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Modern British Studies Birmingham
MBS 2019: Modern British Studies Beyond Boundaries
Call for Papers: Modern British Studies Beyond Boundaries, 3-5 July 2019
MBS 2017: British Studies in a Broken World
Conference Pages for MBS 2017: British Studies in a Broken World
Travel, Accommodation, and Accessibility
Programme: British Studies in Broken World
Looking for panels or panellists? MBS 2017
MBS 2016: Breaking Boundaries Politics History and the Wider Interdisciplinary Challenge
MBS 2015: Rethinking Modern British Studies
Rethinking Modern British Studies: Plenary Lectures
Programme: Rethinking Modern British Studies
Conference: Rethinking Modern British Studies, Blogs and Responses
PG/ECR Workshop Schedule
Working Paper No.1
Responding to the History Manifesto
We are hiring! Assistant Professor in British History (West Midlands focus) June 6, 2022
Call for Applications! Beyond Binaries: A Study Day on New Frameworks in Gender Studies December 20, 2021
Guest Blog: "The dearest wish of our hearts is to return and end our days in our green isle…": Irish Republican women in Britain, the forgotten exiles?' October 19, 2021
Guest Blog: Movement Gone Wrong? Shipwreck in the 18th-Century British Empire October 19, 2021
Guest Blog: The Welsh Press and The Indian Empire October 19, 2021
MBS 2021: Programme and Registration June 23, 2021
CALL FOR PAPERS: We Are Still Here! A PGR Research Showcase. March 16, 2021
Guest Blog: International Students at the University of Birmingham in The Guild News 1958-1962 March 8, 2021
MBS2021: An Update March 5, 2021
Call for Participants: The life narratives of women who attended Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp 1981-2000 January 4, 2021
Becoming Birmingham: History, Diversity and Collaboration (16 December) December 7, 2020
Upcoming Seminar: Gender Trouble in British Interwar Student Life November 24, 2020
Our New PhDs: Dr Shahmima Akhtar and the Cultural History of Irish Identity on Display June 1, 2020
Our New PhDs: Dr Howard Carlton on Cosmology, Chronology and Crises May 18, 2020
'Constructing Histories': exploring the potential of charity archives January 23, 2020
Film Screening: THE MAYOR'S RACE October 17, 2019
Events for Postgraduates, Autumn 2019 October 17, 2019
Post Conference Feedback and Contemporary British History Prize for Best Postgraduate Paper July 8, 2019
One week to go! An introduction to the opening roundtable on de-centering British Studies from the peripheries June 25, 2019
MBS 2019 Programme Available June 21, 2019
A Guide to Travel, Accommodation, and Food & Drink in Birmingham June 6, 2019
Registration Deadline Extended June 6, 2019
Draft Programme and Registration May 14, 2019
Call for Papers: Modern British Studies Beyond Boundaries, 3-5 July 2019 October 24, 2018
Stories about Individual Lives – or Intimate Histories? July 26, 2018
Announcing MBS2019 July 3, 2018
Call for Participants: Multiple-gender-attraction and bisexuality in 1970s and 1980s Britain: an oral history project May 16, 2018
Ways of Knowing, 5-6 July 2018: New Call for Papers Deadline April 25, 2018
Call for Papers: Ways of Knowing in (and about) Modern Britain March 1, 2018
CFP Deadline soon: MASCULINITIES IN TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITAIN January 29, 2018
Lectureship in the History of Modern Britain at Birmingham January 2, 2018
Shelter at Christmas December 19, 2017
Confidence Games and/as Modern Times – Round table. October 9, 2017
A male voice in a female chorus. August 16, 2017
Precarity, communality and #mbsreads August 8, 2017
MBS 2017 Response: Doing history within precarity August 7, 2017
MBS/CBH PGR Prize July 28, 2017
Contemporary British History / Centre for Modern British Studies Postgraduate Prize July 4, 2017
Teaching Fellow in Modern British History June 26, 2017
British Studies in a Broken World: Info June 22, 2017
Masculinities, Contraception and Sexual Health in Late-Twentieth Century Britain, 1967-1997: Call for Interview Participants June 5, 2017
Continuing the Conversation: Modern British Studies PGR Roundtable June 1, 2017
Cadbury Conference 2017: Marriage in Africa May 30, 2017
Register for MBS 2017 May 24, 2017
Registration for #MBS2017 May 4, 2017
British Studies in a Broken World May 2, 2017
#Thanks for Typing April 10, 2017
Seeing like a Sub: Modern Britain from Beneath April 1, 2017
Conservatives, Grammar Schools and the 'Great Meritocracy' March 20, 2017
Annual Lecture 2017 – Tara Zahra (Chicago): The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World March 13, 2017
Research Round-table: Reconstructing the Historical Subject February 22, 2017
Looking for panels or panellists? MBS 2017 February 14, 2017
Lecturer in the History of 19th Century Britain and the Wider World February 8, 2017
Letter to Birmingham City Council on Birmingham Museums February 7, 2017
MBS 2017: Call for Papers Reminder February 6, 2017
The diary of Joseph Ludlow Delarue February 1, 2017
Diary of an Unidentified Woman 1853 January 31, 2017
BRIHC Public Lectures: Spring Series January 30, 2017
The Diary of William Prince Telfer: Summer 1914 January 30, 2017
MBS 2017: Themes and Schemes January 16, 2017
Looking for panels or panellists? MBS 2017 January 10, 2017
MBS 2017: Funny things December 19, 2016
Power and Resistance: The PGR 'Long Read' December 5, 2016
British Studies in a Broken World: Call for Papers MBS 2017 November 30, 2016
Patrick Wall and a different lost world of conservatism November 28, 2016
Visibly Hidden: Power and Historical Practice in Modern Britain November 21, 2016
Bonfire Night and Beyond: Burns Injury and Identity in Britain, c.1800-2000 October 31, 2016
The Big Bang: a fairy tale in London October 24, 2016
Pinning down the Prince of Tricksters October 10, 2016
INTO THE GANNET'S EYE: THE ATLANTIC EDGE & BRITISH HISTORY October 3, 2016
#MBS2017 August 23, 2016
MBS 2017: New researchers and the future of Modern British Studies July 27, 2016
Accumulating Objects July 18, 2016
Honouring Professor Catherine Hall July 12, 2016
5-7 July: MBS 2017 July 11, 2016
Thatcher's Alive?! July 7, 2016
Displays and Memories July 4, 2016
Catherine Hall in Conversation June 30, 2016
Always something there to remind me June 27, 2016
Trust, Charities and the EU Referendum June 14, 2016
The bin beside the display cabinet June 6, 2016
Class, gender, and mobilities: the Princess Diana Collection* May 23, 2016
CFP: Understanding Material Loss Across Time and Space May 16, 2016
Hidden Objects and Untold Histories May 12, 2016
MA Scholarships and Teaching on MBS Birmingham April 12, 2016
Call for Papers: PG and ECR Workshop March 16, 2016
Breaking Boundaries February 1, 2016
The Goddess: Call for Interview Participants January 19, 2016
'Symbols of Urban Malaise': Past and Present January 18, 2016
Birmingham Central Library December 22, 2015
Vagrant Life Stories December 7, 2015
MBS 2015 Conference Videos December 2, 2015
Waltzing with the Goddess in Modern Britain November 30, 2015
Amateur gentlemen, Everest, and the Science of Foie Gras. November 23, 2015
A 'Courageous Decision'? Using Sitcoms as Sources for Historical Research November 17, 2015
Hues of Red: On Book-Jackets, Politics and Publishing in 1930s Britain November 9, 2015
Bringing out the dead November 2, 2015
'We the peoples' and 'the greatest cause of all' October 26, 2015
Sticking the boot into charity October 21, 2015
The Irish Village of Ballymaclinton October 19, 2015
Collaborating to co-produce historical research October 15, 2015
Chile Solidarity FC, 1977 October 12, 2015
Rethinking Modern British Studies: On-going Blogging. August 17, 2015
Cultural studies and the possibilities of academic collaboration today July 27, 2015
MBS 2015: Videos July 24, 2015
More Conference Blogs July 20, 2015
MBS2015 Blogs July 13, 2015
So, what next? MBS 2015. July 6, 2015
'Distance lends enchantment to the view': The Left Book Club abroad. June 22, 2015
British Studies and North Britain: UHI, HSBI, and the Impact of Research-Led Teaching June 15, 2015
A City with No Memory? June 11, 2015
Continuing the Conversation June 9, 2015
MBS 2015: Conversations Beyond the Conference June 4, 2015
MA Student Research Day, 8 June 2015, 11 AM. June 3, 2015
Full Conference Programme May 21, 2015
Interdisciplinary research and public events on nineteenth and twentieth century Britain at the University of Birmingham
We are hiring! Assistant Professor in British History (West Midlands focus)
Call for Applications! Beyond Binaries: A Study Day on New Frameworks in Gender Studies
Guest Blog: "The dearest wish of our hearts is to return and end our days in our green isle…": Irish Republican women in Britain, the forgotten exiles?'
Guest Blog: Movement Gone Wrong? Shipwreck in the 18th-Century British Empire
Guest Blog: The Welsh Press and The Indian Empire
MBS 2021: Programme and Registration
CALL FOR PAPERS: We Are Still Here! A PGR Research Showcase.
Guest Blog: International Students at the University of Birmingham in The Guild News 1958-1962
MBS2021: An Update
Call for Participants: The life narratives of women who attended Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp 1981-2000
Becoming Birmingham: History, Diversity and Collaboration (16 December)
Upcoming Seminar: Gender Trouble in British Interwar Student Life
Our New PhDs: Dr Shahmima Akhtar and the Cultural History of Irish Identity on Display
Our New PhDs: Dr Howard Carlton on Cosmology, Chronology and Crises
'Constructing Histories': exploring the potential of charity archives
Film Screening: THE MAYOR'S RACE
Events for Postgraduates, Autumn 2019
Post Conference Feedback and Contemporary British History Prize for Best Postgraduate Paper
One week to go! An introduction to the opening roundtable on de-centering British Studies from the peripheries
MBS 2019 Programme Available
A Guide to Travel, Accommodation, and Food & Drink in Birmingham
Registration Deadline Extended
Draft Programme and Registration
Stories about Individual Lives – or Intimate Histories?
Announcing MBS2019
Call for Participants: Multiple-gender-attraction and bisexuality in 1970s and 1980s Britain: an oral history project
Ways of Knowing, 5-6 July 2018: New Call for Papers Deadline
Call for Papers: Ways of Knowing in (and about) Modern Britain
CFP Deadline soon: MASCULINITIES IN TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITAIN
Lectureship in the History of Modern Britain at Birmingham
Shelter at Christmas
Confidence Games and/as Modern Times – Round table.
A male voice in a female chorus.
Precarity, communality and #mbsreads
MBS 2017 Response: Doing history within precarity
MBS/CBH PGR Prize
Contemporary British History / Centre for Modern British Studies Postgraduate Prize
Teaching Fellow in Modern British History
British Studies in a Broken World: Info
Masculinities, Contraception and Sexual Health in Late-Twentieth Century Britain, 1967-1997: Call for Interview Participants
Continuing the Conversation: Modern British Studies PGR Roundtable
Cadbury Conference 2017: Marriage in Africa
Register for MBS 2017
Registration for #MBS2017
British Studies in a Broken World
#Thanks for Typing
Seeing like a Sub: Modern Britain from Beneath
Conservatives, Grammar Schools and the 'Great Meritocracy'
Annual Lecture 2017 – Tara Zahra (Chicago): The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World
Leave a comment Posted on June 6, 2022 Uncategorized
