Dr Heather Ellis | The University of Sheffield (original) (raw)

Selected reviews of my work by Dr Heather Ellis

Generational Conflict and University Reform: Oxford in the Age of Revolution (Brill 2012) was joi... more Generational Conflict and University Reform: Oxford in the Age of Revolution (Brill 2012) was jointly awarded the inaugural Kevin Brehony Book Prize for the best first book in the history of education by the History of Education Society UK at their annual conference in Dublin in November 2014.

Monographs by Dr Heather Ellis

This book questions the status of the natural scientist as a modern masculine hero. Focusing on t... more This book questions the status of the natural scientist as a modern masculine hero. Focusing on the development of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, from its foundations in 1831 to its role in the First World War, it concentrates historical attention for the first time on the masculine self-fashioning of scientific practitioners. Until now, science has been examined by cultural historians primarily for evidence about the ways in which scientific discourses have shaped prevailing notions about women and supported the growth of oppressive patriarchal structures. This book, by contrast, offers the first in-depth study of the importance of ideals of masculinity in the construction of the male scientist and British scientific culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From the eighteenth-century identification of the natural philosopher with the reclusive scholar, to early nineteenth-century attempts to reinvent the scientist as a fashionable gentleman, to his subsequent reimagining as the epitome of Victorian moral earnestness and meritocracy, the book analyses the complex and changing public image of the British “man of science”.

This book offers a fresh interpretation of a series of ground-breaking reforms introduced at the ... more This book offers a fresh interpretation of a series of ground-breaking reforms introduced at the University of Oxford in the first half of the nineteenth century. Innovations such as competitive examination, the first uniform syllabus in the university’s history and the introduction of a broad range of degree subjects are usually seen as marking Oxford’s entry into the modern age, after the torpor of the eighteenth century. As such, they are often treated as the products of the reforming zeal of early nineteenth-century Britain. By contrast, this book argues that when these key changes are examined against the background of social and political upheaval in America and on the continent at this time, important counter-revolutionary aspects emerge; indeed, that many developments which have been interpreted as examples of modernizing reform are more accurately understood as attempts by senior university members and government officials to respond to the challenge posed by a new generation of confident, politically-aware students influenced by the ideas of the American and French Revolutions.

Edited Volumes by Dr Heather Ellis

Vol V in the Cultural History of Education series published by Bloomsbury

Developed out of a 2015 conference of the History of Education Society, UK, this book explores th... more Developed out of a 2015 conference of the History of Education Society, UK, this book explores the interconnections between the histories of science, technologies and material culture, and the history of education. The contributions express a shared concern over the extent to which the history of science and technology and the history of education are too frequently written at a remove from each other despite being intimately connected. This state of affairs, they suggest, is linked to broader divisions in the history of knowledge, which has, for many years, been carved up into sections reflective of the academic subject divisions that structure modern universities and higher education in the West. Most noticeably this has occurred with the history of science, but more recently the history of humanities has been divided as well.

The contributions to this volume demonstrate the diversity and originality of research currently being conducted into the connections between the history of science and the history of education. The importance of objects in teaching and their value as pedagogical tools emerges as a particularly significant area of research located at the intersection between the two fields of enquiry. Indeed, it is the materiality of education, a focus on the use of objects, pedagogical practices and particular spaces, which seems to offer some of the most promising avenues for exploring further the relationship between the history of science and education. This book was originally published as a special issue of the History of Education.

"Anglo-German Scholarly Networks in the Long Nineteenth Century explores the complex and shifting... more "Anglo-German Scholarly Networks in the Long Nineteenth Century explores the complex and shifting connections between scientists and scholars in Britain and Germany from the late eighteenth century to the interwar years. Based on the concept of the transnational network in both its formal and institutional dimensions, it deals with the transfer of knowledge and ideas in a variety of fields and disciplines. Furthermore, it examines the role which mutual perceptions and stereotypes played in Anglo-German collaboration. By placing Anglo-German scholarly networks in a wider spatial and temporal context, the volume offers new frames of reference which challenge the long-standing focus on the antagonism and breakdown of relations before and during the First World War.

Contributors include Rob Boddice, John Davis, Peter Hoeres, Hilary Howes, Gregor Pelger, Pascal Schillings, Angela Schwarz, Tara Windsor.
"

"Juvenile Delinquency and the Limits of Western Influence, 1850-2000, brings together a wide rang... more "Juvenile Delinquency and the Limits of Western Influence, 1850-2000, brings together a wide range of case studies from across the globe, written by some of the leading scholars in the field, to explore the complex ways in which historical understandings of childhood and juvenile delinquency have been constructed in a global context. The book highlights the continued entanglement of historical descriptions of the development of juvenile justice systems in other parts of the world with narratives of Western colonialism and the persistence of notions of a cultural divide between East and West. It also stresses the need to combine theoretical insights from traditional comparative history with new global history approaches. In doing so, the case studies examined in the volume reveal the significant limitations to the influence of Western ideas about juvenile delinquency in other parts of the world as well as the important degree to which Western understandings of delinquency were also constructed in a transnational context.
Includes chapters by Stephanie Olsen, Amrit Dev Kaur Khalsa, Howard Lupovitch, Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, Sarah Bornhorst, Barak Kushner, Gleb Tsipursky, Nina Mackert, Kate Bradley and Nina Cicek.""

