Research - Keele University
history banner

 

History

Welcome to History Research

Research in History at Keele is coordinated by the Humanities Research Institute whose website lists current seminar and conference programmes, as well as details about postgraduate matters. Keele historians are enthusiastic, reflective and ambitious scholars whose expertise ranges in time from the eleventh century to the very recent past, and in place from the immediate environment of the north midlands to continental Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa. In the latest assessment of research quality [RAE 2008] 20% of our research was judged to be world leading, 35% internationally excellent, and 30% internationally recognised. A quarter of our publications were graded as world leading – the 7 th highest total in the United Kingdom. We support a long-standing, flourishing Centre for Local History , and have further shared interests in the history of political violence, social movements, gender, religion and print culture. We have close links with American historians whose work is supported by the successful David Bruce Centre . While we work mainly as individual scholars, there are also many examples of fruitful collaboration both within and beyond Keele. Historians contribute energetically to Keele's rich inter-disciplinary traditions through American and African studies, and through sustained cooperation with Medicine, Criminology, Politics and, particularly, English. We welcome postgraduate students in all our areas of expertise. Please see individual staff entries for further information.

Main Research Areas

Medieval History : The medieval historians are Dr Kate Cushing , a specialist on church reform and canon law, whose next book will be Power, Discipline and Pastoral Care in Eleventh-Century Italy (for Manchester University Press); Professor Peter Jackson , a scholar of east-west relations in the medieval period and of the Mongol and Islamic worlds, currently working on a book for Yale, The Mongols and the Islamic World ; Dr Philip Morgan , a late medievalist with particular interests in the gentry and the social and cultural history of war, and Dr Nigel Tringham , an English ecclesiastical historian and editor of the Victoria County History of Staffordshire . In recent years, t he medievalists have recruited three AHRC funded students, including one in collaboration with Lichfield Cathedral, and play a prominent role in regional research activities (particularly the ‘M6' seminar), conferences and editorial boards.

Early Modern History : Dr Christopher Harrison works on sixteenth century England with particular reference to the history of Staffordshire. Dr Ian Atherton and Professor Ann Hughes are both scholars of seventeenth-century, with overlapping interests in print and manuscript culture, and religious change. Dr Atherton is currently working on the religious and political role of British cathedrals in the seventeenth century while Professor Hughes is completing a book on gender and the English Civil War. Dr Alannah Tomkins is a social historian of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She has pioneered the development of medical history in conjunction with Keele's new medical school, and co-organises a seminar on Science in the Humanities. Dr Tomkins is currently working on ‘poor doctors' in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. An Early Modern Seminar is organised in cooperation with English.

Modern History : The substantial grouping of modern historians share interests in civil society, democratisation, transnational movements and political violence between the French Revolution and the contemporary world in Britain and Ireland, continental Europe, Africa, and Asia. American historians work closely with the Modern Historians. Professor Charles Townshend , elected in 2008 to the British Academy, works on political violence, modern Ireland and modern Palestine; he is completing The Creation of Iraq 1914-1924 for Faber. Professor Malcolm Crook is a historian of revolutionary and post-revolutionary France , working on a project, ‘How the French Learned to Vote 1789-1914'. Professor Karen Hunt is a feminist historian of modern Britain , with particular interests in women's and socialist politics. She is working on a study of Dora Montefiore, and on gendering the politics of consumption. Professor David Maxwell , works on the social and cultural history of modern Africa and has particular expertise on trans-national Christian movements. His current focus is on missions in Belgium Congo. Dr Christoph Dieckmann 's recent work was on German occupation policy in Lithuania, and he is now exploring `Jewish Bolshevism' c. 1881-1925'. Dr Anthony Kauders is a scholar of Jewish experience in modern Germany , and of the history of psychoanalysis. His next book is on Rationalism/Irrationalism in Germany after 1945. Dr Shalini Sharma's work is on the transition to democracy in India, especially in the Punjab.  Dr Sharma organises a modern history seminar; Professor Hunt an inter-disciplinary seminar, on the theme of Reading and Writing Lives.

Local and Public History : Many Keele historians (Atherton, Hughes, Hunt, Morgan, Tomkins, Tringham) have expertise in the local history of the northwest and midlands, while many postgraduate topics also have a local element. Professor Martin Crawford (American Studies)'s interest in the links between the Potteries and the United States adds a fresh dimension. With generous support from Staffordshire County Council, Keele supports the Victoria County History of Staffordshire, besides many local societies and publications, including Staffordshire Studies; Staffordshire Record Societyand Staffordshire Heritage Series. We have had a long association with the Victoria County History of Shropshire and sponsor the Shropshire Record Series. The activities of the Centre for Local History are the foundation for our interest in heritage and the broader public role of history, promoted by Dr Emma Waterton. Dr Waterton's research centres on issues connected with heritage and public policy, and she is currently engaged in a project on museums, heritage and identity in the Potteries. The Jack Leighton Seminar on local history is in its thirtieth year.

Ann Hughes, Research Coordinator