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″ 

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)

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.

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.

Slimane Hargas : “Circulations transimpériales, représentations croisées et divergences paradigmatiques: les analogies entre les conflits anglo-irlandais et franco-algérien, 1830-1998” (21 nov.)

Jeudi 21 novembre à 17h: Slimane Hargas (Nanterre) – “Circulations transimpériales, représentations croisées et divergences paradigmatiques: les analogies entre les conflits anglo-irlandais et franco-algérien, 1830-1998”

Depuis les premières années de la conquête de l’Algérie (1830-1901) jusqu’à la signature de l’Accord du Vendredi Saint (1998), un nombre substantiel d’analogies entre la question d’Irlande – puis celle d’Irlande du Nord – et celle de l’Algérie sont venues se greffer sur des discours produits par divers acteurs politiques de chaque époque : les élites coloniales françaises, les indépendantistes algériens, les nationalistes et républicains irlandais, ainsi que les décideurs et les parlementaires britanniques.

Au XIXe siècle, la recommandation insistante de ne pas « faire de l’Algérie une nouvelle Irlande » ainsi que l’affirmation solennelle « l’Algérie, c’est notre Irlande » et l’avertissement « la France aura son Irlande en Algérie » prennent souvent figure de slogans : ils sont scandés dans le dessein bien arrêté de s’inscrire en faux contre tel aspect ou tel autre de la politique coloniale. Dès les années 1920, les nationalistes algériens commencent à se prendre de passion pour l’histoire de l’Irlande. Si négative qu’ait pu être l’appréciation qu’ils ont faite du Traité anglo-irlandais de 1921, leur souhait est de rééditer l’exploit de cette « vaillante petite nation » qui a réussi à « vaincre l’ogre anglais ». Plus tard, pendant les Troubles, le rapport d’exemplarité s’inverse : des républicains irlandais militent pour ce que Harold Wilson appelle lui-même une « solution algérienne », également connue sous l’appellation de « solution gaullienne », un thème récurrent dans les sphères politique et médiatique à cette période.

Dans le cadre de cette communication, il s’agira donc de proposer une fresque historique de ce phénomène analogique qui a perduré plus d’un siècle et demi. Elle aura pour objet d’analyser comment Français et Algériens représentent le conflit anglo-irlandais et s’identifient à ses protagonistes ; et, inversement, comment Britanniques et Irlandais perçoivent leur histoire commune à la lumière du conflit franco-algérien.

 

Slimane Hargas est maître de conférences en civilisation britannique et irlandaise à l’Université Paris Nanterre.

Louise A. Jackson, ‘Gender equalities at work: writing an interdisciplinary history of feminist campaigning in the UK c. 1970-2020’ (19 oct.)

Jeudi 19 octobre à 17h : Louise A. Jackson (Edimbourg), ‘Gender equalities at work: writing an interdisciplinary history of feminist campaigning in the UK c. 1970-2020’

It is 50 years since landmark legislation – the Equal Pay Act 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 – gave legal effect to the principle of gender equality in the workplace as a statutory requirement in the UK. Whilst campaigns were stimulated by the Women’s Liberation Movement, which rejected formal organisational models, they were taken forward by trade unionists as well as those who moved into occupational roles as lawyers, journalists, equal opportunities experts, policy advisers and ‘femocrats’ within mainstream institutions. This paper draws on interdisciplinary research conducted for the AHRC-funded project Gender Equalities at Work, which seeks to map the trajectories and experiences of equal pay and anti-discrimination campaigning since the 1970s and up to the present. The project overall provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategies, mechanisms, networks and tools that were used by key actors to shift the terms of legal and cultural discourse. This paper will discuss two discrete elements of our work. Firstly, it will explore some of the methodological challenges and benefits of working across disciplines to write a contemporary history of feminist campainging. Secondly, it will focus in on one particular strand: campaigning against workplace sexual harassment (which was judged to be a form of sex discrimination in 1986), to provide a characterisation of campaigning phases from the 1970s through to #MeToo. In so doing, it will seek to comment on how understanding of its history contributes to current debates on legal responses to sexual harassment. 

