Tom Wright, ‘The Politics of Inarticulacy: Oracy, Education, and Mid-Victorian Reform’ (20 nov.)

Jeudi 20 novembre 2025 à  17h : Tom Wright (university of Sussex), ‘The Politics of Inarticulacy: Oracy, Education, and Mid-Victorian Reform’

Maison de la Recherche de Sorbonne Université (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e, M° Odéon ou Saint-Michel), salle S001.

This paper examines the intellectual history of inarticulacy and its role in shaping ideas of citizenship in nineteenth-century Britain. Between the Reform Act of 1832 and the Education Act of 1870, political thinkers and reformers repeatedly framed the “inarticulate” working class as morally and intellectually unfit for participation in public life. I analyse how this idea developed across political speeches, educational reports, and literary and journalistic sources. I then offset these elite claims about working-class inarticulacy with debates within the Chartist and wider labour movements over the moral and political value of speaking and listening. By reconstructing this debate, the paper makes a claim for oracy – a modern educational term for ‘speaking and listening’- as a neglected but valuable lens for historians of ideas, education, politics and citizenship. I show how ideas about working class inarticulacy still impact the neglect of ‘voice’ in British state education and reflect on how the age of generative AI is bringing oracy to the forefront of modern pedagogy.

Rory Naismith  : « Anglo-Saxon London » (6 nov. 2025)

Prof. Rory Naismith (University of Cambridge) : « Anglo-Saxon London »

Jeudi 6 novembre 2025 de 17h à 18h30 

Maison de la Recherche de Sorbonne Université (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e, M° Odéon ou Saint-Michel), salle S001.

Cette communication retrace le développement de Londres en tant que zone urbaine depuis la fin de la domination romaine en Grande-Bretagne (vers 410) jusqu’à la conquête normande de 1066. Après une période d’abandon apparent aux Ve et VIe siècles, un nouveau centre commercial se développa à Lundenwic, à l’ouest de la ville romaine, stimulé par la position stratégique de Londres sur le plan économique entre plusieurs royaumes distincts. Plus tard, au IXe siècle, l’établissement se déplaça à nouveau vers la ville romaine fortifiée, bien que l’ampleur et la complexité de cette reprise aient été modestes au début. Ce n’est qu’à la fin du Xe siècle que l’importance de Londres en tant que centre militaire, politique et économique a pris de l’ampleur, grâce à son association avec les efforts du royaume contre l’invasion viking. La prééminence de la ville en Angleterre, qui s’est plus ou moins maintenue depuis cette époque, était donc le résultat de conditions spécifiques à la fin de la période anglo-saxonne.

Rory Naismith est Professeur d’histoire du haut Moyen Âge et Fellow de Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Il est spécialiste de l’Angleterre anglo-saxonne et d’histoire économique et numismatique au haut Moyen Âge. Il a notamment publié Money and Power in Anglo-Saxon England: the Southern English Kingdoms 757–865 (2012), Citadel of the Saxons: the Rise of Early London (2018), Early Medieval Britain, c. 500-1000 (2021) et Making Money in the Early Middle Ages (2023).

Entrée libre

Pour tout renseignement complémentaire : frederique.lachaud@sorbonne-universite.fr

Ali Hatapçı, “Geographies of Science in Victorian England: Natural History in the Midlands” (19 oct.)

Jeudi 19 octobre à 17h, salle S001 :

Ali Hatapci  (Université de Bourgogne) : “Geographies of Science in Victorian England: Natural History in the Midlands”

Characterised by a strong amateur tradition, scientific research in nineteenth-century Britain depended largely on voluntary associations. Although London boasted the majority of Britain’s most esteemed scientific institutions, the provinces also cultivated thriving scientific communities. Organising lectures, soirées, establishing museums, and publishing; literary and philosophical, natural history societies and clubs across the country helped shape urban culture, as well as produce new knowledge. This paper will examine the organisation and practice of natural history in the provinces by focusing on the English Midlands. Encompassing twelve historic counties in central England, the Midlands offers a rare chance to study the spatial organisation of science on various scales: town, county, region. By looking into the activities, geographical perceptions, self-assigned duties of the scientific societies, this paper will explore science and sociability in the provinces in the latter half of the century.

