by Joshua Newmark and Sophie Turbutt (University of Leeds) This symposium, kindly sponsored by both the Past & Present Society and the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (Arts & Humanities Research Council), began as a relatively straightforward suggestion from our PhD supervisor, Professor Richard Cleminson, to put together a few papers or workshops around the topic of anarchism in Spain. This topic is something of a minor specialisation within the University of Leeds, where members of both the School of History and the School of Languages, Cultures, and Societies have maintained a small ‘Iberian Anarchism Research Group’ within the Centre for the History of Ibero-America. We decided not only to go for a more ambitious full-day conference, but also to truly engage with the ‘Iberian’ aspect and involve people working on Portugal, despite both of us focusing on Spain in our own research. Professor Pamela Beth Radcliff (University of California San Diego) very kindly agreed to be our keynote speaker, meaning we had the participation of one of the world’s foremost historians of modern Spain for what had been envisaged as a small gathering of postgraduate students. We also wanted a hybrid event, so as to combine […]

by the Past & Present editorial team

by Dr Victoria Leonard, (Coventry University and Institute of Classical Studies, London) The conference, ‘Orosius Through the Ages’, was a long time coming. Although the vision for a unique event to bring together scholars on Paulus Orosius and his Historiae adversus paganos developed in 2015, months of planning saw the event sadly postponed because of the pandemic. After an extended absence of in-person events, it was wonderful to meet again with colleagues physically at Senate House in London, albeit following measures to try to keep us all safe. We were so pleased to make the event more inclusive and diverse by hosting the conference online for speakers and delegates not in the room, enabling knowledge exchange about Orosius and the reception of his Historiae between participants in countries far beyond the UK. The conference featured 22 speakers over three days, including keynote presentations from Elizabeth M. Tyler, Professor of Medieval History at the University of York, and Peter Van Nuffelen, Professor for the Cultural History of the Ancient World at Ghent University. Prof. Van Nuffelen spoke on ‘Orosius the Historian: Historiographical Traditions and Treading the Line’. Prof. Tyler spoke on ‘Orosius, Universal History and the Making of Imperial England: From […]

by Dr. Genji Yasuhira (University of Utrecht/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) In my article ‘Transforming the Urban Space: Catholic Survival Through Spatial Practices in Post-Reformation Utrecht’, which recently appeared in Past & Present No. 255, I discuss how Utrecht’s Catholics sought spaces to live as Catholics under Protestant rule. Following an equally unexpected and exciting encounter with early modern Dutch history, I decided on Utrecht’s Catholics as a case study for my dissertation, moving from Kyoto to Utrecht in 2015. From the time I first set foot in the city, I was impressed by the historical materials still existing there, from written documents and artworks to buildings and streets. In adopting the narrative style of a ‘tour guide’ for my article, I sought to reflect on my experiences walking through Utrecht’s narrow streets while imagining what seventeenth-century life would have been like. Here I would like to take my readers on another virtual urban tour to discover the traces of early modern Catholic survival in Utrecht’s urban space today. As luck would have it, my article has been published in an important memorial year for the city. On June 2, 2022, Utrecht began celebrations for its 900-year anniversary. […]

Received from Dr. Stephen Spencer (King’s College, London) and Hailey O’Harrow (University of St. Andrews) Feeling Medieval, the inaugural conference of the Society for the Study of Medieval Emotions, is taking place on Tuesday 31 May–Wednesday 1 June 2022 (see the programme here). The conference will be held in a hybrid format, and we therefore welcome online attendance. It is free to attend online via Microsoft Teams, but please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/feeling-medieval-the-inaugural-conference-of-ssme-tickets-332609382617. The link will be disseminated 24 hours before the conference. Please find the conference programme attached (all timings are UK time), and please forward it to anyone you think may be interested. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at socmedievalemotions@gmail.com. We would like to thank the following institutions, whose generous funding has made this event possible: the Past & Present Society; Royal Historical Society; St Andrews Institute of Medieval Studies; School of History, St Andrews; St Leonard’s Doctoral and Postgraduate College; Department of History, King’s College London. Past & Present is pleased to support this event and supports other events like it. Applications for event funding are welcomed from scholars working in the field of historical studies at all stages in their careers.