 

Louise A. Jackson is Professor of Modern Social History at the University of Edinburgh. Her research has traversed the social history of childhood and youth, women’s history, gender history and histories of the law, criminal justice and policing in Modern Britain. She is the author or co-author of five monographs including Women Police: Welfare and Surveillance in the Twentieth Century (2006), Policing Youth: Britain, 1945-70 (2014) and Police and Community in Twentieth-Century Scotland (2020). She is an editor of Social History, the international academic journal. The paper draws on the project ‘Gender Equalities at Work – an Interdisciplinary History of 50 Years of Legislation’, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and a collaboration between researchers at the University of Edinburgh, University College London, and The University of the West of England.

Jane Humphries, ‘“The best job in the world”: breadwinning and the capture of household labour in 19th and early 20th-century British coal mining’ (8/12)

Jeudi 8 décembre 2022 à 17h (salle D421 à Serpente) :

Jane Humphries (Oxford / LSE ), ‘“The best job in the world”: breadwinning and the capture of household labour in 19th and early 20th-century British coal mining’

This paper, written with Ryah Thomas, explores the effects of gender inequality and women’s disempowerment in the context of historical coalmining. Across the US and Europe, ex-coalmining regions are characterized by significant deprivation. While there are many reasons for persistent problems, this study focuses on the restrictions imposed on women’s involvement in economic life. Families in mining communities exemplified the male breadwinner structure, in which men’s earnings supported wives and children who provided domestic services in return. This article, however, exposes a different reality of household economics and relations of dominance and subordination: All family members were integrated into the coalmining production process and the creation of profit. Women’s unpaid work did not simply provide domestic comfort; it transferred well-being from women and children to men and simultaneously contributed to the colliery companies’ profits. These findings revise accounts of mining families while providing insight into the intransigence of deprivation in ex-coalmining areas.

Ann Towns: « Globalizing the Exclusion of Women from Politics in the Long Nineteenth Century »

Ann Towns de l’Université de Göteborg, présentera sa communication « Globalizing the Exclusion of Women from Politics in the Long Nineteenth Century » le jeudi 6 octobre, de 17h30 à 19h30. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.

Résumé :

This seminar focuses on the importance of gender in the British-dominated nineteenth century society of states. More specifically, the seminar pulls together scholarship in history to provide a grand narrative – a macro-historical account — of the centrality of gender in the development and globalization of state polities between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. The talk first focuses on the diverse ways in which gender was organized in polities around the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth century – some polities included female rule, whereas others were male dominated. The talk then shows that this diversity gave way to more uniform exclusion of women, as the barring of female political power became an informal standard of civilization in international society, embedded in British and French colonialism and scientific ideas. The expansion of the ideas and practices of British-dominated international society thus helped spread and standardize male rule, displacing gender arrangements that empowered women politically in Africa, Native America and Asia. This history is particularly important in light of contemporary assumptions about the Anglo-American origins of the political empowerment of women.

 

Laura Tabili: “‘To Keep My Living for Time Being’: Strategies of Makeshift in Interwar Britain”

Laura Tabili, de l’Université d’Arizona, présentera sa communication “‘To Keep My Living for Time Being’: Strategies of Makeshift in Interwar Britain” le jeudi 17 mai, de 17h à 19h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.

La séance sera suivie d’un pot de fin d’année, vers 19h.

Discutant: Yann Béliard

Résumé:
The paper will reconstruct patterns of migration, work and settlement among migrants from the colonies to Britain, focusing on the 1920s and 1930s. Migration from colonies to metropoles partook of specific power relations and economic arrangements, yet also formed part of a broader and unprecedented population mobility between 1800 and 1950. Although scholars are aware that this population moved to and from, into and around Britain and the North Sea and Atlantic littoral, we still know little about where they lived, how much they mixed and married with local people, and the extent to which these patterns persisted or altered after the second world war. Analyzing records of several hundred individuals enables systematically reconstructing their places of origin, time, place and manner of arrival in Britain, patterns of dispersal and settlement within Britain, their strategies of getting a living and their travels within and beyond Britain.
Feminist historians have described how women compensated for their disadvantage in labor markets while reconciling social labor with domestic responsibilities through “economies of makeshift” involving paid and unpaid labor within and outside the household, as well as pawning, scrounging and semi-legal activities. This paper specifically describes how colonized migrants in Britain similarly compensated for their limited and constrained occupational choices by moving from job to job, town to town, and occupation to occupation.