 

Ali Hatapçı is a senior lecturer in British history at Université Bourgogne Europe, with research interests in the history of science, periodicals, and life in the provinces. His publications include articles on English county Floras, the Gardeners’ Chronicle, digital illustration archives, and the popularisation of mycology (to appear).

Programme 2025-2026

Le séminaire a lieu le jeudi de 17h à 18h30, à la Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e.

9 octobre 2025 à 17h, salle S002 : Chloé Luneau : « La question nationale dans les mobilisations gaies et lesbiennes dans les deux Irlande (années 1970-1980) » ; Lucas Privet (doctorant ENS Ulm – Sorbonne Université) : « “Home Colonization” et “Land Plan” : quelle place pour l’Irlande dans le projet chartiste de mise en culture des terres en friche ? » ; et Caroline Seyer (doctorante à l’université Paris-Cité) : « Maternité lesbienne et santé des femmes : Penser l’intime ou le politique au sein des lieux militants britanniques, 1970-1990 »

 23 octobre à 17h, salle S001 :  Ali Hatapci  (Université de Bourgogne) : “Geographies of Science in Victorian England: Natural History in the Midlands”

 6 novembre à 17h, salle S001 : Rory Naismith (Cambridge) : ‘Anglo-Saxon London’

 20 novembre à 17h, salle S002 :  Tom Wright (Sussex), ‘The Politics of Oracy and Mid-Victorian Voting Reform” 

 4 décembre à 17h, salle S001 : Antti Taipale (Helsinki), “Perspectives on religion as a tool of war in the English Civil War”

 18 décembre à 17h, salle S001:  Oscar Webber (London School of Economics), autour de son livre Negotiating relief and freedom:  Responses to disaster in the British Caribbean, 1812-1907 (Manchester University Press, 2023)

 29 janvier 2026 à 17h, salle D421 : Richard Whatmore (St Andrews), “Free states and fanaticism

 12 février à 17h, salle D421: Ann Thomson (émérite IUE-Florence), “Countering Islamophobia and Catholicism in Grub Street: Joseph Morgan, an early 18th C cultural go-between”

 26 février à 17h, salle D421 : Laure Piguet (Fribourg / Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin) : « Enquêter sur sa condition. Fabrication et usages des savoirs par les prisonniers londoniens au XVIIIe siècle »

 12 mars à 17h, salle D421: Juliette Desportes (Highlands), “Resistance to Improvement in the Highlands and Islands, 1750-1820”

 26 mars à 17h, salle D421: Claire Schiano-Locurcio (Montpellier), « Des religieuses en exil : survie et essor du catholicisme anglais aux XVII et XVIII siècles »

 9 avril à 17h, salle D421: Vic Clarke (Leeds), “’Reviewing Radical Literature in the Chartist Press (1840s)”

7 mai à 17h, salle D421 : Ole Birk Laursen (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), ‘Exile has its privileges’: the Indian revolutionary movement in Europe, 1905–1918″ 

Catherine Hall, “Making White and Black: Edward Long, slave-owner and historian of Jamaica” (5 juin)

Jeudi 5 juin à 17h, salle D223 à la Maison de la Recherche (28, rue Serpente, 75006 Paris)


Catherine Hall (University College London) présentera son dernier ouvrage, Lucky Valley. Edward Long and the History of Racial Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2024).

Résumé : Why does Edward Long’s History of Jamaica matter? Written in 1774, Long’s History, that most ‘civilised’ of documents, attempted to define White and Black as essentially different and unequal. Long deployed natural history and social theory, carefully mapping the island, and drawing on poetry and engravings, in his efforts to establish a clear and fixed racialized hierarchy. His White family sat at the heart of Jamaican planter society and the West India trade in sugar, which provided the economic bedrock of this eighteenth-century system of racial capitalism. Catherine Hall tells the story behind the History of a slave-owning family that prospered across generations together with the destruction of such possibilities for enslaved people. She unpicks the many contradictions in Long’s thinking, exposing the insidious myths and stereotypes that have poisoned social relations over generations and allowed reconfigured forms of racial difference and racial capitalism to live on in contemporary societies.

