The Society’s 2025 Prothero Lecture will be given by Peter Gatrell, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Manchester. Peter’s lecture, which takes place at 6.30pm on Wednesday 2 July, is entitled: ‘Refugee World(s): a Twentieth-Century Retrospective’.
In his lecture, Peter will consider the idea of a ‘fourth world’ or ‘refugee world (s)’ as essential for the writing of a modern global history of refugees, displacement and population movement. It may be legitimate to think of the ‘refugee world’ as a distinct realm of being; but it is more appropriate to consider refugees’ encounters with refugee-creating and refugee-hosting (and refugee-deterring) states and, with the range of organisations charged with their protection and assistance.
Peter’s focus is on the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which the dominant intergovernmental organisation in what has come to be called the international refugee regime. By drawing on the letters and petitions that refugees sent to UNHCR in the post-1945 era, the lecture examines what refugees vouchsafed about their situation and what response they received.
The 2025 Prothero Lecture take place, in-person, at Mary Ward House, Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SN and online. Booking for in-person and online attendance is now available. The lecture is open to all.
The Lecture will be followed by the Society’s annual summer party, at Mary Ward House, to which all are very welcome.
First held in 1969, the Royal Historical Society’s Prothero Lecture is named for the historian and RHS President, George W. Prothero (1848-1924). The lecture is given by leading historians whose research has shaped how we think about the past. Previous Prothero lecturers include: Samuel H. Beer, Joanna Bourke, Linda Colley, Stefan Collini, Natalie Zemon Davis, Olwen Hufton, Sujit Sivasundaram, Quentin Skinner, Brenda E. Stevenson, and Keith Thomas.
Other forthcoming events
On Wednesday 21 May, the Society will be at the Cornwall Campus of the University of Exeter (Penryn, near Falmouth). The visit includes a public event at which Professor Catriona Pennell (Exeter) and Professor Lucy Noakes (Essex and President of the Royal Historical Society) will discuss ‘Cultural Memory and the Two World Wars in Britain’.
The event, which starts at 4.30pm, is open to all and will include an opportunity to meet with Lucy and fellow members of the RHS Council. All are very welcome to attend.