet short-term financial and strategic goals, or acquiesce to populist swipes at the humanities—centres of expertise like Roehampton History will prove impossible to recreate. This would be a loss we can truly ill afford.

The President and Council of the Royal Historical Society

 

 

Those in UK History departments facing cuts, or concerned about their prospect, are welcome to contact the Royal Historical Society.

Contacts and resources are available in the Society’s new toolkit for ‘Supporting History Teaching and Research in UK Universities’.

 

RHS visits historians at the universities of Canterbury Christ Church and Kent

 

On Monday 11 September, members of the Society’s Council visited colleagues at the universities of Christ Church Canterbury and Kent. The Visit is the latest in this autumn’s series of meetings with historians at universities across the UK.

The day included a panel discussion on ‘Surviving and thriving in a history department today’, with the RHS President Emma Griffin and faculty members and early career historians from Christ Church Canterbury and Kent. The discussion focused on challenges facing the profession, potential new directions for teaching and research, advocacy, and the role of the Royal Historical Society in supporting historians and the discipline.

This was followed by a public lecture by Professor William Pettigrew (Lancaster) on his current research on the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa, an often-forgotten founder of England’s contribution to the transatlantic trade in enslaved African people in the 1660s. Our thanks to William; our panellists, the co-organisers of the Visit at Christ Church and Kent; and all those who attended. The recording and abstract of William’s lecture is available here.

Forthcoming Visits and sponsored lectures

Visits are an opportunity for the Society’s Council members and staff to meet with historians. Visits also include an RHS sponsored lecture by a guest lecturer. Our next Visit (Monday 18 September) is to the Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands, Dornoch, which includes a public lecture by Lucy Noakes (Essex)–‘Histories, communities and feelings in the centenary of the First World War’–which all are welcome to attend, in person or online.

This is followed, on Monday 16 October, with a Visit to the University of Hertfordshire, including a lecture–‘Naming and Shaming? Telling Bad Bridget Stories’–with Elaine Farrell (Queen’s University Belfast) and Leanne McCormick (Ulster).

Further Visits, to the universities of York St John, York and Brunel, take place in early 2024.

 

COVID-19

Guidance from the RHS for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Last Reviewed: 23 March 2020

This document was updated on 23 March to give additional information about funding, and the closure of the RHS office.

The current novel coronavirus outbreak is a rapidly-developing international situation, which will cause significant ongoing disruption. This guidance is intended to support Royal Historical Society (RHS) staff, Council members and grant recipients.

Updates to this guidance will be posted on this page.

The largest proportion of the Royal Historical Society’s non-staff expenditure takes the form of support for early career researchers (PhD students and recent recipients of the PhD). The RHS is committed to supporting these scholars during what we realise is a very challenging time nationally and internationally. Please bear with us as we work to adapt our standard policies to accommodate this set of exceptional circumstances.

Additionally, during the novel coronavirus pandemic, we are exploring ways to re-direct the funding usually allocated for travel to conferences and archives/libraries—which is not currently feasible for researchers to undertake. Instead, we hope to facilitate research undertaken remotely and/or research activities that promote historical researchers’ exchange of ideas and wellbeing during this unprecedented peacetime crisis.

Our priorities at this time are to ensure that a) no-one feels under pressure to put their own or others’ wellbeing at risk for RHS-related or funded work and b) individuals don’t incur significant personal expense related to RHS-funded activities as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

 

Royal Historical Society Staff and Council

  • During the current outbreak RHS staff, and members undertaking RHS business, are working from home, and at flexible hours as necessary. The RHS’s physical office is closed until further notice.  Caring responsibilities, limited access to resources, and personal circumstances may mean that responses to queries may take longer to answer than usual. Please bear with us in these exceptional circumstances.
  • RHS-sponsored meetings and events will be postponed, cancelled or moved from physical to virtual locations as appropriate until it is considered safe to resume group and large group meetings. It will take some time for us to determine an indicative schedule, and changes will inevitably occur over time.  We will endeavour to provide updates in a timely manner.  In the meantime, an archive of podcasts and videos of past events can be found here: https://royalhistsoc.org/category/rhs-video-archive/.
  • If any RHS staff or Council member develops symptoms of COVID-19, they should self-isolate and follow up-to-date NHS guidance: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/.
  • If any RHS staff or Council member develops symptoms of COVID-19, or has had contact with a confirmed case, the RHS will follow government guidelines: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/guidance-for-employers-and-businesses-on-covid-19.
  • In any event, current government and NHS advice should be followed and may supersede this guidance.