 

Catherine Hall is Emerita Professor of History at University College London and a prize-winning author. Her work focuses on Britain and empire, and includes Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830–1867 (2002), Macaulay and Son: Architects of Imperial Britain (2012), and Legacies of British Slave-Ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain (co-authored with Nicholas Draper et al.; Cambridge, 2014). Between 2009 and 2015 she was the principal investigator on the ESRC/AHRC project ‘Legacies of British Slave-ownership’.

 

Fabienne Moine, “Donner une voix aux silencieux de l’histoire : écrits d’indigents dans les institutions de secours (Angleterre, 1840-1900)” (22 mai)

Jeudi 22 mai à 17h : Fabienne Moine (IMAGER, UPEC): ‘« Donner une voix aux silencieux de l’histoire : écrits d’indigents dans les institutions de secours (Angleterre, 1840-1900)’.

Résumé : La grande majorité de la documentation sur les workhouses ou les casual wards au XIXe siècle émane des instances du pouvoir. Mais il existe un certain nombre de sources produites par les indigents eux-mêmes. Ces sources sont certes limitées en nombre, mais elles font l’objet de recherches récentes comme les autobiographies ou les lettres de plainte. Cette présentation porte sur un autre type d’écrit produit depuis les institutions sociales : les poèmes qui sont relativement nombreux et peuvent être considérés, avec leurs spécificités, à la fois comme un véritable sous-genre poétique, comme une forme autobiographique et comme une autre source de l’histoire des institutions sociales. Il s’agira d’examiner les raisons qui ont poussé certains indigents à choisir le genre poétique et d’analyser la manière dont les institutions, tout en imposant leurs systèmes de règles, ont encouragé la production d’une forme de « workhouse poetry » et la construction du « workhouse poet ». L’objectif de cette présentation est de mettre en évidence la complexité des réponses des indigents et une certaine capacité à agir face au pouvoir institutionnel. En explorant cette pratique de l’écrit assez largement répandue au sein des workhouses, il s’agit de complexifier notre vision de l’inhumanité de ces institutions sociales. 

Fabienne Moine est professeure de civilisation britannique à l’UPEC. Ses recherches concernent les pratiques sociales et culturelles des classes populaires à l’époque victorienne. Ses travaux récents portent sur la poésie populaire produite au sein des institutions de secours victoriennes, comme les workhouses ou les asiles.

Emma MacLeod (University of Stirling) : «  A British conversation about the French Revolution: the Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1789–1797 » (15 mai)

Jeudi 15 mai 2025 à 17h à la Maison de la Recherche (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e), salle D421

Emma MacLeod (University of Stirling) :  «  A British conversation about the French Revolution: the Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1789–1797 » 

This paper emerges from a study of the long and rich correspondence between Rev. James Wodrow (1730–1810) of Ayrshire, Scotland, and his great friend Samuel Kenrick (1727–1811) a banker in Bewdley, near Birmingham. They had become friends as students at Glasgow University in the 1740s and began corresponding soon after Kenrick graduated, a habit that continued for the rest of their lives. The Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1750–1810 is co-edited by Martin Fitzpatrick, Emma Macleod and Anthony Page. Volume 1: 1750–1783 (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Volume 2: 1784–1790 (OUP, 2024) will be followed by volumes 3: 1791–1797 and 4: 1798–1810.

     In this paper I will discuss their conversation about the French Revolution which forms such a major proportion of the letters written between 1791 and 1797. Like the opinions of many other British people on the Revolution in France, their ideas, while formed by their existing political convictions, were to some extent fluid over these years, as events developed both in France and in Britain. Because this is such a substantial bilateral correspondence, however, we can, unusually, see how their opinions were also shaped by their debate between themselves and by their reading and discussion of a large number of the most seminal British publications on the French Revolution and the war. The paper is therefore located at the intersection of political history, cultural history, book history and the history of friendship.