Histories of masculinity have generally examined both social ideologies of masculinity and subjec... more Histories of masculinity have generally examined both social ideologies of masculinity and subjective male identities within frameworks that define them against the feminine. Yet historians and sociologists have increasingly argued that men have been and continue to be defined both socially and subjectively as much by their relations to other men as in relation to women. This collection brings together the work of scholars of masculinities working in a variety of fields, including literature, history and art history, to examine some of the forms of 'otherness' against which ideas of masculinity have been defined throughout history. The collection reflects the current breadth of scholarship relating to the study of masculine alterity. While the subjects addressed are largely historical, the time span covered is broad and the disciplinary approaches to the subject matter are equally wide-ranging. A huge variety of men, masculine behaviours and definitions of masculinity are considered in an exciting and invigorating collection that showcases both established academics and emerging scholars in the field.

Journal Special Issues by Dr Heather Ellis

History of Education, 2023

Intellectual History Review 32:3, 2022

In this special issue, we advocate for a more integrative history of knowledge across disciplinar... more In this special issue, we advocate for a more integrative history of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries through a reconsideration of the language of 'ancient' and 'modern'. We discuss how the essays collected in this special issue seek to go beyond the recurring metaphor of quarrel and competition between antiquity and modernity, and the related representations of key individuals and groups as ‘pioneers’ of modern approaches, in order to move towards a more complex relationship of crossfertilization of 'ancient' and 'modern' knowledges. Each essay maintains that an appreciation of knowledge making as a fully embodied practice is vital for understanding the complex and sometimes contradictory role played by classical authors in the knowledge making of later periods. In different ways, all the essays demonstrate how ancient authors not only provided scholars in later ages (working in a range of disciplines) with a rich supply of evidence for their own works; more interestingly, perhaps, much of what has been viewed as innovation involved scholars drawing on ancient authors and techniques in new ways.

This is a special issue arising out of the 2015 annual conference of the History of Education Soc... more This is a special issue arising out of the 2015 annual conference of the History of Education Society UK (HESUK) which was held at Liverpool Hope University between 20 and 22 November 2015. The conference theme was 'Science, Technologies and Material Culture in History of Education.'

Vol V in the Cultural History of Education series published by Bloomsbury

Contributors include Rob Boddice, John Davis, Peter Hoeres, Hilary Howes, Gregor Pelger, Pascal Schillings, Angela Schwarz, Tara Windsor.
"

History of Education, 2023

Intellectual History Review 32:3, 2022

History Workshop, 2025

An article for History Workshop exploring what oral histories of the UK School Meals Service can ... more An article for History Workshop exploring what oral histories of the UK School Meals Service can tell us about intergenerational memory and social change in postwar Britain.

Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 2024

This article explores in what ways and to what extent it is possible to talk about ‘higher learni... more This article explores in what ways and to what extent it is possible to talk about ‘higher learning’ and ‘higher education’ in Manchester before 1824, the date formally chosen by the University of Manchester to mark its foundation. It considers diverse sites and institutions, revealing a complex, interconnected web of knowledge institutions – dissenting academies, teaching hospitals, learned societies, independent libraries and individual initiatives – which complicate existing narratives of the development of higher education in the city which usually focus on the origins of the university. In the early nineteenth century, with Manchester rapidly becoming the ‘world’s first industrial city’, we see emerging at the same time a vibrant urban educational landscape, with no parallel in the British Isles at that time. In contrast to England’s ancient universities which remained, for the most part, closed and private entities until the mid-nineteenth century, Manchester’s educational culture was self-consciously diffused, civic and participatory, strongly influenced by the city’s prominent dissenting communities. Excluded from Oxford and Cambridge, Manchester’s Unitarians, in particular, sought to shape the city’s educational culture according to the Enlightenment ideal of polite learning as a public endeavour. While civic participatory models have been foregrounded by historians of knowledge and ideas for some time now, this article considers, for the first time, how such models influenced the history of educational cultures in Manchester.

History Today, 2024

The article examines the history of the rise and decline of public repositories of knowledge an... more The article examines the history of the rise and decline of public repositories of knowledge and learned societies in Great Britain in the 19th-century. Topics discussed include the founding of the Literary and Philosophical Society or Lit & Phils, the society's emphasis on teaching skills, systemic education and promiscuous learning, tax exemption of learned societies under the Scientific Societies Bill, and Lit & Phils as testament to the prosperity of individual towns and cities.

History of Education, 2023

The Historical Journal, 2023

The years between 1890 and 1914 saw several prominent studies from statesmen-administrators compa... more The years between 1890 and 1914 saw several prominent studies from statesmen-administrators comparing British India with the Roman empire. These were not the self-congratulatory comparisons of earlier decades, but serious comparative studies aimed at learning practical lessons from Rome's successes and failures. To gain a clearer picture of the significance of these analogies and how they were used, the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination papers from the same period are analysed. It is argued that, following a move in 1892 to make the ICS a fully graduate service, the Civil Service commissioners showed a sustained interest in asking candidates to compare India (and the wider British empire) with the empires of Rome and Greece. Rome was considered particularly relevant for the directly ruled parts of the empire, with a focus on provincial administration and frontier defence, while Athens was preferred for questions of colonial federation. In the final section, the spread of subjects and weighting of marks within the examination are considered. It is argued that a series of changes post-1892 were designed to favour candidates who had studied Classics at university enabling them to obtain a higher proportion of the overall marks than those specializing in other subjects.

