For conferences and public engagement
The Society for the Study of Labour History offers financial support for conferences and public events with a focus on labour history. We take a broad view of ‘labour history’ that includes cultural and social aspects as well as political and institutional ones. Applications, for a maximum of £850 per event, are welcome at any time of year.
While any reasonable conference costs will be considered, we are particularly interested in supporting:
a) the attendance of postgraduate speakers
b) conferences that are designed to actively engage a public audience.
This engagement might be achieved by the inclusion of sessions or activities that are specifically targeted at a wider audience. We expect all events funded by the SSLH to be accessible to anyone who wants to attend, and for that reason we do not expect conference registration fees to be prohibitive.
If funds are sought to support the attendance of postgraduate speakers, we will support up to five bursaries of a maximum of £150 per student, on the condition that the recipients join the SSLH. Student membership of the Society costs £19. The bursary should be used to subsidize travel and accommodation costs, and we will require evidence of the attendance of these speakers and of their membership of SSLH.
In addition to running its own Conference and Public Engagement scheme, SSLH also participates in the BME Events and Activities Small Grants Scheme, together with the Social History Society, the Economic History Society and History UK.
How to apply
To apply, please send the following information to the SSLH conference secretary, Daniel Laqua, at daniel.laqua@northumbria.ac.uk:
- A description of the conference, including call for papers or indicative programme if applicable
- A breakdown of the costs of the conference
- A clear statement of what the funding requested from SSLH will cover.
If your application is successful we will require evidence of expenditure for the SSLH funded aspects of the conference, a short report (500 words, and images) for the Society’s website, and, in the case of subsidies being provided for postgraduate speakers, evidence of their attendance and of their membership of SSLH.
Recent events organised or funded by SSLH
- The call for papers for this innovative conference on the histories of human, animal, and environmental exploitation and its legacies closes at one minute to midnight on 15 May 2024. The conference itself follows on 25-26 July 2024 at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull. See […]
- As events marking the fortieth anniversary of the 1984-85 miners’ strike continue, BBC Sounds has produced a five-part podcast series on the strike presented by the actor, writer and producer Jonny Owen. Among those contributing is Professor Keith Gildart, a member of the Society’s executive committee, and himself a former miner and expert in the […]
- From the late 19th century, the Alps were a sanctuary for tubercular patients. Supervised by Auguste Rollier – the ‘Sun Doctor’ – many recuperated through fraternity, labour, and the healing power of the sun… Speaker: Dr Ilaria Scaglia, Aston University.Date: 22 May 2024, 6pmVenue: Birmingham People’s History Archive, 2nd floor, Birmingham & Midland Institute, 9 […]
- The Great Preston Strike and Lockout was a momentous national event. It began as a series of isolated strikes at a small number of mills in August/September 1853, and became a general lockout involving most textile operatives that October. It once again became a strike in February 1854, though this time on a much larger […]
- Paul Topley reports on a one-day event that brought together Essex trade unionists and others involved in supporting the 1984-85 miners’ strike. A one-day conference on the role of the Essex labour movement in supporting striking miners during the strike of 1984-85 took place on Saturday 9 March. Organised by Essex Association of Trades Councils, […]
Earlier SSLH-Supported Events and Public Engagement Activities
Non-Conformity, Critiques and Contention under Communist Rule in the 1970s and 1980s, two online symposia organised by the Histories of Activism research group at Northumbria, based on an SSLH-funded conference that had to be rescheduled owing to Covid, November 2020. Find out more.
Huddersfield’s NHS: the Caribbean Connection, a film produced by Kirklees Local TV, based on the research of Dr Heather Norris Nicholson and directed by Milton Brown, October 2020. Find out more.
Working River: Songs and Music of the Thames, a recording project by Brian Denny, 2020.
Leisure and Recreation History and Heritage Day, Middlesbrough Town Hall, October 2019.
Rebellion, Revolution and Resistance in the Twentieth Century: Class, Networks and Political Violence, Newcastle University, October 2019.
Not just Peterloo: remembering the 1969 Manchester anti-apartheid march to the Springboks match, Working Class Movement Library, Salford, October 2019.
Gender, Labour and Consumption in Historical Perspective, University of Essex, September 2019.
Peterloo 1819–2020, People’s History Museum, Manchester, May 2019.
The Global Challenge of Peace: 1919 as a Contested Threshold to a New World Order, Newcastle University, May 2019.
Labour in History and Economics, All Souls College, Oxford, April 2019.
Women, Work, and Activism: Pasts, Presents & Futures, Great North Museum, Newcastle University, 9-10 November 2018. Organisers: Hannah Martin (Northumbria University), Stacy Gillis (Newcastle University) and Jemima Short (Newcastle University). Read the full report here.
Radicalism and Popular Protest in Britain 1790-1820, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 9 June 2017.
Organiser: Ruth Larsen (University of Derby). Full report here.
‘Grim up North? Northern Identity, History & Heritage’, 16 September 2016, The Leeds Library, Leeds.
Organisers: Michael Reeve (Hull) and Andrew McTominey (Leeds Beckett). Full report here.
Society for the Study of Labour History 