Editorial acts of judgment

    (Image credit – Special Collections, University of Plymouth)   With the publication of Judgment in the Victorian Age, an edited collection published by Routledge recently, bringing together essays from the conference which was organised by the research cluster, PUNCS (Plymouth University Nineteenth-century Studies), on the very day of the Brexit vote (23 June 2016),… Continue reading Editorial acts of judgment

Feature: Union is strength: the language of union in British radicalism c.1815 – 1850

Artwork by James Gregory

BY JAMES GREGORY  The recent international conference, ‘Union and Disunion in the Nineteenth Century’ held at the University of Plymouth (22 – 23 June 2017) looked at union and disunion from the level of families separated by mental health or poverty, through the local history of Union Street and the union of the three towns… Continue reading Feature: Union is strength: the language of union in British radicalism c.1815 – 1850

Feature: “The Political History of the English Plum Pudding in the Long Nineteenth Century”

BY JAMES GREGORY   One enduring item in the British culinary self-imagination has been the plum pudding – often closely associated in festivities with the roast beef (of old England). The pudding – so named for the dried fruits which may have included fruit other than prunes – was not just for Christmas time but… Continue reading Feature: “The Political History of the English Plum Pudding in the Long Nineteenth Century”

Feature: “For the preservation of our rights and liberties: The Judiciary in the Long Nineteenth-Century and Now”

Image: Wikimedia commons

By ANN LYON and JAMES GREGORY The political history of the British ‘long nineteenth-century’ is characterised by debates about the constitution in which parliamentary reform – the extension of the parliamentary franchise, the redrawing of constituencies, the power of the House of Lords, prominently figure. The judicial bench were recognised to have a political role… Continue reading Feature: “For the preservation of our rights and liberties: The Judiciary in the Long Nineteenth-Century and Now”

Arts & Humanities Research events this week at Plymouth University

The following research events are taking place in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities this week. Please contact theartsinstitute@plymouth.ac.uk if you would like further information. ICCMR Seminar: Aurelien Antoine – ‘Designing a Sound Classification System’. 3.30pm on 11th October 2016 in Scott Building 105 Artist Talk: Tony Godfrey – ‘Painting in the age of Installation’. 4pm on… Continue reading Arts & Humanities Research events this week at Plymouth University

Feature: “Working upon the royal sympathy: researching the myth and reality of Victoria’s royal mercy”

Portrait by George Hayter

BY JAMES GREGORY A beautiful young queen is moved to commute the sentence on those condemned to be executed for high treason – with all the horrors of hanging, drawing and quartering – aided by the advice of her dashing prime minister. Viewers of the most recent, third, episode of ITV’s series, Victoria (which aired… Continue reading Feature: “Working upon the royal sympathy: researching the myth and reality of Victoria’s royal mercy”

CfP: Union & Disunion in the 19th century

PUNCS (Plymouth University Nineteenth Century Studies) invites proposals for 20-minute papers for a proposed international, interdisciplinary conference on 22nd and 23rd June 2017 at Plymouth University (UK) on the general theme of union and disunion. In him all union and disunion shine ‘Prologue’, Thomas Holcroft, The Deserted Daughter (1806) Among the rare phenomena of the day in… Continue reading CfP: Union & Disunion in the 19th century

A Time of Judgment (23-24 June 2016): Conference Report

Judgment everywhere. Implacable judgment in scarlet up in the Central Criminal Court or delivered in measured tones in the High Court of Chancery. Beside the Embankment in the imperial senate, judgment confidently uttered before the witnesses in committee chambers or mumbled amid the gilded crockets of a stifling House of Lords. Judgment by the bearded… Continue reading A Time of Judgment (23-24 June 2016): Conference Report

Feature: “Knowledge is Power. And fun: The Brave New World of Mechanics’ Institutes”

Manchester Mechanics' Institute, Cooper Street, UK (1825)

BY DOUG WATSON Sometimes we take education and learning for granted. We’re swimming in an ocean of knowledge. We have added “The Information Age” to the timeline of Western Civilisation. Finding something out is just a click, or a voice command (and in a few years, potentially just a thought impulse) away. Yet today is… Continue reading Feature: “Knowledge is Power. And fun: The Brave New World of Mechanics’ Institutes”

Feature: “Who ya gonna call? Spiritualism in Victorian Plymouth & Exeter”

Hypnotic séance. Painting by Swedish artist Richard Bergh, 1887 (artwork in public domain)

BY JAMES GREGORY Devonport in the early 1870s. A former Baptist minister from Bristol leads meetings in the gas-lit parlour of a tradesman. The audience gather around an ordinary cloth-covered table. But the phenomena that they are there to experience will be decidedly out of the ordinary. Over the next few years, members of various… Continue reading Feature: “Who ya gonna call? Spiritualism in Victorian Plymouth & Exeter”