Nordic Journal of Educational History, 2022

Concluding Remarks to a special issue on Exploring the History of Knowledge and Education

Intellectual History Review , 2022

In this editorial, we introduce the main themes discussed in this special issue and advocate for ... more In this editorial, we introduce the main themes discussed in this special issue and advocate for a more integrative history of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries through a reconsideration of the language of 'ancient' and 'modern'. We discuss how the essays collected in this special issue seek to go beyond the recurring metaphor of quarrel and competition between antiquity and modernity, and the related representations of key individuals and groups as ‘pioneers’ of modern approaches, in order to move towards a more complex relationship of crossfertilization of 'ancient' and 'modern' knowledges. Each essay maintains that an appreciation of knowledge making as a fully embodied practice is vital for understanding the complex and sometimes contradictory role played by classical authors in the knowledge making of later periods. In different ways, all the essays demonstrate how ancient authors not only provided scholars in later ages (working in a range of disciplines) with a rich supply of evidence for their own works; more interestingly, perhaps, much of what has been viewed as innovation involved scholars drawing on ancient authors and techniques in new ways.

Intellectual History Review, 2022

While a clear distinction was drawn between “classical learning” and “modern science” at Oxford a... more While a clear distinction was drawn between “classical learning” and “modern science” at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the early nineteenth century, we see no such contrast being made in other spaces of knowledge making, such as the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Drawing on Bacon's insistence that his inductive method should apply across all fields of knowledge, early members of the Society interpreted “science” as referring to any systematic inquiry utilising an empirical approach. An investigation of the ways in which classical authors were used within the researches of early members of the Society raises important questions about how we should think about empirical method and scientific research in early nineteenth–century England. Frequently understood as primarily engaged in researching natural knowledge, the members of the Manchester Society concerned themselves with a wide range of subjects across all branches of knowledge. Crucially, classical authors were drawn upon as sources of empirical evidence across all types of inquiry, from investigations into the colours of opaque bodies to the origins of party feeling. It is possible to identify a common approach – “history as empirical method”, which, this article suggests, was developed from Bacon's call for a “just story of learning”.

British Journal of Educational Studies, 2023

When the United Kingdom has figured in the modern history of study abroad, it has featured almost... more When the United Kingdom has figured in the modern history of study abroad, it has featured almost exclusively in the role of host country with little attention paid to the study abroad patterns of UK students. In order to gain a rounded picture of the UK’s role in post-war study abroad, this article explores the position of the UK within the context of the rich data gathered by UNESCO. It argues that there is strong evidence that the UK was actually one of the most active countries in sending its students overseas and that this activity increased (both in absolute terms and relative to other countries) significantly in the 1960s and 70s. Following a brief analysis of the UK’s role as both a host and exporter of study abroad students on a global scale, its relationship as a sender country with two particular geographical areas is considered: firstly, the Commonwealth that has been the focus of much of the existing secondary literature, and secondly, continental Europe, which has featured much less frequently in the work of historians. Various reasons for the significant rise in the number of UK students studying abroad are explored – in particular, the role of government attitudes towards overseas study including the possibility of developing student exchange as an instrument of cultural diplomacy. The article pays particular attention to the period between the publication of the Robbins Report in 1963 and the beginnings of the institutionalisation of study abroad (in Europe) in the late 1970s

History of Education, 2017

This introductory essay to the 2017 Virtual Special Issue of History of Education, focused on 'Co... more This introductory essay to the 2017 Virtual Special Issue of History of Education, focused on 'Commemoration, Memory and Remembrance in History of Education' discusses the ways in which the topics of commemoration, memory and anniversaries have been approached by historians of education over the last thirty years.

Short editorial to a special issue of History of Education 46:2 (2017) 'Science, Technologies and... more Short editorial to a special issue of History of Education 46:2 (2017) 'Science, Technologies and Material Culture in History of Education' comprising articles which were first presented as papers at the 2015 annual conference of the History of Education Society UK (HESUK) at Liverpool Hope University 20-22 November 2015.

History and Technology, 2016

In September 1899, at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Scienc... more In September 1899, at the annual meeting of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) in Dover, Guglielmo Marconi’s
wireless telegraphy system was used to transmit messages across
the English Channel (and across a national border) for the first
time. This achievement represented a highly effective performance
of scientific masculinity and constitutes a key turning point in an
important struggle between competing interpretations of invention
and innovation as masculine practices within British science. The
British Association, tended to favor a narrative of scientific research
as a collectivist, international, gentlemanly-amateur pursuit, largely
confined to the laboratory. Marconi, by contrast, explained the
development of wireless telegraphy as the achievement of his own
genius. Appealing not only to the established scientific elite but to a
range of non-traditional audiences, and stressing the possibilities or
‘imagined uses’ of his technology even more so than his actual results,
he succeeded in commanding unprecedented influence.

