Conferences and colloquia
York is an excellent venue for conferences and the Department of History and its members have been involved in a number of interesting and stimulating conferences in the past. See below for current and recent conferences, and click here for an archive of older conferences hosted at York.
Material Culture in History: Fourth Annual Conference of the York History Research Society
Friday 2nd July 2010
In recent years, the use of material culture as a source for reconstructing the past has become increasingly important to historical research. In response to this, our one-day conference aims to showcase research on ‘Material Culture in History,’ bringing together postgraduates working across historical periods and fields.
Femininities: Tenth York Cultural History Conference
Berrick Saul Building, University of York
22-24th April 2010
This three-day international conference, organised by the Department of History, marks the ten year anniversary of the department’s annual Cultural History Conference. Focusing on the theme of ‘femininities’ this conference brings together leading international scholars to examine the state of the field in women’s history, gender history and the history of sexuality and consider the past, present and future of the category of ‘femininities’ as a category of historical analysis. Speakers include Toby Ditz, Judith Halberstam, Barbara Taylor, Amanda Vickery and Merry Weisner-Hanks. Please find further details of the conference theme, programme and booking information via the link below.
The York Massacre of 1190 in Context
University of York, Centre for Medieval Studies22 - 24 March 2010
This conference will aim to use the events of 1189-90 as a lens through which to reassess society in England in the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The York massacre was not just a local event but one of a series of violent attacks on local communities of Jews across England in 1189-90. This wider conflict provides an important insight into the rapidly changing nature of English society.
Keynote speakers: Professor Paul R. Hyams, Department of History, Cornell University, Anna Abulafia, University of Cambridge, and Professor Jeffrey J. Cohen, Department of English, George Washington University.
Poverty in Depth: New International Perspectives
The King's Manor, University of York
6th-8th July 2009
This three-day international symposium, jointly organised by the Department of History and the York Archaeological Trust, aims to bring together international archaeologists, historians and social scientists from a wide range of backgrounds, all of who share interests in the urban archaeology and history of the modern world, to reflect on previous research, exchange information on current projects, and deliberate ideas for future agendas. The Symposium will revolve around five key round-table discussions on the themes of ‘poverty’, ‘health and sanitation’, ‘housing’, ‘possessions,’ and ‘power’. In addition, we have programmed a concluding round-table discussion: ‘Poverty: Continuing the Debate’, which we hope will not only draw together the key points raised throughout the Symposium, but also identify emerging ideas and new directions for the future study of urban poverty.
Cultures of the Global
University of York, Centre for Modern Studies
Saturday 20th June 2009
The term 'globalization' is often perceived to apply primarily to the contemporary period, denoting capitalism's triumphant spread into even the remotest areas of the world. But over the whole of the modern era, nations, regions, and localities have become increasingly shaped and reconfigured by global circulations of peoples, ideas, texts, images, and goods. Ironically, however, the study of global circulation has been hampered by a lack of exchange between scholars in different disciplines. This interdisciplinary one-day symposium aims to fill this gap by bringing together academics from the fields of History, History of Art, Politics and English to reconsider the complex role that the concept of the global has played throughout the modern period.
Experiencing texts: Reading, Speaking and Listening in History
University of York, Department of History
Friday 3rd July 2009
In recent years recapturing how texts were experienced by their readers and hearers has become increasingly important to historical study. This one-day conference aims to showcase a range of postgraduate research on the experience of texts in the past, bringing together scholars working across historical periods and fields.
Cultural Histories of Sociability, Spaces and Mobility
Note: Outline programme, booking form and other details now added to conference information page.
University of York, Department of History Cultural History Conference 2009
9th-11th July 2009
This conference therefore aims to explore how, from the mediaeval period and earlier through to (post)modern times, what it means to be fully social has evolved in relation to spatial movement, whether of an everyday or an exceptional character.
What role did mobility – and immobility – play in defining the meaning of participation in social, economic or political life and the spatial scale at which such participation took place? how were such meanings formed, sustained and dissolved by particular social structures, mechanisms or processes? and with what consequences for the lived practice of collective and individual life?
Clergy Church and Society in England and Wales, c.1200-1800
Institute of Historical Research
26th-27th March 2009
A conference held at the Institute of Historical Research on 26 and 27 March will consider the findings of two major research projects hosted in the university, one on clerical taxation and the other on the church courts, and those of another AHRC project, The Clergy of the Church of England database, hosted by King's College, London and the universities of Kent and Reading, examining the social and religious status of the clergy and the church, and their interactions with the state over five centuries.