‘Som una nació. Nosaltres decidim.’ (We are a nation. We decide.) Catalonia is a region in limbo. Since the semi-autonomous province in north-west Spain held an illegitimate independence referendum in 2017, the population of 7.5 million has been in the dark, wondering what the Spanish government will decide for their long-term future. Unsurprisingly, the crisis […]
The April 1986 nuclear disaster of Chernobyl remains an infamous date throughout history. From this, the Whitworth Art Gallery’s latest exhibition of the works of British artists Jane and Louise Wilson seek to entice the attention and imaginations of students from a variety of academic programmes. One of the main focuses of the exhibit centres […]
If you were to ever ask any political or social commentator in India about the possibility of the whole country being ruled by a single despotic ruler, the chances are that you would get a resounding ‘NO’ as the answer. We are too diverse for any single ideology to convince each and every part of […]
“The Floating World” refers to the pleasure-seeking, urban lifestyle of the Edo period of Japan (1600-1868). This period of relative stability under Tokugawa Shogunate was one of prolific cultural output, especially in large cities such as the capital, Edo, which is now Tokyo. Haiku poetry found increased popularity during this period, propagated by master poets […]
At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban II preached for the First Crusade as an ‘armed pilgrimage’: a penitential war that imitated the suffering of Christ whilst recapturing the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the Muslims. This appealed to many different members of Western European society, from lowly peasants who normally worked on […]
In an English Literature Modernism module somewhere inside a Science Faculty building on Oxford Road in 2022, we are being asked to consider how much the Harlem Renaissance was a modernist movement. My lecturer notes that the likes of T.S Eliot, James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield were exiles from their home countries. By choice, they […]
Traditionally, the festival of Diwali (the festival of lights), is said to spiritually signify the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair. However, during the 1802 festival, a fierce battle, known as the Battle of Poona, erupted near Pune, India, between the rival factions of the Maratha […]
As yet another state breaks international law, chemical weapons are again at the forefront of the debate about human rights. Tom Oliver looks at how has the rhetoric of human rights developed since its inception.
What brought you to Manchester and what were you doing just prior? Before Manchester, I was in a trans-cultural studies research group at the University of Heidelberg. Our focus was on trading diasporas in the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern Europe, which has informed some of my current research. I was drawn to Manchester because of […]
The execution of American serial killer Ted Bundy in 1989 brought an end to his elaborate decade-long game of cat and mouse. Between 1974 and 1978, Bundy is believed to have raped and murdered at least 30 women and girls across the United States. In his compelling final interview, just hours before his electrocution, Bundy […]
Imogen Clark writes a potted history of the first two years of the American Civil War leading up to the pinnacle moment of the Gettysburg Address. “Four score and seven years ago…” So began one of the most iconic speeches in modern history, spoken by the President who led the USA through the horrors of […]
In conversation with the History department’s latest addition The history of European integration can be traced back to 1306, and the idea proposed by Pierre Dubois that European princes should form an assembly in order to attempt to secure a lasting European peace. 706 years later, much of the continent is tied, to some degree, […]
As yet another state breaks international law, chemical weapons are again at the forefront of the debate about human rights. Tom Oliver looks at how has the rhetoric of human rights developed since its inception.
The history of European integration can be traced back to 1306, and the idea proposed by Pierre Dubois that European princes should form an assembly in order to attempt to secure a lasting European peace. 706 years later, much of the continent is tied, to some degree, to the European Union evidenced by Greece’s recent […]