Received from the conference organisers Thanks to the generosity of the Past & Present Society, the Royal Historical Society, the Institute of Classical Studies (ICS), the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities, and the Classical Association, there are a limited number of small bursaries for postgraduates, early career academics, and those who are under employed or not in paid employment to attend the ‘Orosius Through the Ages’ conference in-person. Bursaries are not available for those attending online. Bursaries will be offered to cover the cost of travel and/or accommodation to attend the conference in-person. Caring costs will also be considered. Applications will be assessed on the basis of financial need. Participants are expected to approach their own institutions for financial support in the first instance. If you would like to apply for a bursary, please send the following information to Victoria Leonard by Friday 6 May 2022: *    Your current or most recent institutional affiliation or course, and how the conference is relevant. *    Brief details of your situation, why you require this bursary, and how it will help you. *    The bursary is intended to support participants in attending the conference in-person, with travel, accommodation, and caring costs. Please […]

by the Past & Present editoral team Past & Present was delighted to learn that Dr. Joseph La Hausse de Lalouvière (Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge) has been awarded the 2022 French Colonial Historical Society Best Article Prize. The award was made for his article “A Business Archive of the French Illegal Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century” which appeared in Past & Present No. 252 (August 2021). To enable more people to read Dr. La Hausse de Lalouvière’s prize winning scholarship our publisher Oxford University Press has made the article free to read for several months. The Society was also delighted to learn that during the same round of French Colonial Historical Society awards, Dr. Arthur Asseraf (Pembroke College, University of Cambridge) received an Honourable Mention for his Open Access article “Mass Media and the Colonial Informant: Messaoud Djebari and the French Empire, 1880–1901” in Past & Present No. 254 (February 2022). Our congradulations to both authors on their scholarship being recognised in this way.

Received from Josh Newmark and Sophie Turbutt (University of Leeds) Anarchism in the Iberian Peninsula is a one day in-person and online Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) and Early Career Researcher (ECR) symposium taking place on 20th June 2022. The event will take place between 09:00 and 18:00 (BST) on 20th June 2020 at the University of Leeds with ability for participations to join virtually via a video conferencing platform. The full event programme can be downloaded here. Registration has opened and can be accesed here. You can contact the organisers with any queries that you may have here. In addition to the Past & Present Society, this event is supported by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council and the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities. Past & Present is pleased to support this event and supports other events like it. Applications for event funding are welcomed from scholars working in the field of historical studies at all stages in their careers.

by the Past & Present editorial team Past & Present is delighted to learn that Prof. Alan S. Ross (University of Vienna) has been awarded the 2022 American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS) James L. Clifford Prize for his article “The Animal Body as Medium: Taxidermy and European Expansion, 1775-1865” (Open Access) published in Past & Present No. 249 (November 2020). In awarding the prize the ASECS praised Prof. Ross’s work stating: “In a rich and wide-ranging essay, Professor Alan S. Ross applies insights from iconology, history of science, and art history to a highly original study of taxidermized animals. Demonstrating the deep entanglement of taxidermy with European allegorical traditions and colonial ventures, Ross explores the evolution of taxidermy and the ways it mirrored global interactions and interconnections. He shows how the taxidermic preservation and public display by Europeans of animals from faraway lands served as records of and justifications for imperialist expansion. Drawing on a prodigious quantity of research and using the key example of primates presented first at the London natural history cabinet of Ashton Lever and later at the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Ross provides a delightfully interdisciplinary analysis that draws in and surprises readers. […]

by the Past & Present editorial team Past & Present was delighted to learnt that Dr. Tamara Fernando (Institute of Historical Research, University of London) has been awarded the 2021 Alice Hamilton Prize by the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH). Dr. Tamara Fernando is a current Past & Present IHR Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-23). The award is for Dr. Fernando’s article “Seeing Like the Sea: A Multispecies History of the Ceylon Pearl Fishery, 1800-1925” (Past & Present, No. 254). Awarded annually, the Alice Hamilton Prize is given by the ASEH to what is considered the “best article” that has not been published in the journal Environmental History. Congradulations to Dr. Fernando on their research being recognised in this manner. If you would like to read Dr. Fernando’s prize winning research you can do so (Open Access) on the website of our publisher Oxford University Press.