Through the case study of scholars networking within the British Empire, this essay explores the ... more Through the case study of scholars networking within the British Empire, this essay explores the relationship between the act of traversing networks, on the one hand, and the self-fashioning of those who traverse them, on the other. While studies adopting a global history approach have tended to assume a fairly straightforward relationship between network participation and identity-construction (in this case – engagement with British imperial networks must translate into identification with empire and its aims), the research presented in this article argues that there was in fact a wide variety of responses among the British scholarly community.

Thomas Arnold is a well-known character in Victorian Studies. His life and work are usually discu... more Thomas Arnold is a well-known character in Victorian Studies. His life and work are usually discussed in relation to his role as Headmaster of Rugby School and the development of the English public school system. His importance in the history of Victorian manliness has, by contrast, been somewhat obscured. When scholars do comment on his highly influential idea of Christian manliness, they tend to assume it was an overtly gendered ideal, opposed to a well-developed notion of effeminacy. A closer study of Arnold's thought and writings, as well as the reflections of his contemporaries and pupils, reveals rather that his understanding of manliness was structured primarily around an opposition between moral maturity on the one hand and immoral boyishness on the other. As this article argues, one of Arnold's chief concerns at Rugby was to ‘anticipate’ or ‘hasten’ the onset of moral manhood in his pupils. Moreover, his discussion of manliness in his role as Headmaster was closely connected to his work as a historian – another neglected aspect of Arnold's career. Inspired, above all, by the Italian philosopher Giovanni Battista Vico, Arnold's historical writing is punctuated by the Vichian concept that nations, like individuals, pass through distinct stages of maturity, from infancy, through childhood, manhood, age and decrepitude. A close reading of Arnold's school sermons and other works on the peculiar dangers of boyhood suggests clearly that his historical writing inspired the notions of moral manliness and vicious boyhood that underpinned much of his educational thought.

Historians have frequently referred to the British Association for the Advancement of Science as ... more Historians have frequently referred to the British Association for the Advancement of Science as an institution that had the professionalisation of British science as its chief aim. This article seeks to complicate this picture by asking what, if any, concept of ‘professionalisation’ would have been understood by nineteenth-century actors. In particular, it seeks to move away from traditional functionalist understandings of professionalisation, as the possession of specialist knowledge and expertise, and consider instead broader definitions, which incorporate the power relationships and identities constructed through discourses of professionalisation. It argues that it was just as important for professional scientists in nineteenth-century Britain to possess a particular type of character (independent, rational, self-controlled) closely identified with popular ideals of elite masculinity and developed through a thorough scientific education. It also reinterprets the growing popularity of scientific internationalism, with its emphasis on the independence of the scientist (from state control) as a crucial part of this masculinising discourse of professionalisation.

Cultural and Social History 11:3 (September 2014): 367-384

This article aims to bring Oxford and Cambridge back into the debate about elite masculine social... more This article aims to bring Oxford and Cambridge back into the debate about elite masculine socialization in eighteenth-century England. The ancient universities in this period have too frequently been described by historians as bastions of moral stability and man making. This article seeks to complicate such assumptions, presenting a view of the universities’ role in shaping the identities of young men in the eighteenth century which takes into account the significant effect of rising student ages, generational and class tensions. In particular, the article traces the characteristics and development of foppish masculine styles among Oxbridge undergraduates, highlights their opposition to book-learning and academic regulations, and analyses the increasing suspicion which they incurred from the university authorities against the background of the American and French Revolutions.

The discourse of the knowledge (-based) economy constitutes a particular challenge for the humani... more The discourse of the knowledge (-based) economy constitutes a particular challenge for the humanities: where the role of the university is thought of in purely economic terms, the humanities must strive for legitimacy exclusively on the grounds of their ability to contribute to economic and technological development. This discourse fundamentally disempowers the humanities by neglecting their specificity and socializing function. The articles contained in this special issue seek to expand the paradigm within which the role of the humanities, both in the academy and in society more broadly, is conceptualized. Central to this is examining the changing functions which the humanities have fulfilled in different historical and cultural contexts.

Juvenile delinquency remains a central term for academics and professionals in sociology, politic... more Juvenile delinquency remains a central term for academics and professionals in sociology, politics, and law, and for many commentators in the media and popular press. In March 2011, a conference was held in Berlin with a view to exploring some of the reasons behind the term’s long-standing popularity. Most
of the articles comprising this special issue were first presented there. Many people who use the term “juvenile delinquency” in their everyday life and work (sociologists, political scientists, social workers, and judges) frequently do so with little awareness of its long history and the wide variety of meanings with which it has been invested for more than two centuries. Given that this term remains instrumental in the categorization and sentencing of thousands of young people around the world, the fact that its meaning has varied dramatically according to time and place and still, many would argue, evades precise definition should certainly make us think more carefully about how we use it in our own work.

A Cultural History of Education in the Age of Empire, 2020

This chapter explores developments in literacies globally in the long nineteenth century. It pla... more This chapter explores developments in literacies globally in the long nineteenth century. It places particular weight on new understandings o literacy which emerged in this period including scientific and technical literacies and the role of new educational institutions such as mechanics institues.