The University of Birmingham is hiring for an assistant professor in British History (closing date 21 June). The post is focused on regional and local history, and the person would be expected to lead the MA and research centre on West Midlands History. As the ad says: We seek a specialist to consolidate and develop our research and teaching strengths in British History, including histories of the British Empire and the British World writ large, and the history of Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region. Within this framework we are seeking a historian with expertise in regional or local history and/or the history of communities. We would welcome applicants with an existing research focus on some aspect of West Midlands history, but this is not required. However, the successful applicant would be expected to develop a research and teaching portfolio focused on this region. We particularly welcome applications from historians whose research directly links with the Department's established strengths in social and cultural history, including material culture and/or histories of identities, particularly around questions of race, migration and diaspora, gender and sexuality.
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CQH100/assistant-professor-in-british-history
1 Comment Posted on December 20, 2021 December 20, 2021 Uncategorized
Now accepting applications from postdoctoral students within the Midlands4Cities consortium :
Beyond Binaries: A Study Day on New Frameworks in Gender Studies
10 May 2022, University of Birmingham (with online option)
Dr Mo Moulton (Birmingham), Dr Onni Gust (Nottingham) and Dr Jaya Jacobo (Coventry) are pleased to invite postgraduate researchers at any of the eight Midlands4Cities universities to apply to take part in our dialogue day.
This intensive study day will bring together postgraduate researchers and academics in order to facilitate engagement with important new interdisciplinary work in transgender, intersex, and non-binary studies. Emphasizing the co-constitution of gender, race, class and disability as categories of difference that structure the possibilities for human life in the modern world, it will allow researchers working on a range of topics to apply this new work to their own projects.
Doctoral researchers will gain a broad understanding of key concepts, theoretical and methodological frameworks relating to queer, intersex and trans studies. Through in-depth guided discussion sessions, you will gain facility with a field that is often seen as imposingly theoretical. You will be challenged to think across categories of difference, broadening their understandings of how their research might speak to wider concerns within and beyond the academy. You will benefit from the expertise of the three organizers, who have a shared grounding in queer and trans studies and pedagogies as well as interdisciplinary research interests ranging from eighteenth-century imperialism to present-day Brazil and South-east Asia.
Key questions will include
How might thinking beyond a binary (male/female) gender framework complicate and enrich your research?
What challenges do recent interventions in queer, intersex and trans studies pose to your research questions and methodologies?
How do recent understandings of gender intersect with other frameworks and discourses of difference, including race, class and disability? How do these intersections inform your own research?
Small-group facilitated workshops based on a short reflective piece written in advance will allow doctoral researchers to apply these ideas in the context of your own research, asking new questions about their methodologies and modes of interpretation and receiving feedback from a wide range of other researchers. Finally, you will become part of an emerging community of researchers who are working on this new and dynamic field of enquiry within the M4C network.
If you are interested, please send a short (300-500 word) paragraph explaining your current research project and why you would like to be involved in the Dialogue Day by 31 January 2022 to Dr Moulton (m.moulton@bham.ac.uk), Dr Gust (onni.gust@nottingham.ac.uk), and Dr Jacobo (jaya.jacobo@coventry.ac.uk). Please feel free to email any of us with informal enquiries as well. Reasonable travel costs will be covered for students whose home university is not Birmingham. We anticipate that this will be an in-person event, with scope for synchronous online participation for those who cannot travel. We will be in touch to confirm participation and circulate readings in early-mid February.
Leave a comment Posted on October 19, 2021 Uncategorized
This is a guest blog based on a paper delivered at the MBS 2021 PGR Research Showcase.
Niamh Coffey, PhD Candidate at the University of Strathclyde.
Maire McGaleagly (or McGallogly) had lived in Glasgow for over thirty years when she applied for a military service pension from the Irish government in 1938 for her service during the Irish wars of independence. She joined Cumann na mBan, the Irish women's republican paramilitary organisation, in 1915, and from then on was extensively involved in republican activities in Glasgow such as gun running, carrying despatches, and providing safe houses for those on the run.1 Despite her significant involvement in Republican activities, McGaleagly's pension application was rejected numerous times. Dejectedly, McGaleagly wrote that if she had the money, she would use it to go home to Ireland, stating that this was "her greatest hunger."2 The sentiments of exile and suffering are repeated throughout the letters of the collection. For example, Margaret Leonard, who was a member of the Liverpool branch of Cumann na mBan and later moved to Australia, wrote to the pension board that being granted a pension would help her and her husband "realise the greatest wish of [their] hearts" by enabling them to return to their "beloved green isle."3
It is intriguing that these women invoke the image of the emigrant exile in their pension applications. Indeed, the Irish emigrant is certainly a pervasive figure in both Irish history and popular culture who has continually evolved since the 1840s, however, this figure has generally been imagined as male. While there are countless songs and poems about Irish men leaving their sweethearts behind while they toil in a foreign country, there are fewer ballads about the women who left their homeland to become domestic servants in America, or nurses in post-war Britain. This lacuna is intriguing, because throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, gender ratios for Irish migration were roughly equal.4 Therefore, the military service pension applications of McGaleagly and others offer an interesting glimpse into how these women viewed their experiences through the commonly thought of male lens of exile, and how this intersected with their republican activities. Indeed, the women who made these applications invoke images of hardship and involuntary exile, but also draw on gendered ideas of maternal sacrifice, raising questions about the gendered image of the Irish migrant and republic experience during this period.
The military service pensions are somewhat unique, as they were based on active service, and consequently, the collection offers detailed sources on women's republican activities and valuable insight into their lives after this period. The applications reveal that women's and men's roles in republican organisations in Britain increasingly overlapped during this period, as women became involved in IRA operations such as arms smuggling and carrying despatches. Many of these women had also been involved in other Irish political and cultural organisations such as Gaelic League and the Irish Self-determination League before getting involved in republican paramilitary organisations. They stress the hardships they endured, emphasising the dangers of being part of a paramilitary organisation in the country of the enemy. Although most of these women lived in cities with large Irish communities, the applications reflect that they were viewed with hostility by the city's wider populations. Consequently, themes such as ostracism and suffering for their beliefs arise in their correspondence. Jean Quinn, who owned a furniture shop in Glasgow, had to shut down her business and move in with her mother after her arrest and heavily publicised trial for possessing Sinn Féin literature and revolver cartridges.5 Kathleen Talty and Margaret Sexton, who were both teachers based in Manchester, stated that their activities saw them passed over for promotions, while Maire Manning was dismissed from her job as a post office clerk for her involvement in Cumann na mBan in London.6
These experiences fit in with the wider narrative of the emigrant exile. As Kerby Miller has argued in his study on Irish trans-Atlantic emigration, the struggles of the Irish abroad fuelled nationalism in diasporic communities from the mid-nineteenth century. Despite some emigrants finding material comfort and happiness in their newfound communities, this image of exile was still a powerful tool in the Irish nationalist imagination.7 Therefore, these women draw on established tropes of emigrant experiences which the assessors of their pensions would surely recognise when granting their pension awards. Some of the applicants even went so far as stating that their experiences were more challenging than their counterparts in Ireland, owing to the hostility they faced in a foreign country. Kate Lee of Glasgow stated cryptically after her pension was rejected that "we were in a foreign country… there was very little stuff in some parts of Ireland depending on what came across the water and it was a very risky thing to do to store up stuff til it was dispatched."8
These women drew on gendered imagery in addition to the established emigrant exile experience. The correspondence between these women, their references, and the Irish pension board stress their roles as proud Irish mothers and wives, who had watched their loved ones suffer as a result of their commitment to Irish republicanism. This is reflective of how the female relatives of executed republican men in Ireland were perceived during and after the Revolutionary period. Indeed, activist women such as Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Mary MacSwiney and Margaret Pearse used their elevated status as the wives, sisters, and mothers of martyred republicans to further the cause for Irish independence and were often a staple on speaking tours across the diaspora. Even though these women were republican activists in their own right, their relation to martyred male republicans gave them currency and they used this to their advantage, invoking the names of their deceased relatives in their speeches and writing.9
Irish republican women in Britain also stressed their roles as mothers, sisters, and wives, realising the influence these roles could have in gaining recognition for their services. Maire McGaleagly wrote despairingly to the pension board when her application for a widow's pension was originally rejected as the board stipulated that her husband's death was unattributable to his service in the IRA, despite the fact that he died from a stomach ulcer as a result of his time in prison after the Easter Rising. In her appeal, McGaleagly emphasised her husband's role in the Rising, and stated that all the suffering her family endured would be worthwhile if only his service were recognised, stating that "the whole thing is bewildering to me- people who I know never had a scratch getting recognition whilst he was through everything and I haven't even a paper to show his part in the struggle."
