Programme: Does British Political History have a future?

Monday 11 July 2022

9.30-10am: Welcome

10-10.15am: Introductory Remarks by Lyndsey Jenkins, Colm Murphy and Robert Saunders

10.15-11.30am: Panel on Political History beyond the Nation State

• Alex Middleton (Oxford): 'Ideas in politics after the global intellectual turn'
• Marzia Maccaferri (QMUL): 'Provincializing Britain: can transnational intellectual history meet political history?'
• Freddy Foks (Manchester): 'Emigration State: race, citizenship, and the boundaries of British political history'
• Daniel Furby (European Law and Governance School): 'Europeanisation, social science theory, and the post-war state: Alan Milward's dual challenge to historians of contemporary politics'

11.30-11.45: Coffee Break

11.45am-1pm: Roundtable on Methods and Approaches

• Chair: Colm Murphy (QMUL/MEI)
• Discussants: Luke Blaxill (Oxford); Lise Butler (City); Jo Innes (Oxford); Stuart Smedley (KCL); Pat Thane (KCL)

1-2.15pm: Lunch Break

2.15-3.30pm: Panel on Political History, Political Science and Comparative Politics

• Emily Stacey (QMUL): 'Politically correct, historically versed: the cluster of forces that shape the modern British historian'
• James Strong (QMUL): 'Political history or historical politics? Reflecting on boundaries'
• Peter Sloman (Cambridge): 'Party strategies and policy choices in modern Britain: the case for a comparative perspective'

3.30-4pm: Coffee Break

4-5.15pm: Keynote Lecture

Speaker: Emily Robinson (Sussex) on 'The Politics of Unpolitics'

5.15-5.30pm: Coffee Break

5.30-6.45pm: Roundtable on Political History and Political Controversy

Chair: Robert Saunders (QMUL)

Discussants: Niamh Gallagher (Cambridge); Glen O'Hara (Oxford Brookes); Helen Parr (Keele); Bill Schwartz (QMUL)

7pm: Drinks Reception

 

Tuesday 12 July 2022

10-11.30am: Roundtable on Diversifying British Political History

Chair: Michael Romyn (QMUL)

Discussants: Caroline Bressey (UCL); Lyndsey Jenkins (QMUL); Anna Maguire (UCL); Stephanie Ward (Cardiff)

11.30-11.45: Coffee Break

11.45am-1pm: Keynote Lecture

Speaker: Helen McCarthy (Cambridge): 'Doing Politics through Writing: The Political Pen of Beatrice Webb'

1-2pm: Lunch

2-3.15pm: Panel on Grassroots Politics

• Marc Collinson (Bangor): 'Reimagining political communities: encouraging interaction between local history and political history'
• Nico Blackstock (QMUL): 'Conceptualising the "enemy within": interactions between grassroots oppositional activism and "high" politics'
• David Cowan (Cambridge): '"Family stories" in twentieth century British political history'
• Kirstie Stage (Warwick): 'Politics is not a "dirty word": deaf-led activism in Britain (c.1976-1990)'

3.15-4.30pm: Panel on Old and New Approaches to British Political History

• Martin Spychal (HoP): 'To banish or revive? The ghost of Namier and the future of modern British political history'
• Rebecca Goldsmith (Cambridge): 'Back to the Future? New perspectives on classic questions'
• Matt Kelly (Northumbria): 'Does the British environment have a political history?'
• Matthew Grant (Essex): 'Political history, oral history and memory'

4.30-4.45pm: Coffee Break

4.45-6pm: Panel on Politics, Polities and the Public

• Daniel Frost (LSE): 'Renewal or Revolution? Two trends in British political history, modern and contemporary'
• Kit Kowol (KCL): 'His(Tory) or why British political history needs Conservatives'
• Deanna Lyncook (The History Hotline)
• Sam Blaxland (UCL): 'The Conservative Party, "British Wales" and Welsh political history'

6-6.15pm: Closing Remarks

6.15pm: Drinks Reception