Emma Macleod is a senior lecturer in History at the University of Stirling, Scotland. She has published A War of Ideas: British Attitudes to the Wars Against Revolutionary France, 1792–1802 (1998) and British Visions of America, 1775–1820: Republican Realities (2013); and she has co-edited Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793–1848 (2019), with Michael T. Davis and Gordon Pentland. She co-edited the Scottish Historical Review 2018–2023.

Simeon Koole: ‘Lines of Force: Bodies, Tides, and the Scales of Global History in London’s Docklands, c.1870-1928’ (10 avril)

Jeudi 10 avril à 17h : Simeon Koole (Bristol): ‘Lines of Force: Bodies, Tides, and the Scales of Global History in London’s Docklands, c.1870-1928’.

 

Abstract : This paper examines changes in the bodies and environment of labourers carrying timber imported into London’s docks to provide a history of global capitalism from the ground up. Moving between London and Sweden between the 1860s and 1920s, it shows how microphysical changes in docker skeletons, the wood they carried, and rivers in both countries materialized and modified ‘macro’-level changes in tides, forestry, and shipping. Repurposing the concept ‘lines of force’ from nineteenth-century physics, the paper argues that lines—material, temporal, and spatial—reveal hidden relations between bodies and environments than those traced by global history’s typical focus on the movement of people and things. Lines etched into bones or running through tree grain show how humans and other-than-humans were exposed to one another across varying distances, and how this exposure accentuated under industrial capitalism. Second, they show how this mutual exposure operated over multiple timescales, from a worker’s lifetime to century-long changes in tree growth and river flows. Finally, such lines reveal how ‘the world’ was not simply a space which steamships crossed but a predicament, unique to and made by the relations living beings had with one another.

 

Simeon Koole est senior lecturer en Histoire à l’université de Bristol. Il est l’auteur de Intimate Subjects: Touch and Tangibility in Britain’s Cerebral Age (Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press 2024)

Laura Slater, « Philippa of Hainault: Queenship, Music and Manuscripts » (3 avr.)

Dr Laura Slater, Université de Cambridge: « Philippa of Hainault: Queenship, Music and Manuscripts »

Jeudi 3 avril 2025, 17h-18h30

Maison de la recherche de Sorbonne Université, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, salle D421

This talk highlights an underexplored facet of the cultural patronage and devotional interests of Philippa of Hainault (c. 1315-1369), wife of Edward III of England. The queen had a strong interest in music, evidenced by the motets contained in a possible wedding gift, the c. 1328 compilation now BnF MS Fr. 571 and the notated antiphons included throughout the c. 1340 Psalter of Queen Philippa (London, British Library, MS Harley 2899). The talk explores the interactions between text, image and music in the psalter and examine how the antiphons expanded both the interpretative possibilities and the spiritual meanings of the pictorial, musical and textual contents of the page. The talk also considers how Philippa may have used music to enhance the established Marian symbolism of her queenship. Laura Slater suggests that liturgical music played an important role in late medieval European court cultures and the public definition of queenly authority.

Cette communication met en lumière un aspect peu exploré du mécénat culturel et des intérêts dévotionnels de Philippa de Hainaut (v. 1315-1369), épouse Édouard III d’Angleterre. La reine éprouvait un intérêt profond pour la musique, comme en témoignent les motets contenus dans un possible cadeau de mariage, la compilation de 1328, aujourd’hui BnF, ms. fr. 571, et les antiennes notées qui émaillent le Psautier de la reine Philippa, date de 1340 environ (Londres, British Library, ms. Harley 2899). La communication explore les interactions entre le texte, l’image et la musique dans le psautier et examine comment les antiennes ont élargi les possibilités d’interprétation et les significations spirituelles des contenus picturaux, musicaux et textuels de la page. Elle examine également la manière dont Philippa a pu utiliser la musique pour renforcer le symbolisme marial de son statut de reine. Laura Slater suggère que la musique liturgique a joué un rôle important dans les cultures de cour européennes de la fin du Moyen Âge et dans la définition publique de l’autorité royale.

Dr Laura Slater is Associate Professor in the History of Medieval Art and Architecture at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Peterhouse. Her publications include Art and Political Thought in Medieval England, c. 1150-1350 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2018). Her research interests include the cultural patronage of medieval women. She is currently writing a monograph study of Philippa of Hainault and has previously published on Isabella of France.

