News archive 2010

Please also see Media news archive 2010.

December 2010 On 9 December 2010 Dr Jacqueline Glomski, a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of History, was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

November 2010 The Department of History is pleased to announce its first Economoic and Social Research (ESRC) Fellowship, awarded to Richard A. McKay who will join the Department in January 2011 to research the “Patient Zero” story of AIDS.
The story of a “promiscuous”, gay, French-Canadian flight attendant bringing AIDS to the United States and becoming “Patient Zero” of the American epidemic is often recounted, particularly in North America. Much of the literature dealing with this notorious figure follows the lead of Randy Shilts, a San Francisco journalist, whose influential and best-selling popular history, And the Band Played On, publicly identified the flight attendant in question as Gaétan Dugas, and portrayed him as a cold-blooded, recalcitrant disease disseminator. The rich historical record, however, offers the possibility of a more nuanced understanding of the man and his alleged role in the early North American epidemic.
Medical authorities have long dismissed suggestions that Dugas was the original case of AIDS in North America, responsible for the introduction of the disease. Yet the “Patient Zero” story caught the public imagination and spread far beyond its original American epidemiologic setting, living on in media discussions, legal discourse, and popular speech. Richard A. McKay's work seeks to understand these legacies by tracing the evolution of the concept as it was first discussed among epidemiologists and healthcare professionals, became amplified by Randy Shilts and the media, and was then imagined and mobilised by various social groups towards different ends.

November 2010 Congratulations to Dr Alice Rio, Lecturer in Medieval European History, who has been awarded a 2010 Philip Leverhulme Prize of £70,000. The Prizes are awarded to outstanding scholars who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study – recognised at an international level – and where the expectation is that their greatest achievement is yet to come. Dr Rio will use the Prize to take research leave to finish the book she is currently writing about early medieval slavery for Longman's Medieval World series. The book will cover all regions which had once formed part of the Roman Empire (the Frankish kingdoms, Italy, Spain, Anglo-Saxon England, Byzantium), from 400 to 1200 A.D. The traditional main story for this period in European history is the transition from rural slavery to serfdom, but Dr Rio will also be looking at domestic slavery and the use of captives, and continuities with the later middle ages. Dr Rio said: ‘I’m absolutely delighted to be awarded the Prize, and very grateful to the Leverhulme Trust – getting research leave is a fantastic opportunity, and I’m looking forward to concentrating on writing the book!’

November 2010 On the evening of Wednesday 24 November a major event to proclaim and celebrate the achievements of the Henry III Fine Rolls Project was held in the Weston Room of King’s Maughan Library in Chancery Lane. The room was packed to its capacity of 80+ with the event being attended by schoolchildren, undergraduates, MA and doctoral students, local historians, archivists, and wide range of University Academics. The special guests were Professor Scott Waugh, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Sir Alan Wilson and Professor Rick Rylance, respectively Chair and Chief Executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which has funded the Project. The Royal Historical Society was represented by its President, Professor Colin Jones.
The event was opened by the Chair of the College Council, the Marquis of Douro, who commented on the appropriateness of the venue: the Library was the old Public Record Office Building which had housed the fine rolls for many years, the PRO building being itself on the site of the House Henry III had founded for Jews who had converted to Christianity. Henry III’s statue is thus above the entrance to the courtyard. The Marquis stressed the importance of Fine Rolls being a collaborative project between King’s, Canterbury Christ Church University and The National Archives, and he was followed, in welcoming the guests, by Professor Jan Druker, senior pro-vice chancellor of Canterbury and Dr Sean Cunningham, the senior medievalist at TNA.
The presentation given by members of the Project team stressed that the Peroject had been guided by an impact philosophy from the start, its aim being to translate the Latin rolls into English, link them to a search facility, and make them freely available to all on the Project’s website, thus making the riches of the rolls intelligible, available and usable by everyone. At the end of the Presentation, Professor Rylance, and the Principal of King’s, Professor Rick Trainor, commended the Project and said how it showed the value of collaboration between institutions.
News of the Project’s achievement was carried in the Evening Standard for 26 November. Read more.