Referees attesting to Republican women's services in these applications also drew on the imagery of caregiving and suffering for women who were unmarried and had no children. For example, Fr. John Fahy, who was the O/C of the Dundee IRA, emphasised the role his former IRA member Lena McDonald was currently playing as a caregiver for her elderly mother.10 Fahy stresses that McDonald could no longer live in Dundee due to her previous activities and was living in poverty while trying to provide for her other. Fahy also stressed that pensions should not be awarded depending on the applicant's position on the waiting list, but rather on their service and their current financial position, echoing McGaleagly's sceptical thoughts about who this money was being awarded to. Similarly, references attested to the generosity and care given by Mary Egan, who was a member of the North Unit IRA, who was infamous for sharing her home with IRA members who were trying to evade the authorities. Michael O'Brien of Cork No.2 Brigade wrote that she was "outstanding in her care of IRA members… her name is known in every county for this."11 Bridget Flanagan, who was a member of the IRA in Glasgow, was affectionately nicknamed 'Mother Flanagan' by the men who used her home as a safe house. One of her references, Henry Forbes, takes it upon himself as a 'gentleman' to write to the pension board as her reference and ask for a form for her to fill out, reflecting a sense of chivalry. Flanagan's other references attest to her generosity and care and stipulate that the Irish government should return the favour now that she was advanced in her years.12
The applications of republican women in Britain offer a glimpse into how the narrative of emigration, exile, and nationalism could be used be by Irish women, despite the perseverance of emigrant figure as male. They highlight that themes such as sacrifice and ostracism, were experiences of both Irish men and women, and how these intersected with nationalist sentiment. However, the language of maternalism and the emphasis on care giving reflects that these women drew on gendered language and imagery in portraying their experiences of republicanism in a foreign land, in a similar way to prominent republican activist women whose male relatives had been executed for their beliefs.
1 Military Service Pensions Collection, MSPREF3458062, Marie McGaleagly.
3 MSPC, MSP34REF45593, Margaret Leonard.
4 Nancy L. Green, 'Changing paradigms in migration studies: from men to women to gender' in Donna Gabbacia and Mary Jo Maynes' Gender History Across Epistemologies (Oxford, 2013), pp.262-278.
5 MSPC, MSP34REF783, Jean Gillespie (nee Quinn).
6 MSPC, MSP34REF50666, Kathleen Talty; MSPC, MSP34REF59330, Margaret Sexton; MSPC, MSP34REF35954,
Maire Keyes (nee Manning).
7 Kerby Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (Oxford, 1985).
8 MSPC, MSP34REF59950, Kate Lee.
9 Claire McGing, 'Women's political representation in Dáil Éireann in revolutionary and post-revolutionary
Ireland' in Linda Connolly's Women and the Irish Revolution: Feminism, Activism, Violence (Newbridge, 2020), pp.113-129.
10 MSPC, MSP34REF56964, Lena McDonald.
11 MSPC, MSP34REF55889, Mary Egan.
12 MSPC, MSP34REF55614, Bridget Flanagan.
Franziska Hermes, Doctoral Fellow at the Graduate School Global Intellectual History
In 1783, Bengal-based Frances Chambers wrote a letter to a friend worrying that "there is no news of the Grosvenor at St. Helena, and the Valentine and three other ships arrived safe in England, I am very unhappy about it".1 She was interested in the Grosvenor specifically because as a passenger on board was her seven-year-old son Thomas whom she shared with husband Robert Chambers, a judge in service of the British East India Company that ruled India at the time. As it turned out, she was right to worry: The Grosvenor was never to arrive at St. Helena as it had been lost in August 1782. Most of the passengers and crew were able to leave the sinking ship alive, but since they were wrecked on what is now Pondoland in South Africa, what followed was a trek of several months, fuelled by the hopes to find European settlers and made almost unsurvivable by the harsh terrain, hunger, thirst, wild animals, and frequent encounters with natives. In the end, out of 140 men, women, and children only 19 survivors reached the Cape of Good Hope, then governed by the Dutch East India Company. Little Thomas Chambers, sent to England for education, was never seen again.2
The Grosvenor makes for a unique keyhole through which to explore the history of 18th-century mobility. As John-Paul Ghobrial has proposed, ships and people on the move are interesting for such an analysis because their stories are "moving stories [that] can reveal new geographies we do not see otherwise".3 The same is true for a lost ship, I argue – with one difference: Stories of lost ships are not primarily 'moving stories', but rather stories of movement gone wrong. The geographies a wrecked ship reveals were thus as new for contemporaries as they are for historians. By definition, shipwreck is a moment of chance, as the Grosvenor demonstrates like no other: a British vessel having left India in order to return to England, only to then be lost on the South African coast, geographically speaking neither empire nor home but outside the reach of both. This setting forced people affected by the wreck to deal with a situation they had not anticipated, and they often did so very creatively. It is following their stories, therefore, that can lead to truly new geographies.
Shipwreck Geographies
When looking for shipwreck geographies, the place to start is the spot where a ship was lost. The natural conditions of this spot determined the survival rate, but so did the geopolitical conditions. After all, wars between European powers extended also to regions outside Europe, meaning castaways frequently found themselves at the mercy of political enemies. On paper, the situation was similarly daunting for the Grosvenor passengers. In 1780, Britain had declared war on the Dutch Republic, the overall fourth of a series of Anglo-Dutch wars, and it would last until 1784. Although this means that the survivors reaching the Dutch settlements were, in principles, prisoners of war, Dutch Governor Joachim van Plettenberg "did not hesitate a moment" to send out rescue parties to search for more, as he assured British Governor Warren Hastings in a letter written to Bengal in March 1783.4 On receiving the information, Hastings purchased a valuable diamond and set it in a ring that was carried as a gift to the Cape in March 1784. On the ring was engraved the Ovid quotation 'ab hoste doceri' – it is right to be taught, even by an enemy.
Looking at the Cape from a Eurocentric perspective, this episode surprises because both van Plettenberg's and Hastings' actions contradicted national policies. Such a conclusion, however, is based on the false assumption that the European East India Companies were strictly 'national' spaces. There sure were phases of fierce competition between the British and the Dutch company, but Anglo-Dutch rivalries in Europe did never automatically translate into the East or, in this case, the Cape. Rather, historians have shown that to pursue their own private fortunes servants of both companies regularly worked together no matter national interests.5 The element of disaster in the specific case of the Grosvenor might have yet added another layer. Both the Britons and Dutch of our story knew what it meant to be on a ship for months on end, and they knew how frightening the prospect of being wrecked was, particularly when that included brutal "savage nation[s], to whom the principles of humanity are little known", as van Plettenberg explained the indigenous population to Hastings.6 These shared (white) imperial experiences at the cost of other excluded groups, I suggest, brought Britons and Dutchmen closer to one another than to their fellow countrymen at home because they allowed for a sense of familiarity between supposed national strangers.
The Grosvenor, then, teaches us that – to again cite John-Paul Ghobrial – "foreignness was ultimately a local affair. Belonging or unbelonging, native or alien, local or stranger: these were conditions that were decided […] by local actors using local processes of identification".7 It should come as no surprise that we encounter these processes in the Cape of all places. Geographically a meeting point of two oceans, as a connector of the 18th century Atlantic and Indian Ocean shipping systems the Cape was a metaphorical meeting point as well. Although the Dutch had officially occupied the Cape in 1652, as a refreshment post the colony had remained a fixed part of all European trading networks. Taken into consideration also the diversity of shipping crews and the local population, this meant that the Cape was a true contact zone where all kinds of locals and strangers could potentially meet.8
One local to meet was Robert Jacob Gordon, a Dutch Colonel stationed at the Cape who was widely regarded as an authority on the ethno-geographical knowledge of southern Africa at the time. Relatives of missing Grosvenor passengers based in Britain and India, therefore, often turned to him to ask whether it was possible that individual survivors could still be found among the indigenous people. Gordon did believe that it was possible and became a prominent supporter of sending out more relief missions. He often confided in Britons visiting the Cape who made sure his message travelled throughout the empire. As a result, families like the Chambers frequently received letters by Britons each recounting "the communication I held upon this subject with Colonel Gordon, with as much exactness as my memory will enable me to do."9 Fuelled also by persistent rumours of whites sighted in the area, Dutch colonists eventually felt obliged to go out on at least two more expeditions, the last one in 1790. These missions, however, were without success. The Chambers family and others, thus, were doomed to spend the rest of their lives wondering.
While contemporaries certainly would have found shipwreck to be movement gone wrong, this glimpse into the shipwreck geographies spanning India, Britain, and South Africa has shown that this is not a conclusion that historians should come to – quite the contrary. As the Grosvenor demonstrates, due to its accidental nature shipwreck not only initiated new lines of movement and contact, but it also threw them into unusually sharp definitions.10 For historians, then, shipwreck might even be a lucky coincidence because starting out from a specific wreck can become a method to come close to something we would not have assumed, looked for, or been able to see otherwise, in this particular case the many instances of Anglo-Dutch cooperation on the one hand and the transnational information channels centred around Colonel Gordon and similar knowledge agents on the other. Shipwreck, thus, promises to reveal the workings of the 18th-century British empire – not on the macro level, but on the micro, the local and intimate.
1 Percival R. Kirby, The True Story of the Grosvenor East Indiaman: Wrecked on the Coast of Pondoland South Africa on 4 August 1782 (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1960), 127.