 

Visitors to the RHS

  • The RHS office is now closed until further notice, and RHS-sponsored events have been postponed, cancelled or moved to virtual spaces. The guidance below pertains to any visits made to the office or to RHS-sponsored events prior to Friday 20 March.
  • If, within fourteen days of attending our office or one of our events, a person tests positive for COVID-19, or subsequently self-isolates as a precaution, we ask to be notified by email: enquiries@royalhistsoc.org.
  • Visitors to the office/events who have recently travelled to/from the places identified by the NHS as being at increased risk are asked to notify us: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/advice-for-travellers/.

 

Recipients of RHS Research Expenses grants and Conference Travel grants

  • If a recipient of a personal RHS grant has not already booked travel and accommodation for research or to attend a conference, they will be allowed to delay their research plans for up to 12 months (or until the date of a rescheduled event) and still receive full funding;
  • If a grant recipient has already purchased travel and accommodation before 16 March 2020 and these cannot be refunded, the RHS will:
    • not request the return of any expenses already claimed from the RHS;
    • where at all possible, honour its commitments to reimburse individuals if other avenues of refund (e.g. insurance and credit card company) have been exhausted.

 

Recipients of RHS Conference organisation grants

  • Conference organisers are welcome to postpone events for up to 12 months and still receive full funding;
  • If a conference is delayed or cancelled and non-refundable travel or accommodation costs for conference speakers have already been booked, the RHS will cover the costs initially provided for if other avenues of refund (e.g. insurance and credit card company) have been exhausted.

Please let us know of any changes or send any queries or requests for reimbursement to Imogen Evans, RHS Administrative Secretary by email: adminsecretary@royalhistsoc.org.

 

Future Funds for Rescheduled Research and Conference Trips, and RHS sponsored events

  • As the situation improves, the RHS will assess the impact on its funded activities. While we cannot yet guarantee to be able to provide additional funds at a later date to support re-scheduled events, we will do our best to provide opportunities for new or top-up applications.
  • We will make such decisions at a later date, contingent upon funds being available.

 

New applications for RHS Funding

  • New applicants should continue to apply to our funding streams as usual if a scheme is currently advertised on our website.
  • We are actively considering new ways of supporting early career History researchers during the current crisis and if feasible will channel funding into one or more interim schemes to support virtual research and ECR wellbeing during the current crisis. Please continue to visit our website, and follow our Twitter account @royalhistsoc for latest updates.

 

Please direct any queries or communications regarding this guidance to Ms Imogen Evans, RHS Administrative Secretary by email: adminsecretary@royalhistsoc.org. Please direct other enquiries about RHS business to enquiries@royalhistsoc.org.

 

Wishing everyone all the very best.

 

‘History and Archives in Practice’ – first conference in new annual series held on 29 March

On 29 March, the Society held its first day-conference in its new series, History and Archives in Practice (#HAP23). Co-organised with The National Archives and Institute of Historical Research, the conference brought together historians and archivists to discuss collaborative working, with reference to current projects.

This year’s HAP conference, with a capacity audience, heard from 14 projects involving 17 archive centres and universities across the UK. Full details of the day and these projects are available here.

 

 

Sessions focused on (among other topics) widening participation, research ethics, working with volunteers, public engagement and digital preservation, as well handling and demonstration sessions placing collections at the heart of the event.

Recordings of the panels will be released shortly.

Extra panel session for our video presenters, 27 April 2023

 

 

An additional 5 projects have created short videos of their work, and we’ll be continuing the conversation with the presenters of these videos, online, at 12.45pm on Thursday 27 April to which all are welcome.

Taking part in HAP24

From 2024, we’re taking History and Archives in Practice around the UK.

If your archive / university is interested in partnering with the RHS, TNA and IHR for HAP24 next March, please contact us.

 

New virtual issue of ‘Transactions’: the Prothero Lectures

A new virtual issue of 16 articles, selected from the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, is now available. Each article is a published version of one of the Society’s annual Prothero Lectures. This virtual issue of the journal–freely available during 2022–is published on the centenary of the death of George W. Prothero (1848-1922), after whom the lectures are named.

First delivered in July 1969, the Prothero Lecture is now the centre point of the Society’s annual events programme. Lectures, given each July, are published as articles in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, and the journal has more than 50 ‘Prothero’ articles in which leading historians consider new subject areas, methods and historiographies. Collectively, the Prothero articles chart shifting interests and priorities in historical research over the past half century.

10 July 2022 marks the centenary of the death of George W. Prothero (1848-1922), historian and editor, after whom the lecture is named. Prothero was President of the Royal Historical Society between 1901 and 1905 and played a leading role in the professionalisation of history and historical research in the early twentieth century.

