In our latest blog we hear from Dr Mari Takayanagi, one of our keynote speakers from our 2019 conference. In this fascinating blog, Dr. Takayanagi examines one of the most important pieces of early twentieth century social legislation: The Sex…
Author: Dr. Kate Law
Giants and Geniuses by Lucienne Boyce
Who do we remember and recover? In our latest wonderful blog, Lucienne Boyce reflects on recuperative histories and ‘ordinary lives’. I recently read Jo Vellacott’s biography of Catherine Marshall, a women’s suffrage campaigner with the National Union of Women’s Suffrage…
Nancy Astor’s letters by Susannah O’Brien
In our first blog of 2020, Susannah O’Brien examines vignettes from Nancy Astor’s letters It is over fifteen years since I first came across Nancy Astor’s letters in the wonderful archives at the University of Reading. These letters and their…
Feminist solidarity in the archive: Marie Granet, the Resistance, and me. Emily Hooke
Just like the personal is political, so too is the archive. Here Emily Hooke reflects on Marie Granet, and histories of the French resistance. Last October, I went to the Archives Nationales in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, slightly north of Paris, to examine…
Claiming Her Time: The Entrenchment of Time and Gender on the Periodical Market, 1880-1920 by Annabel Friedrichs
In our latest blog, Annabel Friedrichs examines representations of womanhood in American avantgarde magazines published between 1880 and 1920. With the turning of each page, the early magazine medium provides the modern scholar of women’s history with a rich visual-textual…
The letters of Dr. Edith Pechey by Dr. Namrata R. Ganneri
In our latest fascinating blog, Dr. Namrata R. Ganneri examines the archive of one of the ‘Edinburgh Seven’, Edith Pechey. On 6 July 2019, the ‘Edinburgh Seven’- Sophia Jex-Blake, Isabel Thorne, Edith Pechey, Matilda Chaplin, Helen Evans, Mary Anderson Marshall…
Alison Lapper Pregnant by Dr. Janis Lomas
The 3.5 metres high sculpture, Alison Lapper Pregnant, was made by Marc Quinn for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square where it sat from 2005 until 2007. Statues of male heroes of the past surrounded it, which Quinn saw as…
Conference Review: The Network of American Periodical Studies Presents Serial [Gendered] Subjects: Periodicals, Identities, Communities, Northumbria University, September 20th, 2019 by Alexandra Abletshauser
Newcastle upon Tyne presented its best side when it welcomed the delegates of the recent Network of American Periodical Studies (NAPS) symposium, at Northumbria University, with sunshine and warm temperatures on Friday, September 20, 2019. This year’s symposium was hosted…
Celebrating 100 years since Nancy Astor became the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons: Lisa Berry-Waite
This November marks 100 years since Nancy Astor won a Plymouth Sutton by-election, becoming the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons. She inherited her seat from her husband Waldorf Astor, after he was elevated…