October 2010 Congratulations to Dr Jim Bjork who has won the Kulczycki Book Prize for best first book on Polish Studies published in English in 2008 or 2009 for his book Neither German Nor Pole.

September 2010 Congratulations to the Department's Professor Arthur Burns for winning 'Innovative teacher of the year' and to Dr Alice Rio for winning 'Academic author of the year' at the King's Awards 2010. The King’s Awards reception took place on Thursday 23 September 2010 in the Weston Room, Maughan Library. For the fourth year, members of the College community gathered to celebrate the excellence and contributions of staff and students

September 2010 According to The Sunday Times 2011 league tables (published 12 September 2010), the Department of History at King's has been ranked second in the country for the study of history.

September 2010 According to the 2010 National Student Survey, BA History at King’s received an overall satisfaction rating of 96% from our students, putting the Department in second place in the country. The satisfaction rating was compiled from percentage agreement rate (ie students who chose "mostly agree" or "definitely agree" in response to the Survey statements) on a number of factors, including Teaching on my course, Assessment and feedback, Academic support, Organisation and management, Learning Resources and Personal development. Some comments made by King's History students in the survey included: "This course is rigorous, stimulating and intellectual. It pushes you to reach your absolute potential. It is most certainly not an 'easy' option, and is sending me onto my teaching career with confidence in my historical knowledge and ability"; "The professors were knowledgeable, approachable, friendly, enthusiastic and kind. The student body is vibrant, friendly and fun. Library is outstanding"; "Some brilliant people have taught me. It has really changed the way I look at history and the way I read into things. Political idea supervisions were brilliant. I learnt so much, which I know I will continue to pursue"; "Plenty of opportunities to go to additional lectures, which are taught by top intellectuals in the field from both King's and other universities. Enables me to broaden my mind into other areas of history I haven't considered before which add to my course experience and own personal knowledge".

September 2010 From 2010/11 the Department will offer a new annual prize of £100 for the best paper given by a graduate research student at the Department's Research Seminar Series seminar. Speakers at any stage of their research are encouraged: for those still at an early stage, the seminar offers a good opportunity to give your first paper in a friendly and non-threatening environment; for those at a later stage, it is an opportunity to try your hand at presenting your research to non-specialists (crucial for all those postdoc and job applications!). If you are interested in contributing please contact Dr Alice Rio.

September 2010 Dr Jacqueline Glomski is co-convening a new seminar Literature, Ideas and Society at The Warburg Institute. The aim of this seminar series is to advance research in literary studies, firstly, by exploring the connections between literature and other disciplines such as philosophy, theology, medicine and law, and, secondly, by situating literature in its social context - in relationship to politics, commerce, and both scientific and artistic endeavour. Seminar webpage: http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/lectures/LIS.html

August 2010 On Tuesday 10 August 2010 at 20:00, BBC Two broadcast its Domesday programme, in which the Department's medieval historian Dr Stephen Baxter reveals the human and political drama of the Domesday Book. Most historians believe that Domesday is some kind of tax book for raising revenue, but Baxter has his own theory. He proves that the Domesday Book could not have been used to collect taxes and he argues that it is about something far more important than money. Its real purpose was to confer revolutionary new powers on the monarchy in Norman England. This programme is part of Norman Season on BBC Two and BBC Four, a collection of programmes highlighting the effect that the Normans have had on our civilisation.

28 July 2010 Dame Jinty Nelson FBA, Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and former President of the Royal Historical Society, was last week awarded three Honorary Doctorates - from the University of York, the University of Liverpool and the University of Nottingham. Dame Jinty Nelson is a distinguished historian of early medieval Europe and Anglo-Saxon England and is being honoured for her contributions to society.

July 2010 The Department is pleased to announce the arrival in Autumn 2010 of Dr Toby Green on a 3-year Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. Toby has previously worked at the Centre of West African Studies, Birmingham University, as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, and is also known for previous books, most recently his history of the Inquisition (Macmillan 2007; St Martin's Press (US) 2009). He specialises in African history in the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and his book on the birth of the trade in the 16th century is due soon. He will be researching "West Africans and Atlantic Empires, 1589-1700", a comparative research project looking at the different ways in which the regions of Angola and Western Africa (also known as Upper Guinea) interacted with Atlantic empires in the lead-up to the long 18th century.