2 For details on the Grosvenor wreck and aftermath, see Kirby, True Story and Stephen Taylor, The Caliban Shore: The Fate of the Grosvenor Castaways (London: Faber and Faber, 2004).
3 John-Paul Ghobrial, "Moving Stories and what they tell us: Early Modern Mobility between Microhistory and Global History," in Past & Present 242, no. 14 (2019): 280.
4 Kirby, Jacob van Reenen and the Grosvenor Expedition of 1790-1791 (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1958), 19.
5 Cf. e.g. Femme S. Gaastra, "War, Competition and Collaboration: Relations between the English and Dutch East India Company in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," in The Worlds of the East India Company, ed. H.V. Bowen, Margarette Lincoln and Nigel Rigby (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2002), 40-68.
6 Kirby, Jacob van Reenen, 19.
7 Ghobrial, "Moving Stories," 250.
8 Cf. Kerry Ward, "'Tavern of the Seas'? The Cape of Good Hope as an Oceanic Crossroads during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," in Seascapes: Maritime Histories, Littoral Cultures, and Transoceanic Exchanges, ed. Jerry H. Bentley, Renate Bridenthal and Kären Wigen (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007), 137-152.
9 National Maritime Museum AGC/H/23, 1.
10 Cf. Margarette Lincoln, "Shipwreck narratives of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century: Indicators of culture and identity," in British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 20 (1997): 155.
Rhys Owens, PhD Candidate at Swansea University
My research focuses on the relationship between Wales and the British Empire, and specifically examines Welsh people who went out to India as civil servants, missionaries, soldiers, and for other purposes, and how they thought about their place within the empire both practically and philosophically. In light of the recent focus on decolonising history, part of my aim is to actually recolonise aspects of Welsh history, to recapture the fact that the Welsh were culpable for empire as the English and that the attitude that Wales was somehow distant from empire or indeed was a victim of empire in a classic colonial sense is not accurate. Part of that research relates to the domestic perception of empire and how India was perceived and consumed through the English-language press.
So, what do the press focus on during this period? Firstly, there is a very clear interest in Welsh individuals living and working in India. The high court judge Sir Lawrence Jenkins is of particular interest. He was a bit of a rarity being a first language Welsh speaker from Cardigan who had achieved high office within the empire.1 Sir Griffith Evans and Lewis Pugh-Pugh are other prominent examples.2 But aside from these big names we also find that the press keenly followed more lowly individuals as they travelled out and worked in India, and there was a lot of local pride surrounding these people as they made a life for themselves abroad.3 So straight away we see what is still a fairly constant theme of the press, which is the classic human-interest story.
There is also an enduring interest in the missionary movement. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission was the largest missionary movement in the field in the North East and there were also other missionaries all over India. 4 The press would extensively cover their work, which was often dangerous and arduous, and print reports from lecture tours given by returning missionaries, as well as detailed information on new recruits from all parts of Wales.5 And lastly, the press took a great interest in the various Welsh societies that existed, especially in the major cities. The most famous was Cymdeithas Gwladol y Cymru yn yr India (The Welsh Society of India), which was based in Calcutta where by far the largest single Welsh community lived, but there were also fairly active societies elsewhere. 6 These societies would host events for the Welsh community, with the main annual event being the St David's Day dinner.7
We've covered what the press were focusing on, but what does this all mean? The first thing which comes out strongly is a clear national angst which takes the form of concerns over Wales' place within the empire and its contribution to it, but also an existential angst surrounding Wales' national identity. Whereas the Scots and Irish had very strong traditions of imperial service, very few Welsh people sought opportunities in the empire.8 Whenever a Welsh person attained to a high position, it was a rarity. When the press covered individuals like Lawrence Jenkins and events like the St David's Day dinner, they made a huge deal about their Welshness and the special qualities they believed the Welsh brought to the empire, and the language of this seems to be an attempt to claim a place within an endeavour where the Welsh were not well represented. 9 The empire was an enormously important part of the British national psyche and this was no different in Wales. Being a part of that was an important aspect of Welshness itself. The other side to this angst is a bit closer to home and revolves around the perceived degradation of national culture, especially the Welsh language. By the early 20th century only around 50% of the population spoke Welsh and the number was dropping rapidly.10 Coverage of India in the press often focused on the language, with events such as church services and society gatherings being conducted in Welsh, as well as a fairly obsessive interest in how well individuals retained their Welsh.11 This was also a major appeal of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist mission as an organisation that conducted all of its internal activities in the Welsh language and regarded it as an almost sacred tongue.12 This obsession with the perpetuation of the language abroad reflected deep-seated fears about its demise at home, and offers an important insight into turn of the century Welsh society.
The second major theme is one of civilising mission, and this comes through in two ways- the religious in terms of the missionaries, and the secular in terms of everyone else, though the two are interconnected. In my Masters research I looked at Welsh national identity among residents in India and developed the concept of 'Little Wales' which was first put forward by Aled Jones and Bill Jones in the early 2000s. Relevant to the cultural angst we discussed earlier, 'Little Wales' was the transplantation of Welsh cultural norms to the colonial environment, and this was used as a means of taming what was considered to be an alien and often dangerous environment.13 Now in the Welsh case this would clearly
be related to concerns over the language and English dominance at home, but also to classic contemporary theories of imperialism. The very nature of missionaries is the perpetuation of cultural imperialism- the wholesale or partial replacement of what is considered an inferior culture with what is considered a superior one. The Welsh missionary movement was seeking to not only Christianise but also Europeanise and even Welshify the indigenous population, and the Welsh press got behind this mission.14 The exploits of famous missionaries were a major focus throughout the period, with the main theme being one of bold Christian men and women combatting 'exotic' danger in a deeply hostile environment.15 Undoubtedly the scale of the picture painted had a lot to do with raising funds from the Welsh chapel circuit, but alongside the danger we also see a clear appreciation of the value of missionary activity in the reporting of improved literacy, conversion rates, and a general belief that the presence of Christianity had led to an uplift of the people.16 So, from the religious perspective we can trace a distinct othering of the Indian population alongside a strong belief that constructing 'Little Wales' in India would civilise and improve their position.
On the secular side we can also see this idea. The events of the urban Welsh societies that we touched upon earlier were grand and imperial occasions, involving toasts to the Queen or King and speeches that sought to justify Wales' position within the empire.17 So, for example, the press reported the speech of A.E. Goodwin, a temperance campaigner, at the 1902 dinner where he argued that the British Empire was raising the status of Indian women to that of the European, and in 1909 the speeches focused on the need for 'Celtic imagination' to solve India's problems.18 It is unsurprising that those directly working
in the empire should have had a strong attachment to its supposed civilising mission, but the important thing here is how extensively these events and attitudes were covered in the Welsh press and how little overt anti-imperialist sentiment appeared, though there were a few examples.19 The events themselves were a clear attempt to recreate an element of Welsh life, and involved use of the language, traditional Welsh songs, and as close to traditional Welsh meals as it was possible to get under the circumstances.20 The Welsh public, through the press, felt a deep attachment to these occasions and the underlying ideology of them.
I want to finish by touching on one final theme which forms a central part of my overall research, and that's the idea that the Welsh had a unique theory of imperialism which played upon the idea of a specific national skillset. By this, I mean a belief that the Welsh, due to their minority status within a greater British state, understood the ambitions and concerns of indigenous peoples more than the dominant English. In this conception, Welsh language ability, their greater spirituality and religious commitment, and their understanding of the importance of preserving struggling cultures, made them
compassionate and fair-minded imperialists, and could act as mediators between Indians and the English.21 Now this idea pervades through press coverage, and evidently originates from Welsh communities within the colonial environment. Every major Welsh figure mentioned above subscribed in some form to this view, and it was projected outwards to a domestic audience at home, to the extent that at a St David's Day dinner in Rhyl in 1907 there were toasts made to non-sectarian and non-political Welshmen working towards the greater good of India.22 This is not to say that we don't find examples of more aggressive imperialist views- Sir Griffith Evans was one of the leading voices who argued against Indian judges being given powers to try Europeans during the Ilbert controversy of the 1880s, so, we can't be drawn into the idea that 'Welsh imperialism', as far as it even existed, was somehow better than English.23 But in terms of taking a four nations approach to the British Empire and teasing out some of these intra-British differences, it is an important idea and one I'm exploring further.
1 'Cardigan', The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard, 9 January 1903: p. 6.
2 'St David's Day in India', Towyn-on-Sea and Merioneth County Times, 27 March 1902: p. 7; 'Newport. Pem', The County Echo, 7 April 1904: p. 2.
3 'Young Rhonddaite Leaves for India', The Rhondda Leader, 3 March 1906: p. 7.
4 Aled Jones and Bill Jones, 'The Welsh World and the British Empire c. 1851-1939: An Exploration', in The British World: Diaspora, Culture and Identity, ed. By Carl Bridge and Kent Fedorowich (Abingdon: Routledge, 2003), pp. 62-63.