Lawrence Goldman: “Founding the Welfare State: The Collective Biography of William Beveridge, R. H. Tawney and William Temple”

Lawrence Goldman, de l’Institute of Historical Research, présentera sa communication “Founding the Welfare State: The Collective Biography of William Beveridge, R. H. Tawney and William Temple” le jeudi 7 avril, de 17h à 19h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.

En raison des contrôles de sécurité, les personnes extérieures à Paris IV souhaitant assister à ce séminaire sont invitées à se munir d’une carte d’étudiant ou d’une carte professionnelle, ou encore d’une carte d’identité et de cette annonce imprimée.

Podcast ci-dessous ou sur le site de la SAS:

 

Diaporama: cliquer pour télécharger

Résumé:

This paper will examine the close personal relations between three of the most prominent British social reformers of the twentieth century. Tawney and Temple were at school together; all three overlapped as students in the same Oxford college; Tawney married Beveridge’s sister; they remained friends and colleagues for the rest of their lives. What do these personal relationships tell us about social politics in Britain between 1900-1950? Can the Welfare State be reduced to three interlocking biographies? And in what ways was the English intellectual and political elite different from the French elite in this period?

Paul Pickering, “Rethinking Australia after 1788: an island nation in a British world”

Paul Pickering, de la Australian National University, présentera sa communication “Rethinking Australia after 1788: an island nation in a British world” le vendredi 1er avril, de 14h à 16h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D323.

Changement de date : cette séance remplace celle initialement prévue le 31 mars, reportée en raison de la journée de mobilisation contre la loi travail.

Podcast ci-dessous et sur le site de la SAS:

Résumé:

Australia is often cited as one of the most successful democracies in the world. Many of the social and political reforms achieved in Australia before the First World War were implemented well before the Imperial metropole. Indeed, as early as the 1890s, Australia was widely regarded as a ‘workingman’s paradise’ and a ‘Better Britain’. The achievement of a comparatively progressive and democratic society however was tainted by racist views, which diverged markedly from the abstract notions of indigenous rights in the Empire. This paper will examine the relationship between Britain and the ‘Better Britain’ in the antipodes and question the value of telling stories of the British World.

Lucy Delap: “Men, women’s liberation and guilt c. 1970-1990: thoughts on the history of emotions”

Lucy Delap, de l’Université de Cambridge, présentera sa communication “Men, women’s liberation and guilt c. 1970-1990: thoughts on the history of emotions” le jeudi 24 mars de 17h à 19h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.

En raison des contrôles de sécurité, les personnes extérieures à Paris IV souhaitant assister à ce séminaire sont invitées à se munir d’une carte d’étudiant ou d’une carte professionnelle, ou encore d’une carte d’identité et de cette annonce imprimée.

Discutante: Anne Besnault-Lévita, de l’Université de Rouen

Podcast ci-dessous et sur le site de la SAS:

Résumé:

Feminism posed powerful political and emotional challenges to progressive men in the 1970s and 1980s. In this paper, Lucy Delap investigates politically and personally motivated attempts to ‘feel differently’ by men in Britain who identified as ‘anti-sexist’ and aligned themselves with the Women’s Liberation Movement. This rescripting of emotions was a central way in which both men and women felt that gender change might be achieved. Through exploring emotions of guilt and shame, she will discuss the concept of the male gaze, and its political and emotional impact on progressive men. Methodologically, this raises the question of how to historicise inner states which may leave few traces. Oral history sources can provide us with extraordinarily rich sources in thinking about emotions. However, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches are needed to read affects as entities that exceed what can be said, and to uncover the emotional lexicon of gesture and gaze.