Laura Slater est professeure associée en histoire de l’art et de l’architecture médiévale à l’Université de Cambridge et membre de Peterhouse College. Elle a notamment publié Art and Political Thought in Medieval England, c. 1150-1350 (Woodbridge : The Boydell Press, 2018). Ses recherches portent sur le mécénat culturel des femmes médiévales. Elle rédige actuellement une monographie sur Philippa de Hainault et a déjà publié des contributions sur Isabelle de France.

Entrée libre. Pour tout renseignement complémentaire: Frederique.lachaud@sorbonne-universite.fr

 

Michael Brown : “Britain’s Bystander Society, and the Argument for Abolition in the late Eighteenth Century” (20 mars)

Jeudi 20 mars 2025 à 17h

Michael Brown (University of Aberdeen) : “Britain’s Bystander Society, and the Argument for Abolition in the late Eighteenth Century

This paper argues that eighteenth-century Britain can effectively be understood as a bystander society to the cruelties of its empire. Many Britons had elective affinities with those in the empire; engaging in a form of banal imperialism in their everyday lives through a politics of consumption. Moreover, they employed rhetorical tactics such as feigning ignorance, asserting impotence, and displaying casual indifference to the reports of spectacular suffering they saw in their newspapers and elsewhere. The abolitionist movement, in particular, faced the challenge of breaking down these rhetorical barricades in its pursuit of imperial reform. The paper opens and closes with comments on the changing opinions of one such bystander, the novelist, playwright and bluestocking Frances Burney.

Michael Brown est historien des cultures politiques en Irlande, Écosse et plus largement en Grande-Bretagne au siècle des Lumières. Il est directeur du Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies. On lui doit notamment Adam Ferguson and the Politics of Virtue (Aberdeen University Press, 2023),  The Irish Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2016), A Political Biography of John Toland (Routledge, 2011).

 

Adrian Bell: “The People of 1381” (6 mars)

Jeudi 6 mars 2025, 17h-18h30

Maison de la recherche de Sorbonne Université, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, salle D421

Professeur Adrian Bell (Université de Reading): “The People of 1381”

The People of 1381 (www.1381.online) is an innovative new research project which we hope will produce the most comprehensive interpretation of the Peasants’ Revolt to date. The revolt was one of the largest popular uprisings in medieval Europe and rocked the country in the summer of 1381. ‘The People of 1381’ sheds new light on the complex economic, social and political dynamics of the rebellion.  Central to the project is the creation of a database to provide the first overview of events, places and people involved. Judicial and manorial documents are combined with records of central and local government, poll tax records and more, to reconstruct collective biographies of the people caught up in the rising. The project is a ‘history from below’, using an unparalleled set of medieval records to investigate the participation of social groups whose role has been little investigated. This presentation will look at some case studies of the people of 1381, exploring their lives and showing how we can recapture the voice and concerns of these forgotten protestors.  This talk will illuminate the role of the clergy, discuss our thoughts about the causes of the revolt, discuss the role of women and also focus upon the military backgrounds and connections of rebels.

« The People of 1381 » (www.1381.online) est un nouveau projet de recherche innovant qui, nous l’espérons, produira l’interprétation la plus complète de la Révolte des paysans à ce jour. Cette révolte, l’un des plus grands soulèvements populaires de l’Europe médiévale, a secoué le pays au cours de l’été 1381. « The People of 1381 » jette une lumière nouvelle sur les dynamiques économiques, sociales et politiques complexes de la rébellion.  L’élément central du projet est la création d’une base de données qui fournit un premier aperçu des événements, des lieux et des personnes impliquées. Les documents judiciaires et seigneuriaux sont combinés avec les archives du gouvernement central et local, les registres des taxes de vote et d’autres documents, afin de reconstruire les biographies collectives des personnes impliquées dans l’insurrection. Le projet est une « histoire d’en bas », qui utilise un ensemble inégalé de documents médiévaux pour étudier la participation de groupes sociaux dont le rôle a été peu étudié. Cette présentation se penchera sur quelques études de cas concernant les habitants de 1381, explorant leur vie et montrant comment nous pouvons retrouver la voix et les préoccupations de ces manifestants oubliés.  Cet exposé mettra en lumière le rôle du clergé, discutera de nos idées sur les causes de la révolte, du rôle des femmes et se concentrera également sur les antécédents militaires et les relations des rebelles.