5 'Colwyn Bay in India', The Weekly News and Visitors' Chronicle for Colwyn Bay, Colwyn, Llandrillo, Conway, Deganwy, and Neighbourhood, 28 November 1902: p. 7.
6 'St David's Day in India', The Western Mail, 29 March 1899: p. 5; Current Topics: Welsh Choir, The Times of India, 25 Sep 1945: p. 4.
7 'St David's Day in India', The Western Mail.
8 H.V. Bowen, 'Introduction', in Wales and the Overseas Empire: Interactions and Influences, 1650-1830, ed. by H.V. Bowen (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), pp. 1-14.
9 'St David's Day in India', The Cambrian, 6 April 1900: p. 5.
10 John Davies, A History of Wales (Penguin Books: London, 2007), pp. 482-3.
11 'By the Way', The Western Mail, 25 October 1893: p. 4.
12 Aled Jones, 'Welsh Missionary Journalism in India, 1880-1947', in Imperial Co-Histories: National Identities and the British Colonial Press, ed. by Julie F. Codell (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003), p. 248.
13 Aled Jones and Bill Jones, 'The Welsh World and the British Empire', pp. 63-64.
14 Aled Jones, 'Sacred Spaces: Cultural Geographies of Mission in Welsh Sylhet, 1849-1940, The Welsh History Review, 26 (2012), pp. 215-6.
15 'Missionary Meeting at Cadoxton', The South Wales Star, 4 December 1891: p. 7.
16 'Local Intelligence', The Cambrian, 24 September 1886: p. 5.
17 'St David's Day in Poona', The Times of India, 6 March 1946: p. 5.
18 'St David's Day in Calcutta', The Cambrian, 28th March 1902: 6; 'Welshmen in India', The
Montgomeryshire Express and Radnor Times, 30th March 1909: 3.
19 'Remember the Native Indians', South Wales Daily News, 29th April 1890: 2.
20 'St David's Day in India', The Cambrian.
21 'Our Calcutta Letter: The Welsh Dinner', The Times of India, 06 Mar 1914: 10.
22 'Dinner at Rhyl', The Welsh Coast Pioneer and Review for North Cambria, 7 March 1907: p. 3.
23 'Death and Funeral of Sir Griffiths Pugh Evans', The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard, 14 February 1902: p. 3.
Leave a comment Posted on June 23, 2021 June 23, 2021 Forthcoming events
"We Are Still Here: a PGR Research Showcase", our summer 2021 conference, is fast approaching! Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/we-are-still-here-a-pgr-research-showcase-tickets-147765150543
Please see the programme below, which is also available for download:
programme-mbs-pdf-final
Leave a comment Posted on March 16, 2021 April 12, 2021 Forthcoming events
The Centre for Modern British Studies at the University of Birmingham presents its 2021 Conference We Are Still Here! A PGR Research Showcase, a conference created by Postgraduate Researchers, for Postgraduate Researchers. After a year of limited opportunities but continued research, this conference provides a space to celebrate the perseverance and adaption of academic research across a range of fields. See the CFP below or download pdf below.
CFP 2021Download
Leave a comment Posted on March 8, 2021 March 5, 2021 Blog posts
This is a guest blog by current undergraduate students Rahma Mohamed and Tamanna Rakib. They undertook this research as part of the recent conference on Becoming Birmingham: History, Diversity and Collaboration, organised by MBS MA graduate Ellen Smith. Here, Mohamed and Rakib present their findings from the Guild News in greater detail.
The opportunity to delve into our University's past through the student newspaper The Guild News was an invaluable way to bring to the fore experiences of international students. 1958 to 1962 was an interesting period of investigation regarding foreign students in the wake of World War II. Analytical signposts we considered to guide our research were student events, student societies, student profiles and student interaction with international politics.
Pictures from the events that had happened in previous years would often be included as a way to encourage more people to attend. UB/GUILD/F/4/9
In our appraisal of student events we focused on two recurrent ones – the International Evening and Overseas Freshers' Conference. International Evenings' popularity reflected a positive cultural exchange – it was said that 'people had to be turned away' (October 1958, p.3). By 1958, the International Evening was in its sixth year and was advertised as including dances from Estonia, Poland, and an Israeli choir. The Overseas Freshers' Conference to help foreign students acclimatise to Birmingham debuted in 1958 with 44 international students attending. By 1961, The Guild News reported that there were 2500 international students in the West Midlands and the Overseas Freshers Conference was amplified as a result of this growing number. Therefore, whilst interaction with international students was limited, it was burgeoning by the late twentieth century. Significant to historical research, events like the conference provided the only student profile of an international female student from 1958 to 1962, Miss Izzat Alibhai! Beyond these set events were a plethora of additional ones, like the International Brains Trust which, however minor, still provided an essential paper trail.
Furthermore, there were '80 societies, plus the Guild societies function in the Guild' (March 1960, p.3). Within such a framework was evidence of active foreign students' engagement in UoB life and their home countries. Societies prompting cultural exchanges occurred via the Arab and Israeli societies' cultural exhibitions (1960), the French and Jewish societies' plays (1960) and the World University Services which annually held an international week at UoB. An example of international students' engagement in their home countries affairs was the charity ball held by the South African Society (1959). Many of these societies (like the French and Indian societies) appreciated the cooperation of notable figures, namely cultural delegate for the West Midlands Mr A. Favre and the permanent secretary of the Guild, promising a picture of broadened interactions with foreign students between 1958 to 1962.
Locating individual profiles throughout the newspaper was also incredibly helpful. Profiles of Medical student Sadrudin Jivani and Chemical Engineering student Ahmed Qidwai demonstrated the way in which international students both excelled academically and with regards to their involvement with student social life. Hamid Noshirvani's profile was of particular interest as he shared the different adjustments international students would have to make, whilst also stating that international students were hesitant to return back to the Middle East due to instability. Demonstrating the role of the newspaper in facilitating a conversation between the student, international student Tarik Al Irhayim responded by attributing the instability of the Middle East to the meddling of the West and argued international students were actually eager to return.
Not only had Sadrudin Jivani been the first to take his second year exams with a beard, he had also won Fresher of the Year even though he played no sports and was unable to speak proper English. His main motivation was to simply prove he could do it. UB/GUILD/F/4/9
The newspaper as a forum for opposing views to be voiced would also emerge following the publication on the front page in 1961 of a racist letter that had been sent to Mike Thickett, the Chairman of the S.C.A.R.S (Students Committee Against Racial Segregation) society. Set up in the wake of racial segregation in South African universities, S.C.A.R.S were no strangers to racism and the purpose in publicising this letter had been to show that racism did not just exist in South Africa but was present here in the UK. Whilst some chose to believe the letter was doctored, there was evidence that ethnic minority students were upset that this opinion had been plastered on the front page. This could be attributed to the fact that it was well known that they would have been potentially already have been exposed to the racist views present in Birmingham, especially when looking for accommodation.
Although we only spent our time researching four years of The Guild News, we found a wealth of information about international students that was not included in our final presentation or indeed this blog. In that sense, there is still a lot of work to be done to better understand their experiences at University of Birmingham.
Leave a comment Posted on March 5, 2021 March 16, 2021 Forthcoming events
Two years ago, I was eagerly anticipating welcoming a few hundred Modern British Studies scholars to Birmingham for three days of cutting-edge research presentations in overly warm rooms and intense discussions in the sunshine over buffet lunches. For obvious reasons, nothing of that sort will be possible this summer.
So, first, the sad news: there won't be a full-scale MBS2021 this summer.
The good news: a team of brilliant postgraduates is working on a smaller-scale set of online conversations organized around the theme of Resistance and Recovery. Make a note in your diary for the week of 5 July, and watch this space.
Like most of us, I'm giving a lot of thought these days to what conferences of the future should be like. Even once it's safe to gather again, we will need to think carefully about the climate impact of our gatherings. I want to think equally carefully about how to foster conversations that work against the systems of borders and global hierarchies that structure and often stifle our work. I hope that the wider MBS community can be a site for those conversations, and I hope that we find ways to nourish the vitality of our shared work despite the overwhelming pressures of the last year.
by Mo Moulton, director of the Modern British Studies Centre.
Leave a comment Posted on January 4, 2021 Uncategorized
This Call for Participants is from MBS postgraduate researcher Rose Debenham.
I am interested in collecting oral testimonies from people who had a variety of experiences with Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. If you spent any length of time at the camp, I would like to hear about your experiences.
I am conducting an oral history research project for a PhD at the University of Birmingham exploring the life narratives of women who attended Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp between 1981-2000. I am examining how women's identities were shaped and presented throughout their lives and through their participation in activism.
I would like to conduct digital interviews with you if you fulfil one or more of the following criteria:
You stayed at Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
You attended Greenham as a day visitor
You visited or stayed at Greenham as a child
In collecting oral testimonies, I want to understand your feelings about what it meant to attended Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp as well as hear your wider life story. I am also interested in finding out more about the following topics:
How do you think about your past identities and experiences?
What was your life outside of the immediate space of Greenham Common?
What do you think about the personal and historical legacy of Greenham Common?
By taking part in this project, you will allow for individual perspectives on these subjects to be recognised and made visible in the historical record. Complete anonymity is guaranteed for all participants, if desired. For more information and if you are interested in taking part in this project, please email Rose Debenham on RXD442@student.bham.ac.uk to arrange an informal conversation prior to interview.