July 2010 Julie Mumby, a PhD student in the Department, has won the 2010 Institute of Historical Research (IHR) Pollard Prize, which is awarded annually for the best paper presented at an IHR seminar by a postgraduate student or by a researcher within one year of completing the PhD. Julie’s paper, ‘The descent of family land in later Anglo-Saxon England’ (given to the Earlier Middle Ages Seminar) will appear in a forthcoming addition of Historical Research. The IHR has also awarded Julie a one-year Scouloudi Fellowship to support the completion of her PhD, ‘Transfers of Property by the Laity in Anglo-Saxon England: The Disposition of Property at Death’.

June 2010 On Wednesday 30 June 2010, the Department's Dr Alice Rio was awarded the Gladstone Prize 2009 by the Royal Historical Society, for the best solely written first book on a historical subject not primarily related to British History, and published in the UK. Her book is entitled "Legal Practice and the Written Word in the Early Middle Ages: Frankish Formulae, c.500-1000 (Cambridge University Press, 2009). The judges' citation said "This work is a formidable achievement of many levels. It is methodologically innovative, forging a new path for our understanding of early medieval Merovingian and Carolingian society. Written in a crisp and readable style, it adopts an engaging approach which renders its subject relevant for historians of any period". Dr Paul Readman, head of the History Department commented: "I was delighted to see Alice Rio win the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize. This award provides yet further demonstration of the strength of medieval history at King's, and of the College's commitment to outstanding scholarship for scholarship's sake. Alice is a young historian who is fast establishing a formidable reputation; this is in fact the second time she has been honoured by an award from the Royal Historical Society!"

June 2010 The Department is pleased to announce it has been successful in a bid for a three-year fully-funded Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr Katherine Foxhall will be joining the department in January 2011. She has worked on disease and convict/emigrant voyages to Australia in the nineteenth century, and is currently working on a history of migraine in medical and popular understanding from 1850, for which she has received the Wellcome funding.

June 2010 On 15 June the Bloody Sunday inquiry finally reported its findings after 12 years, almost £200 million, and 5,000 pages of documentation. The most expensive legal inquiry in British history, chaired by Lord Saville, was established in 1998 to examine the killing of 14 civilians by the British Army at a Civil Rights march in Derry on 30 January 1972. Just ten days after the report was published, a symposium organised by Dr Ian McBride of the History department met at King’s to consider the findings. Speakers included Lord Bew, Professor of Politics at Queen’s University, Belfast, and historical advisor to the inquiry.
David Cameron has been widely praised for his apology on behalf of the British government, welcomed by crowds in Derry who watched the House of Commons announcement in the city’s Guildhall Square. This outcome contrasted sharply with the Widgery Tribunal, held soon after the killings, which defended the actions of the soldiers and the British government, to the outrage of local residents and the disbelief of many outsiders. Like previous breakthroughs in Northern Ireland’s peace process, however, the Saville report leaves some tricky issues still to be resolved. At the King’s symposium historians outlined new interpretations of what went wrong on Bloody Sunday, based on the vast quantity of unclassified material released by the inquiry. Controversy still surrounds the role of Major General Robert Ford in the run-up to the march of 30 January, while the ‘canteen culture’ of the Paras is a completely unexplored topic. Saville’s statement that Martin McGuiness, now deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, was probably armed with a sub-machine gun on Bloody Sunday reminds us that the role of the Provisional IRA during the Troubles remains deeply divisive. As Northern Ireland discusses the desirability of a wider Truth Commission, it is clear that professional historians will continue to play an important role in the peace process. The symposium on Bloody Sunday and the Saville Inquiry, part of the London Irish Studies Seminar series, reflects the commitment of historians at King’s to exploring the role of historical scholarship in public life.

June 2010 The Department's Dr Anne Goldgar, Reader in Early Modern European History, has been named to the Dutch society for literature and history, Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (founded in 1766).

June 2010 The Department's Professor Peter Heather has won a 2009/10 Teaching Excellence Award. These awards, now in their eighth year, provide students with an opportunity to recognise teaching staff from each of the College’s nine Schools of study. This year over 334 staff members were nominated for the Award, with more than 1,575 students taking part in the nominations process.

