Category: Bursary reports

The SSLH runs two bursary schemes. Articles in this section are reports back from the recipients of bursaries setting out how they were able to advance their research.

Research bursaries

Petra Seitz (UCL) looks at office design and asks: where do you cry in an open plan office?

Where do you cry in an open plan office? This is the emotional question lingering in the back of my thoughts as I complete research into commercial office interior spaces and the relationship of these spaces to the labour process. My research seeks to revisit the history of office spaces, considering and unpicking the relationship between the design of office interiors and the experience of … Continue reading Petra Seitz (UCL) looks at office design and asks: where do you cry in an open plan office?

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Jamie Ferris (Northumbria) on British reactions to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

National responses to an invasion are often thought about in simplified terms, seeing it as an outrage. This was even more true of invasions during the Cold War. Britain’s response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is coloured by this Cold War lens, with anti-communist figures such as Margaret Thatcher condemning the war and following the USA in taking action against the USSR. My … Continue reading Jamie Ferris (Northumbria) on British reactions to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Jay Kerslake (Leeds) on the role of poetry in The Woman Worker

Trade unionism, prior to the First World War, can easily appear a solely male occupation. Female workers were excluded from many unions on grounds of sex and subsequently despised by many of their male peers for driving down wages. This made women especially vulnerable to exploitative labour practices and also weakened male union action, which was undercut by cheap, unorganised female labour. In 1906 Mary … Continue reading Jay Kerslake (Leeds) on the role of poetry in The Woman Worker

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Siân Davies (Edinburgh) on the Pennant family and the labour history of their estates in North Wales and Jamaica c1780-c1900

The Pennant family owned and managed sugar plantations in Jamaica, worked on by enslaved, indentured and later free labourers. From the 1780s onwards the family also ran Penrhyn Quarry in North Wales. The Penrhyn Quarry lockout from 1900-1903 is notorious in the area. I knew from a young age that members of the community still resented the Pennant name for their treatment of the quarrying … Continue reading Siân Davies (Edinburgh) on the Pennant family and the labour history of their estates in North Wales and Jamaica c1780-c1900

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

David Isserman (Edge Hill) on transnational syndicalism and industrial unionism in Liverpool and Glasgow, 1905-1926

My research focuses on the history of syndicalism and industrial unionism among maritime workers in Liverpool and Glasgow during the early twentieth century. Both cities were centres of labour unrest during the Edwardian and inter-war years, with Liverpool experiencing the 1911 transport strike and Glasgow being the host city to the dual unionist British Seafarers Union (BSU) and Scottish Union of Dock Labourers (SCUDL). Thanks … Continue reading David Isserman (Edge Hill) on transnational syndicalism and industrial unionism in Liverpool and Glasgow, 1905-1926

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Dominic Barron-Carter (Manchester Metropolitan) on the local impact of the Orbiston Owenite Colony

My research uses the geohistorical concepts of space and place to contextualise and interpret the activity and importance of four neglected sites of radical democratic protest activity during the nineteenth century. Thanks to the generous bursary program offered by the SSLH, I was able to undertake a six-day research trip to the North Lanarkshire Archive (NLA) in Motherwell, Scotland. The NLA is a key archive … Continue reading Dominic Barron-Carter (Manchester Metropolitan) on the local impact of the Orbiston Owenite Colony

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Klara Rihakova (Northumbria) examines transnational student activism in the Prague Spring of 1968

My BA project examines the transnational elements of student activism in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the role that Czechoslovak students played in the period preceding the social and political events of the Prague Spring as well as the disappointment following the crisis of August 1968. Drawing on a range of contemporary newspapers and government documents from British and Czech archives as well as student … Continue reading Klara Rihakova (Northumbria) examines transnational student activism in the Prague Spring of 1968

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Mick Ekers (Essex) on Burston strike school master Tom Higdon and labour activism between the wars

Mick Ekers visits Norfolk Record Office to research the life in politics of Tom Higdon, one of the two teachers at the heart of the famous Burston School Strike which lasted from 1914 to 1939. The story of the Burston School Strike is quite well known. In 1914 Annie and Tom Higdon, two teachers in a village school in Norfolk, were sacked as a result … Continue reading Mick Ekers (Essex) on Burston strike school master Tom Higdon and labour activism between the wars

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Jessica Kumar (Liverpool John Moores) on exploring the League of Nations Union in the North-West of England

A generous bursary from the Society for the Study of Labour History enabled me to gather invaluable material for my master’s dissertation regarding the League of Nations Union (LNU) in the North-West of England, a project I am undertaking at Liverpool John Moores University Continue reading Jessica Kumar (Liverpool John Moores) on exploring the League of Nations Union in the North-West of England

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Edda Nicolson (Wolverhampton) on the early history of the General Federation of Trade Unions, 1899-1926

My thesis examines the early history of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) from its inception in 1899 until the general strike in 1926. It uses emotions history methodologies to consider how feelings were used in their publications, reports and minutes. Continue reading Edda Nicolson (Wolverhampton) on the early history of the General Federation of Trade Unions, 1899-1926

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