text:
Design Doing Good
A growing number of companies—selling everything from smart eyewear to groovy bikes to designer clothing—are creating special collections and concept stores that benefit charitable causes. Here are 15 places that give back when you buy
By Elizabeth Stamp
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The brainchild of Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, former New York Public Library chairman Catie Marron, and Nordstrom department store, Treasure & Bond donates all of its profits to two New York City children's and young adults' charities chosen each quarter, such as the Children's Health Fund and Edible Schoolyard NYC. The SoHo shop stocks an eclectic mix of clothing, accessories, jewelry, and home items from brands like Rogan, Giles & Brother, Thomas Paul, and Mud Australia. 350 West Broadway, 646-669-9049; treasureandbond.com
dam-images-resources-2012-02-design-doing-good-charity-02-donna-karan-urban-zen.jpg
Donna Karan brings her clean and modern aesthetic to Urban Zen, the retail offshoot of her foundation, whose mission is to promote wellness, preserve indigenous cultures, and empower children. The company's stores, including the latest in Los Angeles, stock a sleek clothing line, artisanal wares from Haiti, and the new furniture collection Karan designed with Bonetti/Kozerski Studio. Ten percent of all profits go to the foundation. urbanzen.com
dam-images-resources-2012-02-design-doing-good-charity-03-kate-spade.jpg
For the past seven years, Kate Spade New York has partnered with Women for Women International to create the Hand in Hand collection, providing job opportunities for female workers in such war-torn countries as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda. The latest additions to the line include a cashmere scarf and mittens crafted in Afghanistan. katespade.com
dam-images-resources-2012-02-design-doing-good-charity-04-warby-parker.jpg
Every time a customer purchases a pair of Warby Parker's stylish eyeglasses or sunglasses, the company makes a donation to organizations like VisionSpring—a nonprofit that sets up affordable optical shops in developing countries. To date, Warby Parker's efforts have helped put about 100,000 people in spectacles, while creating jobs and supporting local economies. The firm's frames are available in a wide variety of styles and colors, and for those with very retro tastes, they even make a monocle. warbyparker.com
dam-images-resources-2012-02-design-doing-good-charity-05-glassybaby.jpg
Glassybaby's votive holders do more than just brighten a room. The company donates ten percent of sales from specially created colors of its handblown vessels to support charitable organizations such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Fund, and WaterAid. Since November 2003, Glassybaby has given away more than $675,000. glassybaby.com
Francis Amiand, Francis Amiand
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Since it opened in 2009, Merci has become a must-visit shopping destination in Paris. Offering exclusive apparel and accessories by YSL, Stella McCartney, and Isabel Marant alongside chic housewares and Annick Goutal perfumes, the store donates 100 percent of its profits to children's charities in Madagascar and India. Plus, it has a charming café. 111 boulevard Beaumarchais, 011-33-1-42-77-00-33; merci-merci.com
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While the mission of the online shop FIGS is serious, many of its colorful bow- and neckties (think polka dots, yacht prints) have a rather playful sensibility. Working with the Threads for Threads program, for every dapper tie or scarf FIGS sells, the store provides one school uniform to a needy child in a developing country. wearfigs.com
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Missoni recently created a special collection for its less-expensive M Missoni line to benefit OrphanAid, a charity that combats childhood disease and poverty in Africa. Designed by Margherita Maccapani Missoni, the range of clothing, bags, and shoes features the Italian fashion house's signature zigzag print in pink and red and is available exclusively on the fashion retail site Yoox. yoox.com
© 2010 Mark-Woods.com. Photo Credit: Mark-Woods.com. Contact: woods@post.harvard.edu ; 646-425-4717. Photograph by Mark Woods. Photos may not be reproduced, distributed, or publicly displayed without photo credit to Mark Woods. Photos are provided to client as documentation only, and may not be sold or used as the basis for derivative works without the prior express written authorization from the copyright owner.
dam-images-resources-2012-02-design-doing-good-charity-09-blanket-america.jpg
Extreme Linens, which supplies home goods to Target, Macy's, and JCPenney, cuts out the middle man with its Blanket America program. For each sale of bedding, towels, or window treatments on the Blanket America website, the company gives one of its blankets to a person in need. Some 30,000 blankets have been donated in 17 states and in Haiti. blanketamerica.com
dam-images-resources-2012-02-design-doing-good-charity-10-pinhole-press.jpg
Charity: water, a nonprofit organization that works to provide access to clean, safe drinking water in developing nations, teamed with Pinhole Press on a special line of customizable notepads, photo books, calendars, and stationery to benefit its programs. Each product is designed with a pattern incorporating the group's distinctive jerrican logo. pinholepress.com
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Indego Africa connects Rwandan craftswomen with fashion designers such as Nicole Miller, who partnered with artisans on a collection of bags, clothing, and accessories made from local textiles. The nonprofit will expand its reach in 2012, thanks to new collaborations with J.Crew and Madewell. indegoafrica.org
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The Working Proof pairs art and social responsibility, selling affordable limited-edition prints by an expanding roster of around 100 illustrators, photographers, and painters to benefit worthy causes such as Doctors Without Borders, Architecture for Humanity, and Teach for America. Fifteen percent of the proceeds go to a charity of the artist's choice. theworkingproof.com
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Pendleton Woolen Mills—which started out a century ago, selling Native American trading blankets—honors its original customers with a collection of blankets that assists the American Indian College Fund. Authentic designs by artists from tribes around the country decorate the wool-cotton bedcovers. pendleton-usa.com
@Liz Vidyarthi, 2011
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The husband-and-wife team Chafiq Ennaoui and Aimee Bianca launched Beldi to showcase the traditional arts and crafts of Morocco, from carved lemon-wood spoons to Beni Ouarain rugs. In addition to bringing the country's handcrafted products to a wider audience, the firm donates 20 percent of its profits to Moroccan charities. shopbeldi.com
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The cycling company Kona uses the proceeds from sales of its AfricaBike to donate bicycles—nearly 4,000 since 2006—to organizations throughout Africa. In addition to providing transport for food and water, the bikes are used by health-care workers and by students who need to commute to school. konaworld.com
Explore2012ShoppingmagazineFebruaryShopsgood worksshop