Selina Todd, autour de son livre The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, 1910-2010

Selina Todd, de l’Université d’Oxford, ouvrira une discussion autour de son livre The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, 1910-2010 (London, John Murray, 2014) le jeudi 17 mars de 17h à 19h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.

En raison des contrôles de sécurité, les personnes extérieures à Paris IV souhaitant assister à ce séminaire sont invitées à se munir d’une carte d’étudiant ou d’une carte professionnelle, ou encore d’une carte d’identité et de cette annonce imprimée.

Discutant: Yann Béliard de l’Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle

Podcast ci-dessous et sur le site de la SAS:

Présentation de l’éditeur : ‘There was nothing extraordinary about my childhood or background. And yet I looked in vain for any aspect of my family’s story when I went to university to read history, and continued to search fruitlessly for it throughout the next decade. Eventually I realised I would have to write this history myself.’

What was it really like to live through the twentieth century? In 1910 three-quarters of the population were working class, but their story has been ignored until now. Based on the first-person accounts of servants, factory workers, miners and housewives, award-winning historian Selina Todd reveals an unexpected Britain where cinema audiences shook their fists at footage of Winston Churchill, communities supported strikers and pools winners (like Viv Nicholson) refused to become respectable. Charting the rise of the working class, through two world wars to their fall in Thatcher’s Britain and today, Todd tells their story for the first time, in their own words. Uncovering a huge hidden swathe of Britain’s past, The People is the vivid history of a revolutionary century and the people who really made Britain great.

Mathilde Bertrand: “Le mouvement community photography dans les années 1970 et 1980: quelle approche méthodologique pour l’histoire des pratiques photographiques militantes?”

Mathilde Bertrand, de l’université Bordeaux-Montaigne, présentera sa communication “Le mouvement community photography dans les années 1970 et 1980 : quelle approche méthodologique pour l’histoire des pratiques photographiques militantes?” le jeudi 7 janvier de 17h à 19h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.

En raison des contrôles de sécurité, les personnes extérieures à Paris IV souhaitant assister à ce séminaire sont invitées à se munir d’une carte d’étudiant ou d’une carte professionnelle, ou encore d’une carte d’identité et de cette annonce imprimée.

Discutant: John Mullen , de l’université de Rouen

Podcast ci-dessous et sur le site de la SAS:

Résumé:

Le mouvement community photography apparaît en Angleterre à la fin des années soixante. Il se développe dans le sillage de la contre-culture, dont il adopte la posture contestataire et le projet culturel alternatif. Alors que la photographie entre dans un processus de légitimation artistique, le mouvement engage une réflexion critique et politique sur les usages sociaux du médium. Il se façonne également selon des principes et objectifs proches du mouvement community action, activisme grassroots qui se développe dans les zones urbaines défavorisées et mobilise un discours radical d’émancipation et de participation collective de la population à l’échelle locale. Continuer la lecture

Franziska Heimburger: “Mésentente Cordiale? Languages in the Allied Coalition on the Western Front of the First World War”

Franziska Heimburger, de l’Université Paris IV-Sorbonne, présentera sa communication “Mésentente Cordiale? Languages in the Allied Coalition on the Western Front of the First World War” le jeudi 22 octobre de 17h à 19h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.

Discutant : André Loez (historien de la grande guerre, membre du Crid 14-18, professeur en classes préparatoires)

Podcast ci-dessous ou sur le site de la SAS:

Résumé:

Previous scholarship on the Allied coalition during the First World War has tended to stress the misunderstandings and distrust between the individuals representing their countries at high command level. There is an unexplained tension between this mésentente and the durable nature of the coalition and eventual victory of the French, British and Americans on the Western Front which leaves the lower echelons underexplored. In a joint and linked study of language practice and military logistics we can write a history which tells us both how these exchanges were possible and to what extent they contributed to the Allies’ victory. Official and private archival material enables us both to read traces of language from the perspective of the history of international exchanges and also to understand choices in military logistics from the point of view of interpreting and translation studies. Continuer la lecture