 

Adrian Bell est titulaire de la chaire d’histoire de la finance, et vice-chancelier associé à la recherche à l’Université de Reading. Il développe actuellement les résultats du projet majeur financé par l’AHRC, « The People of 1381 » (2019-2023). Pour suivre l’évolution de ce projet, voir https://1381.online/. Adrian Bell s’intéresse à l’histoire de la finance et a récemment achevé un projet majeur financé par le Leverhulme Trust avec Pr Chris Brooks et Dr Helen Killick. Le projet « La première bulle immobilière : les prix de la terre et les rentes dans l’Angleterre médiévale, c. 1200-1550 » a duré trois ans à partir de 2015. Le projet s’appuie sur un projet précédent pour le Leverhulme Trust, avec Pr Chris Brooks et Dr Tony Moore, sur le change médiéval. Un projet majeur pour l’ESRC avec la même équipe a étudié l’utilisation précoce et innovante du financement par le crédit par une succession de monarques médiévaux anglais (10.5255/UKDA-SN-6880-1) et un projet ESRC antérieur a étudié les contrats anticipant la fourniture de laines (10.5255/UKDA-SN-5325-1). Adrian Bell est aussi un spécialiste de la guerre de Cent Ans et son livre, War and the Soldier in the Fourteenth Century, a été publié par Boydell and Brewer à l’automne 2004. En 2006, il a reçu une importante subvention de l’AHRC (conjointement avec Pr Anne Curry, de l’Université de Southampton) pour étudier « Le soldat dans l’Angleterre de la fin du Moyen Âge ». Pour plus de détails, voir https://www.medievalsoldier.org/. Les résultats sont présentés dans un ouvrage majeur intitulé The Soldier in Later Medieval England publié par Oxford University Press (2013).

 

 

Amélie Bonney et Christelle Gomis: “Standardizing Deficiency: Eugenic theories and the shaping of race, class and gender dynamics in Britain (1880-1970s)” (13 fév.)

Jeudi 13 février à 17h : Amélie Bonney et Christelle Gomis: “Standardizing Deficiency: Eugenic theories and the shaping of race, class and gender dynamics in Britain (1880-1970s)”

This panel investigates the long-lasting effects of theories of race and social hierarchy which developed during the nineteenth century in Britain. Focusing on educational and working environments, it shows how these theories contributed to shaping power dynamics in Britain from the late 1880s to the 1970s, focusing specifically on the ways it intersected with race and gender dynamics as well as with debates about the family. Améie Bonney’s paper explores the rise of occupational medicine as a field at the turn of the twentieth century, and shows how eugenic thought contributed to shaping the ways in which some of the symptoms of white lead poisoning were understood and addressed, focusing particularly on female workers. Christelle Gomis’s paper examines the influence of eugenic ideologies on the British education system during the post-war period, specifically in the context of Caribbean migration during the Windrush Era (1948-1971). It explores how these ideologies shaped the categorization and treatment of Caribbean children within the subnormal school system, highlighting the racial biases embedded within educational policies. By analyzing archival materials from the Inner London Education Authority and the Black Parents Movements, the project sheds light on the social and economic ramifications of such segregation and the advocacy efforts by parents, educators, and activists to push for educational reforms and challenge these injustices.

