Simon Barton, Professor of History, University of Exeter
Simon Barton works primarily on the political, social and cultural history of the Iberian Peninsula during the medieval period. He has published extensively on the aristocracy, chronicles and chroniclers, and Christian-Muslim relations, especially with regard to the peninsula crusading movement and the activities of Christian mercenaries in Muslim Iberia and North Africa. The topic of this evening’s lecture is based on his recent book, Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines: Interfaith Relations and Social Power in Medieval...
Dr Santanu Das, Reader in the Department of English, King’s College London
India joined WW1 as part of the British empire, contributing nearly one and half million men, including 900,000 combatants and 600,000 non-combatants, who served in places as far-flung as France, Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, East Africa, Egypt and the Far East.
Drawing from archives in Europe and India – letters, diaries, original sound-recordings from German POW camps, photographs, paintings, and literary representations by both British and Indian writers – this lecture will investigate the Indian war...
Dr Kristofer Allerfeldt, Lecturer in American History, University of Exeter
Dr Kristofer Allerfeldt is an expert on modern American history from the end of the Civil War to the bombing of Pearl Harbour, and specialises in deviancy and bigotry, working on all aspects of crime and racism, nativism and prejudice. He has published works on anti-immigrant sentiment, visions of Americanism, the Ku Klux Klan and crime in general. His lecture looks at the Henry Ford Peace Expedition which carried a delegation of Americans to Norway, Sweden, and Holland to meet with fellow European...
In this lecture Dr Steinbach will explore the campaigns in Africa where German and Allied troops fought for the entire duration of WW1. This conflict not only challenged the colonial balance of power, but had severe economic, political, and social effects on the local population – colonised Africans and colonising Europeans alike. However, while the war in Africa is not entirely forgotten, the selective way in which this complex conflict is remembered highlights the challenges to integrate the non-European aspects of the First World...
Subversion in Switzerland: International Art and Politics in Exile 1914-1918 by Deborah Lewer, Senior Lecturer in the History of Art, University of Glasgow
Dr Deborah Lewer’s research interests lie in the field of the German-speaking avant-garde of the period 1910-1933. In particular, she works on many aspects of Zurich Dada, Dada in Germany, Expressionism, ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ and the wider literary and visual culture of the Weimar Republic.
During the war of 1914-1918, neutral Switzerland became an extraordinary place of action, international encounter and dissent for...
By Michael Hughes, Professor of Russian and International History, Lancaster University
Michael Hughes has published widely on nineteenth-century Russian History and on Anglo-Russian relations in the twentieth Century. He is currently completing a biography of Stephen Graham, who helped to shape British attitudes towards Russia during the years before 1917, and is also involved in the project Russia’s ‘Great War and Revolution, 1914-22: The Centennial Reappraisal’. His lecture this evening focuses on the current Russian President Vladimir Putin and his place in the long trajectory...
The appalling tactical risks taken during a series of brutal battles which played a crucial role in the allied war effort are laid bare in a new book.
Between Hostile Shores: Mediterranean Convoy Battles 1941–1942 – published by the University of Plymouth Press – features details of the difficult decisions, taken out of strategic necessity, to ensure Malta was defended against the...
Plymouth is set to invest in a major visitor attraction that will proudly bring to life the city’s rich history and tell the stories of some of the city’s legends and heroes.
Cabinet will fire the starting pistol on 3 September on plans for an exciting historic and cultural centre that breathes life into Plymouth’s most influential historic figures such as Scott, Darwin and Drake, and...
Hidden messages locked in coded wartime letters have been revealed for the first time in 70 years by academics at Plymouth University.
Mathematicians, historians and geographers have worked together to crack codes used by MI9 to conceal information going in and out of prisoner of war camps across Europe during the Second World War.