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Projection is the story of this mother-daughter meeting in the exotic country of Brazil; of how two strangers spent ten days together trying to build a relationship, connected only by blood and a love of the movies. Their intensely emotional reunion was as alternately shocking, hopeful, humorous, devastating, and dramatic as any blockbuster Hollywood production could hope to be.
Projection looks at one very unusual mother-daughter relationship and asks the questions: What kind of woman does a motherless daughter become? Is it possible to recover from decades of absence, if both sides are willing? What traits do we inevitably share with our parents? And what is the consequence of a second rejection?
Emotionally insightful, Uppal's touching personal story offers genuine comfort to all those facing their own turbulent and unresolved familial relationships.


text:
Work underway on Flintshire Early Years Centres project
A North Wales construction company has started work on the first of many school sites to extend and expand pre-school provision for young children across Flintshire.
Wynne Construction has been appointed by Flintshire County Council to design and build a £7.1m programme of works, as part of a package of investment in the early years childcare offer at 10 primary schools.
That investment also includes work on a modern Flying Start Family Centre, as well as at two 21st Century Schools Band B Projects, at Ysgol Brynffordd and Ysgol Croes Atti, Shotton.
This will smooth the transition between pre-school and nursery by offering all-day care for three- to four-year-olds, with places available for children of parents paying directly, as well as those using their government-funded 30-hours per week free childcare provision.
Those 30 free hours also include a minimum of 10 hours a week of funded early education.
The Ysgol Brynffordd project, near Holywell, is progressing well, with members of Flintshire County Council attending to see the site first-hand.
The work, which will expand separate parts of the school, has been broken down into two phases. The first is currently underway, while the second is set to start in the summer. Completion is scheduled for January 2022.
The new Early Years Centres facilities have been designed with a combination of blockwork and pre-cast concrete slabs, as well as structural insulated panel (SIPs) walls, with the latter chosen for their insulating qualities as well as being environmentally friendly.
The scheme of works has provided Wynne Construction the opportunity to recruit new members of staff, including assistant site managers under the supervision of recently-promoted project manager Mark Wilson.
Mark has been employed by Wynne since he was 16 and has previously managed a number of high-profile sites including the Rhyl Travelodge and Ysgol Penyffordd in Flintshire
"Offering employees to grow and develop professionally has always been a priority for Wynne Construction," he said.
"Having been with the company since I left school and been supported all the way through to a degree-level qualification, I can attest to that personally.
"We're very pleased to have been selected by Flintshire County Council for this work and look forward to continuing the good relationship we have built up with the council over the years."
Flintshire's Leader and Cabinet Member for Education and Youth, Councillor Ian Roberts, said:
"We have worked in partnership with Wynne Construction on numerous occasions in recent years and are very pleased to be doing so again on these early years projects, including at Ysgol Brynffordd.
"Once completed, the new facilities will result in improved care and education for the children of Flintshire, as well as offering enhanced support for their parents.
"We look forward to seeing the work progress."
Ysgol Brynffordd pupils and their Head Teacher Rachel Critchell tour the redevelopment, seen here with L-R: Wynne Construction Quantity Surveyor Tom Hocknell; Claire Homard, Flintshire County Council Chief Education Officer; Damian Hughes FCC Senior Officer School Place Planning and Provision; Cllr Ian Roberts, Council Leader; Wynne Project Manager Mark Wilson; Site Manager Liam Jones; Cllr Jean Davies and FCC Chief Executive Colin Everett