“The rise of occupational medicine, eugenics and debates over the risks of lead poisoning in Britain”

Amélie Bonney, D.Phil History of Science, Medicine and Technology, University of Oxford, UK / PRAG, Faculté des Sciences, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France – amelie.bonney@gmail.com

In the final decades of the nineteenth century, debates surrounding the legislation of workmen’s compensation made it necessary to better define thresholds of acceptable levels of toxicity in order to decide who could claim compensation. This renewed interest in occupational diseases fuelled new publications focusing specifically on the ‘diseases of occupations’ in Britain. While this raised hopes for a specialized study of dangerous work environments and the toxic substances that affected workers, in reality, the approaches of occupational physicians and industrial hygienists were also shaped by contemporary debates on eugenics and fears over the degeneration of the race. Racial theories developing in the second half of the nineteenth century – at a time of economic depression, rising social tensions and challenges to Britain’s imperial rule – significantly affected the ways in which occupational diseases were explained. In 1857, Bénédict Morel’s work on degenerescence investigated the effects of poisons such as white lead on the physiognomy of workers, an approach which subsequently persisted in the work of British experts. The standardisation of occupational medicine as a field cannot be dissociated from eugenic theories developed in the aftermath of Francis Galton’s publication of Hereditary Work on Genius (1869). Prominent figures in the field of occupational medicine such as Thomas Oliver and Thomas Arlidge approached some of the effects of lead poisoning through this lens. In particular, one major source of concern was the effect on motherhood and on the fitness of future generations, which was an argument promoted to further regulate some trades, however establishing distinctions based on gendered lines. The concerns of medical practitioners contrast with working-class women’s use of white lead as an abortive, which shows that far from being only victims of the substance, they also used it with an understanding of some of its effects.

Far from being ignorant of the toxic effects of white lead, workers also had an understanding of the risks they were subjected to. A history from below of workers’ knowledge of risks thus allows us to argue that there also existed an alternative form of knowledge of risks to the one developed by official ‘experts’.

“Eugenics, Postcolonial Migration, and the Fight for Meritocratic Education in Post-War Britain (1920s-1970s)”

Christelle Gomis, Ph.D, EUI, Florence, Italy – christelle.gomis@eui.eu

In the aftermath of World War II, the UK’s educational system faced significant challenges as it grappled with the consequences of eugenic ideologies and the impact of Caribbean migration. This paper examines how eugenics influenced the development of the subnormal school system, particularly in the context of post-war immigration. The placement of Caribbean children in these schools highlights the racial biases embedded within educational policies of the time. The legacy of eugenics in Britain, deeply intertwined with the educational policies of the 20th century, cannot be overlooked. Prominent eugenic theories that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries continued to shape societal views on intelligence and disability. These theories, which emphasized heredity and the prevention of “racial degeneration,” significantly impacted the categorization and treatment of children deemed “subnormal.” The interwar period (1918-1939) played a crucial role in embedding eugenic ideas within the British educational and social systems. During this time, the eugenics movement gained substantial traction, influencing public policies and educational practices. Reports and studies from this period, such as the Wood Report of 1929, reinforced the exclusion of mostly lower-class children based on perceived intellectual deficiencies, often informed by eugenic principles. This era also saw the establishment of special schools and classes for children deemed mentally defective, which laid the groundwork for the subnormal schools that proliferated in the post-war years. The arrival of Caribbean migrants during the Windrush era (1948-1971) added a new dimension to these issues, as many children from these communities were unjustly placed in subnormal schools. This placement was influenced by eugenic beliefs that linked race with intellectual capability and by a broader socio-political context that viewed these children through a lens of deficiency. Key legislative frameworks, such as the 1944 Education Act, and critical reports like the 1978 Warnock Report, played pivotal roles in shaping and eventually challenging these discriminatory practices. The experiences of Caribbean children in London subnormal schools are critical for understanding the broader impact of eugenics on British education. Education reports from the Inner London Education Authority reveal the ambivalences of an institution caught between an emerging anti-racist awareness and fears of overcrowding. Archives from the Black Parents Movement shed light on the experiences of those affected, detailing the social and economic ramifications of such segregation. They also highlight the advocacy and resistance efforts by parents, educators, and activists, who played a crucial role in pushing for educational reforms and exposing the injustices faced by these communities.