For this virtual issue a selection of 16 articles have been chosen. They range from Charles Crawley’s inaugural ‘Sir George Prothero and his circle’ (1969) to Linda Colley’s 2020 lecture: ‘What happens when a written constitution is printed? A history across boundaries’. Historians whose work appears include: Joanna Bourke, Natalie Zemon Davis, Roy Foster, Olwen Hufton, Carole Hillenbrand, Sujit Sivasundaram, Pauline Stafford and Keith Thomas.

Read all 16 articles, freely available during 2022

This year’s Prothero Lecture—‘The Gaiety Girl and the Matinee Idol’, given on 6 July 2022 by Professor Rohan McWilliam—examines celebrity culture in London’s West End, 1880-1914. The video of the lecture is available, as part of the Society’s events archive. A published version of the lecture will be available later via TRHS FirstView and in print in 2023.

The Society’s archive, at University College London, includes an extensive collection of the papers of George W. Prothero (1848-1922), historian, editor and President of the RHS, 1901-05. The archive has recently been re-catalogued and is available for consultation by appointment.

The next virtual issue of the journal will appear in November 2022 to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication, in 1872, of the first volume of the Society’s Transactions–making TRHS the UK’s longest-running scholarly historical journal.

 

Greg Jenner and Emma Griffin discuss public history, comedy and popular broadcasting

On Tuesday 20 February, the Society was delighted to host broadcaster and historian, Greg Jenner, who was in conversation with RHS President Emma Griffin on ‘Finding the Funny in Public History’.

Greg discussed his career, from ‘Horrible Histories’ to You’re Dead to Me and his new book series for children, ‘Totally Chaotic History’, and how different formats — television, podcasts, radio and publishing — shape the ways we communicate about the past. Greg also spoke about his use of comedy to bring history to new audiences, and especially those for whom history was not a popular subject at school. ‘Finding the Funny’ in history offers ways to engage audiences, as well as risks: when is comedy about historical figures and events appropriate and when is it not?

The evening concluded with a Q&A session with our large in-person and online audience, on topics such as writing history for children, new formats for television history, and the positives and negatives of historical debate on social media.

Our warm thanks to Greg for this special RHS event and to all those who attended the evening in person or online. Video and audio recordings of the evening will be available soon.

Details of future Royal Historical Society events, taking place in person across the UK and online, are available here. We look forward to welcoming you to one of these lectures, talks and workshops. You’ll also find recordings of many recent Society activities in our Events Archive.

 

History and Archives in Practice, 2: Online Panel

History and Archives in Practice 2: Online Panel

27 April 2023, in partnership with The National Archives and Institute of Historical Research

 

 

Panellists: 

  • Sarah Aitchison (UCL)
  • Holly Brewer (Maryland)
  • Alyson Brown (Edge Hill)
  • Michelle Crowther (Canterbury Christ Church)
  • Nick Evans (Hull)
  • Helen Newell (Edge Hill)
  • Andrew Smith (Queen Mary, London)
  • Claire Langhamer (Institute of Historical Research, University of London)

In this online panel, we continued the conversation begun at History and Archives in Practice (29 March 2023, #HAP23) — a one-day, in-person meeting of historians and archivists, jointly organised by the Royal Historical Society, Institute of Historical Research and The National Archives.

History and Archives in Practice is an opportunity for archivists and historians to discuss how they’re working collaboratively. On 29 March, we heard from 14 projects from across the UK, about which you can read more here. In preparing for #HAP23 we also invited 5 additional projects to create short video presentations about their work and experience of how historians and archivists work best together.

On Thursday 27 April, we continued the conversation with an extra session of #HAP23 featuring the presenters and projects described in these videos.

  • More about the event
  • Watch the panel

 

 

advertisement for Prothero Lecture 2021

Professor Robert Frost — RHS Prothero Lecture, 2 July 2021

“The Roads Not Taken: Liberty, Sovereignty and the Idea of the Republic in Poland-Lithuania and the British Isles, 1550–1660”

 

 

Professor Robert Frost FBA FRSE

(University of Aberdeen)

Friday 2 July 2021
18.00 BST – Live online via Zoom

 

 

Abstract

In the mid sixteenth century, there were many parallels between the political cultures of Poland-Lithuania and the kingdoms of the British Isles. Both saw thinkers, inspired by the ideals of Renaissance civic humanism, challenge more traditional currents of thought deriving from scholasticism and pride in ancient constitutions.