A Cultural History of Education in the Age of Empire, 2020

While the nineteenth century can and has been characterized in many different ways, it is always ... more While the nineteenth century can and has been characterized in many different ways, it is always considered pivotal in accounts of educational developments taking place in earlier and later periods. The eighteenth century is frequently portrayed as preparing the ground for it; and much of the twentieth century (at least until 1945) is considered to have unfolded in its shadow. The period between 1800 and 1920 witnessed
many of the key developments that still shape the aims, context, and live
experience of education today. Empire, as the title of this volume indicates, was a key organizing principle through which major educational developments across the globe were filtered in this period and without reference to which they cannot be properly understood: the spread of state-sponsored mass elementary education; the efforts of missionary societies and other voluntary movements; and the resistance, agency, and counter-initiatives developed by indigenous and other colonized peoples as well as the increasingly complex cross-border
encounters and movements that characterized much educational activity by the end of this period.

Handbook of Historical Studies in Education, 2019

This chapter makes the case for a history of higher education institutions which looks beyond the... more This chapter makes the case for a history of higher education institutions which looks beyond the university. Building on recent historiographical developments, it argues that the history of higher education must not be limited to the history of the university, an institution fixed in space and time, but must rather adopt a transnational and transhistorical approach. It also argues for a broader definition of “institution” which includes concepts, ideas, and practices which have become “institutionalized” alongside traditional understandings of institutions as sites with fixed locations and physical forms. Beginning with an exploration of higher education and learning across the globe in the ancient world, it goes on to study significant developments in higher education during the medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and modern periods. While considerable attention is paid to the development of the university in Europe and around the world, the role and significance of other higher education institutions are stressed throughout. Particular weight is placed on the importance of learned societies and academies as sites of research development and training in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The chapter concludes with reflections on the ways in which the prominence of the research university since the Second World War has shaped the writing of the history of higher education in recent years, most notably, the dominant position given to the university as institution. Potentially fruitful directions for future research are also discussed, in particular, the need to focus on alternative higher education institutions.

The Academic World in the Era of the Great War, 2017

This chapter shows how leading figures within the British Association for the Advancement of Scie... more This chapter shows how leading figures within the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) viewed the First World War as a welcome opportunity to prove their usefulness to both nation and empire and to vindicate the collective masculinity of ‘men of science’ which had recently come under renewed attack from their public critics. It investigates the various ways in which the BAAS attempted to make itself vital to the war effort. Much of this focused on proposals for maximizing the natural resources of different parts of the Empire and trying to mobilize them for the war effort; such activities provide a classic example of what Gillian Rose has termed ‘scientific masculinity’ or the subordination of (female) nature to human will. It also sought to make itself ideologically useful to the state, fighting communism in schools through its influential position in primary and secondary education, in particular, its promotion of a particular notion of manly citizenship, based on its views of the ideal scientist. The chapter also look briefly at the impact of the Association’s raised profile during the War on the position of the natural sciences after the cessation of hostilities. It argues that the war years were of vital ideological importance, in terms of maintaining a high public presence for both the BAAS and for science in general.

Student Revolt, City, and Society in Europe: From the Middle Ages to the Present (ed. Pieter Dhondt and Elizabethanne Boran), 2017

This essay seeks to explain and to place in context a surprising demonstration of student anger a... more This essay seeks to explain and to place in context a surprising demonstration of student anger and expression of generational identity which took place in the famous Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford during a graduation ceremony on 28 June 1843. Violent and riotous behaviour are not traditionally associated with students at Oxford and Cambridge by historians; they are generally treated as belonging to a wealthy, elite cadre who took little interest in politics or in challenging the status quo. However, such a view neglects the very important role which students played in supporting one of the most radical movements in Oxford’s history - the high-Anglican Tractarian (or Oxford) Movement, most closely associated with the figure of John Henry Newman. As this essay will argue, when placed against the background of the American and French Revolutions, in particular, the growing fears of the university authorities about student rebellion and their attempts to clamp down on students’ freedom of movement and reading material, a growing sense of anger and generational solidarity becomes readily understandable. What is sometimes viewed as a strange blip in the history of Oxford University, will be explained here as the climax and culmination of a long process of generational tension and structural changes (most importantly, the rising age of students) over a number of decades.

Recently, there has been a growing interest among historians in the British Empire as a space of ... more Recently, there has been a growing interest among historians in the British Empire as a space of knowledge production and circulation. Much of this work assumes that scholarly cooperation and collaboration between individuals and institutions within the Empire had the effect (and often also the aim) of strengthening both imperial ties and the idea of empire . By contrast, this chapter will argue that many examples of scholarly travel, exchange, and collaboration were undertaken with very different goals in mind. In particular, it argues for the continuing importance of an ideal of scientific internationalism, which stressed the benefits of scholarship for the whole of humanity and prioritised the needs and goals of individual academic and scientific disciplines. As the chapter will show, some scholars even went on to develop nuanced critiques of the imperial project while using the very structures of the Empire to further their own individual, disciplinary and institutional goals.

The Routledge Handbook of the Stoic Tradition, Feb 29, 2016

This chapter explores the complex and multilayered reception of Stoicism in Victorian culture. It... more This chapter explores the complex and multilayered reception of Stoicism in Victorian culture. It begins by questioning whether we can even provide a clear definition of what Victorians understood by the term, pointing to the historical complexities of the philosophical system of Stoicism. It moves on to look at the place of Stoicism at the Victorian universities and in schools, before exploring broader receptions of stoicism with a small 's' in popular culture, in so-called 'social stoicism', for example. It argues that only in the figure of the 2nd-century emperor Marcus Aurelius did philosophical Stoicism break out of an elite mould. However, the importance of Marcus was also socially restricted and, the chapter, concludes, so was the influence of Stoicism in general.

