Connor Law, as you can see from his picture below, is clearly like a railway buff, so he picked the right dissertation supervisor in our own ‘Mr Trains’ Dr Mike Esbester. His dissertation looked at imperatives to modernise the British railway system after a period of stasis during the war. My dissertation was an analysis of the scope of modernisation on the railways of Britain as the zenith of steam came to a bitter end in 1939 at the start of the Second World War, to the eventual end of steam in 1968. The main argument this study sought to lend support to was that, overall, modernisation on Britain’s railways […]
Archive | Research in Focus
Research in Focus
Charting The Perilous Deep
Below, our own Karl Bell, Associate Professor in Cultural and Social History, writes about his exciting new book on the supernatural legends associated with the seafarers of the Atlantic Ocean. Karl’s research specialises in supernatural and environmental history, the history of beliefs and mentalities, folklore, and Victorian popular culture, on which he has published extensively. The modules Karl teaches at Portsmouth include a third-year special subject on Magic and Modernity, a new second-year option on The Age of Crisis and Victorian Enchantments for the MA in Victorian Gothic: History, Literature and Culture. My new book, The Perilous Deep – A Supernatural History of the Atlantic (Reaktion Books) offers a different […]
‘Jazzed Up’: the origins and impact of jazz in America
Miles Orr’s dissertation explored the origins of jazz by examining the lives and lyrics of three key African-American artists: Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Bolden. Miles’s supervisor was Dr Lee Sartain, who has a special interest in Louisiana’s history – see his recent blog post on Louisiana’s civil rights activism. Miles is continuing to master’s study, where he will research Louis Armstrong’s life and influence in more detail. Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Bolden – African Americans who were part of an era of racial segregation, music and culture. This dissertation aimed to explore and uncover the origins of jazz music in America, tracing it back to its African roots […]
Researching the life stories of our local railway workers
In a project sponsored by the university’s Heritage Hub, Dr Mike Esbester has been working collaboratively with members of the Havant Local History Group on the Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts project. This researches the life stories of ten local railway workers from the 1870s to 1939 and relates to the wider Railway Work, Life & Death project database of accidents to railway workers, so this coproductive project has been about taking the accident or mention in the RWLD database as a starting point and going beyond it. In cooperation with The Community Rail Partnership (Hills to Harbour) and the community organisation Creating Chaos they have recently installed interpretation posters at […]
The Allied bombing campaign and the destruction of two cities
Third-year UoP history student Rebekah Money describes the research she carried out for her dissertation on the allied bombing campaign against German cities during World War II. Rebekah’s supervisor was Dr Rob James. Most people learn in school about the blitzkrieg tactics and the fear that the Nazis brought to the countries of Europe at the start of the Second World War. However, outside of a specialist focus we, as a country, rarely take the time to consider how damaging our own bombing campaign was. This was one of my thoughts when I was considering my dissertation topic in February 2024. I wanted to focus on a part and side […]
Why the Polish Reformation deserves to be remembered
For his dissertation, third-year UoP history student Jacob Canavan chose to focus on Polish Protestantism which, while largely forgotten and repressed at home, proved to have a significant influence abroad, in spreading ideas which were to influence enlightenment thought across Europe. Jacob’s supervisor was Dr Fiona McCall. Jacob has been accepted to continue on to study for a Master’s degree at the University of York, the alma mater of our own Drs Katy Gibbons and Mike Esbester and Professor Dave Andress and a great place to study religious history. When one thinks about Poland and its history, one rarely conjures the image of a Protestant church, with its pristine white […]