Across the British Isles and Poland-Lithuania there were strong native traditions which asserted the liberties of communities of the realm, and the need to check unbridled royal authority through parliamentary assemblies. Both England and Poland were suspicious of Roman Law, although it gained a certain purchase in Scotland and Lithuania. As the Reformation, and in particular Calvinism, swept across the British Isles and Poland-Lithuania, traditional claims concerning the right to resist tyrannical authority were bolstered.

Finally, in 1603, Scotland and England formed a loose political union as Poland and Lithuania had formed a loose political union in 1386; although it was not until 1707 that England and Scotland followed the example of the 1569 Lublin Union, when Poland and Lithuania established the first parliamentary union in European history.

Despite these parallels, however, the fates of these two early modern composite polities were very different, and their political cultures diverged substantially. This lecture will look at the idea of the Renaissance republic in Poland-Lithuania and the British Isles. It will consider the problem of why their roads diverged, and ask what made all the difference.

Lecture handout

Those attending are invited to download a handout created by Robert in advance. This provides background to people and events covered in the lecture: The Polish-Lithuanian Republic Handout_RHS Prothero Lecture_July 2021.

Speaker biography

Robert Frost holds the Burnett Fletcher Chair of History at the University of Aberdeen. He grew up in Edinburgh, and studied Modern History at the University of St Andrews, where he developed an interest in Polish history. He studied for a diploma in Polish Language and Culture at the Jagiellonian University, Cracow  in 1980–1981 and wrote his doctorate at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University of London, a revised version of which was published by Cambridge University Press in 1993 as After the Deluge. Poland-Lithuania and the Second Northern War, 1655–1660. He taught at King’s College London from 1987, and his second book, The Northern Wars: War, State & Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558-1721 was published by Longman in 2000.

Robert moved to Aberdeen in 2004, and is currently writing a three-volume history of the Polish-Lithuanian Union for Oxford University Press. Volume One, The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385–1569 (2015) won the Pro Historia Polonorum Prize for the best foreign-language book on Polish history published between 2012 and 2017. Volume Two, The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic, 1569–1648 is nearing completion.

 

Watch the Video

 

 

‘Finding the Funny in Public History’, with Greg Jenner – recording now available

Video and audio recordings of our recent event — ‘Finding the Funning in Public History. In Conversation with Greg Jenner’ — are now available. The event, held on 20 February 2024, featured the broadcaster and historian Greg Jenner in conversation with Emma Griffin, President of the Royal Historical Society.

At the event, Greg discussed his career; the use of different media for the communicating about the past; forms of public history; the place of comedy in engaging new audiences with historical content; and the future of popular broadcasting. The event concluded with a Q&A session from a packed in-person and online audience.

Listen to ‘Finding the Funny in Public History’

 

Watch the event

Other RHS events to watch or listen to again

Our Events Archive includes many more recent lectures, panels and training workshops for historians, and is available here.

For details of forthcoming activities from the Royal Historical Society, please see the Events pages of the RHS website. We look forward to welcoming you to an RHS lecture, panel or training workshop in the near future.

 

Dr Jonathan Saha — RHS Lecture, 24 September 2021

University of Leeds collection: Elephants and Empire

‘Accumulations and Cascades:

On the Ecological Impact of British Imperialism’

 

Dr Jonathan Saha (Durham University)

 

Friday 24 September 2021

17.30 BST – Live online via Zoom

Abstract

What effect did British imperialism in Myanmar during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have on frogs? And given that the lives of these small amphibian creatures were rarely ever recorded or preserved in archival collections, how might we find out? Sceptical readers may also wish to take a step back and ask, why should historians even care about their lives? These are unusual questions for a historian to confront, but they are occasioned by the deepening conversation between ecology and history.

In this lecture, Jonathan Saha delves into the ecological impact of colonial rule in Myanmar. Though this, he argues that the concepts of ‘accumulation’ and ‘cascade’ are useful for enabling historians to narrate the impact of imperialism on the lives of animals, including humans.

Speaker biography

Jonathan Saha is Associate Professor of History at the University of Durham researching colonial Myanmar. His first book, Law, Disorder and the Colonial State (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), explored the history of corruption in the colony during the late nineteenth century.

Jonathan’s forthcoming book, Colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar (Cambridge University Press, 2022), examines how animals shaped imperialism while having their own lives irrevocably transformed by the advent of colonialism. In addition, he has published a host of articles, including in Past & Present and the American Historical Review, on a range of other topics, such as law, mental illness, crime, and masculinity. He is co-chair of the Royal Historical Society’s Race, Equality and Ethnicity Working Group and one of the authors of its 2018 report.

Watch the video of this lecture

RHS Lecture and Events: Full Programme for 2021 >