This chapter explores the involvement of British university students and early-career scientists ... more This chapter explores the involvement of British university students and early-career scientists in the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) in the first half of the twentieth century. Although often linked with the promotion of national and imperial identity in the secondary literature, the British Association possessed a significant transnational dimension with an international membership, collaborative projects and meetings held in other countries. In particular, it suggests that it was, above all, the young members of the Association who were driving this internationalization of its activities. It shows how a language and ideal of cosmopolitan masculinity, closely linked to the development of scientific socialism in the USSR, against the background of the 1930s and early years of World War Two, came increasingly to shape the involvement of many young male members with the Association as well as their own self-fashioning and identity as professional scientists. It traces how the young leftist scientists of the British Association, particularly those involved in the Social Relations of Science movement in the 1920s and 1930s imagined the internationalism of their scientific endeavour to be intricately tied to the internationalism of Marxism. It shows how science and communism were seen at the time to be ideologically suited for one another through the shared emphasis on youth and internationalism. Moreover, it argues that these young British scientists came to imagine a militarized masculinity as central to their professional identity which emerged through the transnational contacts of scientific networks.

Juvenile Delinquency and the Limits of Western Influence, 1850-2000, 2014

While historians have recently done much to emphasise the importance of transnational contexts, t... more While historians have recently done much to emphasise the importance of transnational contexts, the history of scientific exchange and knowledge transfer remains heavily shaped by the category of the nation state. This chapter points instead to the creation and growing importance of transnational scientific networks between Britain and Germany over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It focuses on the development of a range of contacts between scientists including professional migration and collaborative projects. Key questions which this chapter addresses include: to what extent did participation in transnational scientific networks encourage the development of a transnational professional identity among scientists based in Britain and Germany? And how did individual scientists and the wider scientific community relate such an identity to the ties of nation and empire?

This chapter examines the links between classical scholars working in Britain and Germany in the ... more This chapter examines the links between classical scholars working in Britain and Germany in the eighteenth century against the background of the Enlightenment. It discusses some of the rich intellectual and cultural connections between the two countries which developed in the era of the Personal Union. Above all, the chapter argues that the traditional view of the relationship between classical scholars in Britain and Germany in this period, based on the teacher-pupil model, needs to be rethought; in particular, that a more flexible idea of mutual exchange and collaboration provides a more satisfactory tool for understanding this important aspect of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Anglo-German scholarly relations. In particular, it suggests that classical scholars based at the ancient English universities of Oxford and Cambridge played a more important role in Anglo-German scholarly networks in this period (and indeed in the Republic of Letters more broadly), than many historians have previously allowed.

Traditionally seen as the epoch of the nation-state, historians have recently begun to question t... more Traditionally seen as the epoch of the nation-state, historians have recently begun to question the dominance of this category for those living, working and travelling in nineteenth-century Europe. Frequently, transnational movement of people, money and ideas had a greater impact than movement within national boundaries and under the supervision of individual states. As such, the nineteenth century is perhaps better understood as an era of increasing globalisation. While scholars have recently done much to emphasise the importance of supranational contexts in the area of economic transactions, the history of universities and knowledge transfer is still dominated by the category of the nation state. This essay attempts to challenge this tendency by pointing to the creation and growing importance of transnational university networks over the course of the nineteenth century. It focuses in particular on the development of a wide range of contacts between universities based in Britain and Germany including student migration and exchanges, collaborative projects and joint publications. In particular, it argues that intellectual and cultural links which flourished under older political formations, in particular, the eighteenth-century constitutional union between England and the Electorate of Hanover, survived to determine the nature of cultural contact between Britain and Germany in the following century. In the wider context of continental Europe, the essay also points to the longevity of an early-modern paradigm of intellectual relations – the ‘republic of letters’ in which transnational collaboration and exchange played a normal and important part.

Despite the warnings of scholars like David Newsome, and more recently, John Tosh, historians of ... more Despite the warnings of scholars like David Newsome, and more recently, John Tosh, historians of masculinity continue frequently to equate ‘manliness’ with ‘masculinity’ and to use the two terms almost interchangeably. In this chapter I hope to show through the example of early nineteenth-century Oxford that, historically speaking, manliness and masculinity have been constructed in significantly different ways. Firstly, it will be suggested that Oxford University perceived its chief role in this period to be that of turning boys into men. The ‘men’ it sought to produce, however, were not defined primarily against an overtly gendered other (whether women or effeminate men) but rather against the young and immature male. In the homosocial environment of the early nineteenth-century university, the language of masculinity, when it was employed, tended to be associated rather with those undergraduates considered particularly juvenile and immature. The second part of the chapter goes on to consider possible reasons behind this state of affairs. It is suggested that the significant influence of Thomas Arnold and the Rugby ethos of manliness upon Oxford in these years was one principal cause. Arnold, I argue, associated overtly gendered ideals such as the physically powerful, masculine sportsman with moral and intellectual childishness; ‘manliness’, on the other hand, both as a quality and state of being, he believed to be characterised by maturity of mind and morality just as much as by physical prowess. This belief, I suggest, was influential far beyond the bounds of Rugby school, fundamentally influencing a whole generation of Englishmen in the wider sphere of university and professional life. It can also tell us much about why historians of masculinity today should be wary of assuming an uncomplicated and synonymous relationship between concepts of ‘masculinity’ and ‘manliness.’