text:
package org.apache.synapse.core.axis2;

import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import org.apache.synapse.ServerConfigurationInformation;
import org.apache.synapse.ServerConfigurationInformationFactory;
import org.apache.synapse.ServerManager;

import javax.servlet.ServletConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import java.io.IOException;

/**
 * When Synapse is deployed on a WAR container, this is the init servlet that kicks off the
 * Synapse instance, calling on the ServerManager
 */

public class SynapseStartUpServlet extends HttpServlet {

    private static Log log = LogFactory.getLog(SynapseStartUpServlet.class);
    private static final String ALREADY_INITED = "synapseAlreadyInited";

    public static final String SYNAPSE_SERVER_MANAGER = "synapse.server.manager";

    public void init() throws ServletException {
        ServletConfig servletConfig = getServletConfig();
        ServletContext servletContext = servletConfig.getServletContext();
        if (Boolean.TRUE.equals(servletContext.getAttribute(ALREADY_INITED))) {
            return;
        }
        ServerManager serverManager = new ServerManager();
        ServerConfigurationInformation information =
                ServerConfigurationInformationFactory.
                        createServerConfigurationInformation(servletConfig);
        serverManager.init(information, null);
        serverManager.start();
        servletContext.setAttribute(ALREADY_INITED, Boolean.TRUE);

        servletContext.setAttribute(SYNAPSE_SERVER_MANAGER, serverManager);
    }

    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
                         HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
    }

    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
                          HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
    }

    public void destroy() {
        try {
            Object o = getServletConfig().getServletContext().getAttribute(SYNAPSE_SERVER_MANAGER);
            if (o != null && o instanceof ServerManager) {
                ServerManager serverManager = (ServerManager) o;
                serverManager.stop();
                serverManager.shutdown();
                getServletContext().removeAttribute(ALREADY_INITED);
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            log.error("Error stopping the Synapse listener manager", e);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Capacity building toolkit on the analysis and measurement of a socio-economic inequalities in the Arab region
E/ESCWA/SDD/2017/TECHNICAL PAPER.21
The capacity building toolkit on the analysis and measurement of socio-economic inequalities in the Arab region was produced as part of ESCWA's efforts to build capacities to analyze and measure...
Toolkit on the design and implementation of equality-oriented policies in the Arab countries
ESCWA has prepared the toolkit for designing and implementing equality-oriented public policies and programmes in the Arab countries as part of its efforts to support member countries in...
Open Government Open Data Toolkit
E/ESCWA/CL4.SIT/2021/MANUAL.2
The open data toolkit is a brief guide for initiating, planning, implementing, and evaluating open data programmes in the Arab region. It includes five sections, covering planning and management...
Open Government: Citizen Engagement Toolkit
The citizen engagement toolkit is a brief guide aimed at promoting engagement in and implementation of open government in the Arab region. Prepared as part of ESCWA open government initiative,...
Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment within National Institutions: Technical Notes (Second Edition)
E/ESCWA/CL2.GPID/2020/TP.25
This publication, in its second version, provides necessary technical information and guidance on the implementation of an accountability framework for mainstreaming gender equality in the...
Towards More Gender Inclusive National Institutions: Concepts and Guidelines
These guidelines aim to support national institutions in implementing the action plan on gender equality and the empowerment of women at the level of national institutions by providing the...
Guidebook on Use of GIS for Climatic Data Analysis
E/ESCWA/SDPD/2019/GUIDE.4
This guidebook is the fourth of a series of guidebooks produced by ESCWA in cooperation with the Arab Center for Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands (ACSAD) in relation to irrigation water...
Guidebook on Using AquaCrop for Irrigation Water Management
This guidebook is the third of a series of guidebooks produced by ESCWA in cooperation with the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD) in relation to the use of Aquacrop...
Training Manual for Using AquaCrop model to evaluate the Impact of Climate Change on crop Production
Within the context of Food Security, ESCWA is implementing a Sida funded project on "Promoting food and water security through cooperation and capacity development in the Arab region" that...
User Guide Manual for AquaCrop Model
Guidelines to Estimate the Economic Cost of Domestic Violence in the Arab region
E/ESCWA/ECW/2019/TP.3
These guidelines are intended for government officials, programme managers and researchers looking to estimate the costs of domestic violence in the Arab region. They...
Guidelines for Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Voluntary National Reviews
This guide aims to support stakeholders in mainstreaming gender equality and women's rights in Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) on progress made in the implementation of agenda 2030 and the...
Regional Guidebook to Improve Disability Data Collection and Analysis in the Arab Countries
E/ESCWA/SD/2018/MANUAL.1
This regional Guidebook explores the different approaches in design, implementation and analysis of disability data collection in the Arab countries, in view of improving the standardization and...
Guidebook for Project Developers for Preparing Renewable Energy Investments Business Plans
E/ESCWA/SDPD/2017/TECHNICAL PAPER.2
The purpose of the guidebook is to help local project developers and investors to prepare bankable business plans for RE projects, particularly for power generation. It introduces standard...
Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women at the Level of National Institutions: Technical Notes
E/ESCWA/ECW/2017/TECHNICAL PAPER.8
This publication provides necessary technical information and guidance on the implementation of an accountability framework for mainstreaming gender equality in the organizational practices,...
Developing the Capacity of ESCWA Member Countries to Address the Water and Energy Nexus for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
E/ESCWA/SDPD/2016/MANUAL
Developing the Capacity of ESCWA Member Countries to Address the Water and Energy Nexus for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: Regional Policy Toolkit
The water and energy nexus...
Green Technology Needs Assessment and Appropriate Policy Tools
E/ESCWA/SDPD/2016/GUIDE (PART I)
The guide serves a dual objective. First, it assists rural development practitioners in assessing green energy needs of rural productive businesses. Second, it helps policymakers use the right...
English (970.9 KB)
Security Council resolution 1325 and its complementary resolutions, and the role of parliamentarians in their implementation
The present guide sets out United Nations resolutions on women, and considers the four pillars of the women, peace and security agenda, namely prevention, protection, participation, and...
Guidebook for Project Developers for Preparing Energy Efficiency Investments Business Plans
E/ESCWA/SDPD/2015/2/Manual
The purpose of the guidebook is to help local project developers and investors to prepare bankable business plans for RE projects, particularly for power generation. It introduces standard...
Arabic (5.1 MB)
English (5.1 MB)
Training manual on methodologies for data collection on energy use by the transport sector
E/ESCWA/SD/2015/1/Manual
The purpose of the manual is to provide a starting point for those in government bodies responsible for planning surveys; create a common understanding of terms and concepts; establish a common...