June 2010 King’s College London and the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) are pleased to announce that from 1 August 2010 staff currently working in the Centre for Contemporary British History (CCBH) at the IHR will transfer to King's. Professor Miles Taylor, Director of the IHR, says of the move, ‘For the last decade the CCBH, supported by the IHR, has really put contemporary history on the map, and I am delighted that its future will be secured by this move’. Professor Keith Hoggart, Vice-Principal (Arts and Sciences) of King’s commented, ‘I am pleased to welcome these distinguished historians of the IHR to King’s and am confident that their work will considerably strengthen historical scholarship at the College’.

May 2010 The Henry III Fine Rolls project, led by History's Professor David Carpenter, is pleased to announce that all fine rolls down to the end of reign in 1272 are now available online in draft translation.

May 2010 The second Revealing Records conference for medievalists took place at King’s on 28 May 2010. Organised by Sophie Ambler and Julie Mumby, and hosted by the Department of History with the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Henry III Fine Rolls Project, the conference brought together postgraduate research students working on sources from across medieval Europe. Professor David Carpenter gave the welcome address; Professor Dame Jinty Nelson and Professor David d’Avray (UCL) presented key note papers. Twelve postgraduate speakers from King's, UCL, the IHR, and the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, Swansea and Paris gave papers on wide range of medieval sources, from letters to law codes, chronicles, wills, commentaries, inquests, manorial accounts and charter witness lists. Revealing ‘records’ from the 8th century to the 15th, from Britain to France, Spain, Italy and the Holy Land, the conference reflected the vibrancy and diversity of medieval postgraduate research. The conference attracted delegates, who included undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as independent researchers, from across Great Britain, from Glasgow and Lancaster in the north, to Royal Holloway and Roehampton in the south, and thus fostered links between a wide range of researchers. Photos from the event have been posted on the Department's facebook page.

April 2010 The King's medieval history research project 'Profile of a Doomed Elite: The Structure of English Landed Society in 1066', led by Dr Stephen Baxter, has been awarded a Leverhulme grant of £250,000. The grant will enable King’s to employ Dr Chris Lewis, one of the world’s leading authorities on eleventh-century England, and to appoint a new post-doctoral research fellow, for the duration of a two-year project. The project will be implemented and published online by the Centre for Computing in Humanities (CCH) at King’s.

April 2010 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of Harold Macmillan’s landmark ‘wind of change’ speech in South Africa on the future of colonial rule — a speech that presaged independence for Britain’s African colonies and a transformation of the continent’s political structures. To reflect this anniversary a major conference was convened jointly by Dr Sarah Stockwell of the History Department and Dr Larry Butler of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, 26-27 March. Several of the distinguished international programme of speakers addressed the immediate context and the reception of Macmillan’s speech both in Britain and overseas, while others considered the political, international, and economic aspects of decolonization alongside new cultural and social perspectives on Empire’s demise. Keynote addresses were given by Professors Saul Dubow (Sussex), Stephen Howe (Bristol), Wm. Roger Louis (Austin, Texas), and Stuart Ward (Copenhagen).

March 2010 Luke Blaxill, PhD student of History and Digital Humanities, and Shuzhi Zhou, PhD student of Neuroscience, won the King's Lion’s Den Business Competition final, taking a prize of £6,000. The Lion’s Den is modeled on the popular TV show Dragon’s Den, and teams of King's postgraduates and postdoctoral staff pitched investment propositions to a panel of judges, before being quizzed on the feasibility and marketability of their business ideas. Their winning entry was GradFunding: a business which advises students on how to obtain grants from the voluntary sector. The business is based on personal experience of gaining funding - Luke Blaxill has himself won 40 separate awards. Download GradFunding’s chief publication The Alternative Guide to Postgraduate Funding.

March 2010 The winner of the Lion’s Den Idea Prize of £2,000 was an interdisciplinary team of masters students made up of Adebusuyi Adeyemi, MSc Medicine, Science & Society, Mathilde Gauvain, MA Medieval History and Liliya Smialkova MSc Environment & Development. The team's project is called Good Food, a catering company for London schools, serving high quality meals cooked from scratch with seasonal, local and mostly organic produce.