Insofar as the public schools and ancient universities have been considered by historians of Engl... more Insofar as the public schools and ancient universities have been considered by historians of English elementary education they have usually been treated as a distinct system of education having little directly to do with the working classes. This essay suggests, however, that the influence of elite education in the early days of elementary school reform was considerable, constituting, as it did, in many cases, the sum total of the educational experience of those responsible for developing the new system. Moreover, it argues that the reform of the elementary sector should not be separated from changes introduced at all levels of education (including the elite schools and universities) from the 1850s onwards. Thus, it is more accurate to see attempts to develop mass elementary education in the context of a national project of educational reform. Although there must always have been an element of social control present, we see, in a number of cases, particularly, with the growing dominance of the elementary school readers’ market by university-trained academics, that this had far more to do with the growing connections between the different levels of education. Far from attempting to close off elite education to working-class children and elementary teachers we see increasing moves, particularly with the Cross Commission of 1886-7, to bring the curricula pursued in elite and elementary schools closer together as well as to raise the level of education achieved by elementary school teachers, particularly by providing opportunities for them to access university instruction. The influence of the public schools and universities as models in the reform of the elementary system was however limited to a particular period of time. Reaching its peak before the turn of the century, growing anxiety about the viability of Britain’s empire in the 1890s and first years of the twentieth century expressed itself partly in a loss of confidence in the public-school system. It was increasingly seen as unable to equip pupils for the modern world, particularly in its perceived failure to provide a sufficiently scientific education. As a result, the elementary curriculum assumed an increasingly practical character in the early years of the twentieth century.

This short paper examines the practice of corporal punishment in the English public schools in th... more This short paper examines the practice of corporal punishment in the English public schools in the nineteenth century. In particular, it raises important questions about the validity of the traditional tendency to separate the history of public schools into a pre- and post-Clarendon era. While there were undoubtedly important reforms in the latter half of the century, the continued (and increased) use of corporal punishment seriously undercuts the effectiveness of such a distinction. More broadly, it challenges the still popular tendency to present the history of the nineteenth century as a Whiggish narrative of social progress. While humanitarian calls for the reduction of corporal punishment perhaps made some headway in public schools in the early Victorian period, the Clarendon Commission of 1861 should in no way be seen as heralding a new period of humane punishments for public schoolboys. Rather, against a background of increasing anxiety about Britain’s imperial position and the role of the public schools in educating future leaders of Empire, we see an increasingly unashamed defence of corporal punishment from government advisers and headmasters alike.

Masculinity and the Other: Historical Perspectives, 2009

Historians of Oxford University are familiar with gendered presentations of Tractarianism, in par... more Historians of Oxford University are familiar with gendered presentations of Tractarianism, in particular, the passionate and persistent attacks of Charles Kingsley. Given the fact that Newman directed his 1864 Apologia Pro Vita Sua specifically against Kingsley’s writings, modern historians have tended to assume both that the alignment of Tractarianism with effeminacy originated with Kingsley in the period following Newman’s conversion in 1845 and, what is more, that this gendered criticism was contained within a purely religious discourse. This essay seeks to challenge these assumptions by tracing the expression of gendered criticism of the Oxford Movement back to the writings of Thomas Arnold and his supporters in the 1830s and by situating this criticism firmly within the educational context of Oxford and its examination in Literae Humaniores or Greats. It argues, first, that gendered criticism constitutes an important and neglected aspect of the Newman-Arnold conflict, and, second, that this criticism is best understood against the background of a wider debate about the place of religious knowledge or divinity within the otherwise classical Greats examination. It presents Oxford during these years as the site of a developing contest between two rival ideals of manliness, both of which, in contrasting ways, sought to reconcile sacred with secular learning and to impress upon students the importance of both types of knowledge for the formation of a manly character. Arnold’s ideal, on the one hand, stressed the importance of activity, both mental and physical, of participation in worldly affairs and the applicability of knowledge to everyday life; Newman’s, meanwhile, emphasised the benefits of the contemplative over the active life, retreat from the world and the value of knowledge for its own sake.

The Evolution of the Teenager research carried out on behalf of NCS (National Citizen Service) e... more The Evolution of the Teenager research carried out on behalf of NCS (National Citizen Service)
explores important generational shifts
in teenagers’ attitudes towards career
aspirations and expectations of the workplace.
Uncovering insights into each of the generations from
WW1 to the present day, the report is the first of its kind
to map trends in this way. The results collated from the
research clearly show how the attitudes of the different
generations have been shaped by the major events and
developments of their age.

Women's History Review, 2024

Journal of Modern History, 2022

Women's History Review, 2022

Nordic Journal of Educational History, 2021

The Journal of Modern History, 2017

In this well-written and engaging study, William C. Lubenow brings to life the intriguing and neg... more In this well-written and engaging study, William C. Lubenow brings to life the intriguing and neglected life of learned societies in nineteenth-century Britain. The nineteenth century is often identified as the age of university reform and the establishment of the academic profession. As Lubenow shows, however, until late into the century, the key sites of intellectual innovation and knowledge formation in Britain were not its universities but rather the bewildering array of learned societies flourishing in both metropole and province. The book clearly demonstrates the extent to which knowledge was produced, organized, and communicated in social settings, in contexts of sociability that had more in common with the conviviality of the gentleman’s club than the rarefied world of the university.