Camille Martinerie : “The same knowledge under different stars?” – Cross-examining history teaching in the South African university under apartheid from the other side of power (30/01/2025)

Jeudi 30 janvier: Camille Martinerie (Sorbonne Paris Nord), “The same knowledge under different stars?” – Cross-examining history teaching in the South African university under apartheid from the other side of power”

This paper is interested in the political and epistemological understandings of decolonisation – that is, the psycho-cultural dimensions of colonialism, which outlived itself notably through the production of “colonial knowledge” as a means of conquest within institutions, and more specifically universities. My point of entry is a a long-standing debate in South African historiography about the decolonisation of history resulting from the erosion white settler minority’s dominant stronghold on academic norms, appointments and traditions in South Africa in the 1990s. This retrospective study of academic history proposes to capture the different dimensions and layers of “colonial knowledge” as a discursive formation using the University of Cape Town (UCT) – a historically white English-speaking institution –  as a case study. Based a detailed discursive analysis of history examination questions triangulated with oral testimonies from black university students, the study exposes the ideological and epistemological biases that have influenced historical education and narrative construction within this prominent academic institution, internationally known for its opposition to the regime.

Camille Martinerie is a course convener and researcher at University Sorbonne Paris Nord (France) where she teaches British and Commonwealth history. She holds a joint PhD degree in African and Anglophone Studies from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Aix-Marseille Université (France). Her research interests revolve around African Studies, intellectual histories of decolonisation, historiography and higher education in (post)colonial contexts. Her next project looks at the social and intellectual trajectories of black South African scholars in exile as part of a wider seminar project on South-North political, intellectual and artistic circulations in the post-Bandung era. More information available here: https://calenda.org/1122619  

Clara Dean, “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle”, Joelle Gorno, “Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”, et Balkis Mougou, “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)” (19 déc.)

Jeudi 19 décembre : Clara Dean, “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle”, Joelle Gorno, “Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”, et Balkis Mougou, “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)”

Clara Dean (Sorbonne Université) : “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle : circulations, interactions, intégration ?”

S’intéressant aux mobilités et migrations, cette communication se concentrera sur le cas des Écossais et Écossaises se rendant à Paris entre 1715 et 1793. L’analyse portera sur leurs motivations et trajectoires, ainsi que sur leur possible intégration dans la société parisienne. Une attention particulière sera accordée aux journaux de voyage, sources particulièrement précieuses pour cette étude.

 

Joelle Gorno (Sorbonne Université), “A voice before the vote: Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”

In the fifty years prior to the Representation of the People Act 1928, securing universal suffrage for over twenty-one year olds, male and female, across the United Kingdom, Welsh women’s involvement in local politics proved significant. There are three major dimensions in which Welsh women were active prior to being granted the vote on a national scale; firstly participating in local government and elections, secondly as full members on school boards, and lastly, as Poor Law guardians. These achievements were made possible thanks to the passing of legislation in the second half of the nineteenth century, making slight reforms towards gender equality in the public sphere.

Who were these female activists? Some were wives of politicians and ministers, others industrialists, nurses or teachers. Though many were certainly from the middle and upper classes, there has been proof of some working-class involvement, which is to be expected considering Wales’ vast working-class population. Though many of these women faced prejudice and discrimination for their sex, and almost all of them were ostracised and ridiculed by the press, they continued to push for change. Established Victorian attitudes to women’s role in society were being challenged and the idea that women could be significant participants in political activity was put in place.

 

Balkis Mougou (CY Cergy Paris Université / Université de Bourgogne), “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)”

The Conservative Party has been shaped by a number of controversial figures whose ideologies align with populist tendencies, significantly influencing the party’s direction and political discourse. A shared stream of ideas has united these politicians, offering the party a new perspective that can be retrospectively characterized as populist. This ongoing research investigates the emergence and evolution of populist discourse within the Conservative Party in the UK, focusing on the period from 1974 to 2010.

Situated at the crossroads of the history of political ideas and political science, this research aims to uncover the intellectual roots of a distinct form of populism unique to the British Conservative Party. By analyzing key speeches, policies, and political strategies, the study will offer a fresh, historically expansive view of how these ideas evolved into a populist dimension. Drawing on contemporary theories of populism, this thesis will provide new insights into the role of populism in shaping the modern Conservative Party, shedding light on how populist narratives have transformed the party’s political identity.