Paedagogica Historica, 2018

published in Economic History Review 68:3 (August 2015), 1080-1081

H. S. Jones's new monograph sets itself two primary aims, both of which are admirable: firstly, t... more H. S. Jones's new monograph sets itself two primary aims, both of which are admirable: firstly, to produce an integrated study of Mark Paison's life and thought and secondly, to situate these themes within the wider context of debates about the nature of the academic life in a period of unprecedented reform for the English universities. ere has arguably never been a satisfactory intellectual biography of Paison which has done justice to his undeniable complexity and subtlety as a thinker, particularly on the subject of the intellectual and his vocation. A much fuller and more detailed treatment is

In a recent article in History of Education, Claudia Soares suggests that ‘attending to emotions ... more In a recent article in History of Education, Claudia Soares suggests that ‘attending to emotions as part of the history of education offers a range of new possibilities for the writing and understanding of the subject’. It is these possibilities which the 2023 conference of the History of Education Society UK is keen to explore.

We welcome papers that seek to understand people’s complex emotional and sensory engagements with education in the past, the emotions and experiences that individuals and groups brought with them as they navigated different educational landscapes. We are keen to include a wide range of perspectives on what has made educational experiences meaningful and memorable for students, teachers, parents, policymakers and communities. We understand education in its broadest sense and welcome explorations of educational experiences in later life, in the workplace, in the community, in families as well as in formal institutional spaces of learning.

Emotions and the senses are to be understood in an equally broad sense. Emotions might include understandings and experiences of friendship, loneliness, love, hatred, jealousy, grief, sadness, joy in an educational context; as well as sights, smells, sounds, tastes and touch, sensory experiences can include explorations of the materialities and physical environments of education in the past.

We would also like to explore how those involved in educational spaces have sought to make use of emotions and the senses for different purposes. In what ways have emotions and the senses been connected with power relations in educational contexts?

How have emotions and the senses connected with experiences of play, adventure, sport and risk-taking as well as more traditional understandings of learning and curriculum? How have emotional and sensory experiences of education varied across communities, nations and regions of the world as well as across time periods?

Among others, topics that papers might focus on include:

The impact of emotions and sensory experiences on understandings of education and educational spaces in the past. How have emotions and sensory experiences been incorporated into different pedagogies and curricula?

Historical changes in emotional and sensory experiences of learning: how emotions and sensory experiences of learning have evolved over time, and how these changes have influenced teaching styles and classroom design.

Power dynamics in educational settings: Exploring how emotions and sensory experiences are used to exert power and control in educational settings, and how this affects students' experiences and understandings of education.

Intersections between emotional and sensory experiences and concepts of class, race, disability and gender in education: How have racialised, classed and gendered identities shaped the emotional and sensory experiences of education for individuals and communities?

Emotional regulation and discipline in education. In what ways have emotions been regulated and disciplined in educational settings throughout history, and how has this affected students' emotional experiences of education?

The role of emotions and sensory experiences in educational policy. How have emotions and sensory experiences been incorporated into educational policies, and how has this influenced the broader social and political context of education?

University of Sheffield

Categories which seek to draw distinctions between different areas of scholarly inquiry in the hi... more Categories which seek to draw distinctions between different areas of scholarly inquiry in the history of knowledge, most obviously, perhaps, the distinction between ‘humanities’ and
‘sciences’ have, in many cases, spawned their own extensive sub-histories – the history of science and, more recently, the history of the humanities. Yet categories which instead seek to draw boundaries between bodies of knowledge based on distinctions of chronological time also need to be interrogated. The spatial turn in the history of knowledge has been particularly important, with much attention paid in recent years to exploring circuits, networks, geographies and mobilities of knowledge. Less consideration, however, has been given to distinctions of chronological distance (in particular, the use of the terms ‘ancient and modern’) and the associated claims of authority, legitimacy, originality and significance, which are implied when these terms are used.

The colloquium aims to explore two related sets of questions:

(1) Firstly, how have ancient knowledges been discussed, adapted, interrogated, included, excluded or ignored by scholars, writers and thinkers but also merchants, diplomats and
other creators of knowledge consciously identifying as modern?

In referring to ‘ancient’ knowledges, we are not limiting our consideration to the knowledge of Greece and Rome alone, but are keen to hear from scholars working on the later reception of ideas, texts, images and objects originating in other ancient cultures – in China, India, Persia, Africa.

In defining ‘modern’ knowledges, we are adopting Peter Burke’s identification of 15th and 16th century Renaissance humanism as the first point at which societies began to view themselves as self-consciously modern, and we will extend our area of inquiry up to the long 18th century. In adopting this definition, we are aware that we are choosing to focus on a predominantly Western understanding of modernity. At the same time, we welcome papers exploring the concept of alternative and multiple modernities developed in other parts of the globe.

(2) The second set of questions we are interested in involve the different ways in which chronological markers (‘ancient’, ‘modern’, ‘new’, ‘old’, ‘traditional’, ‘novel’) have been
used to draw distinctions and make claims about the legitimacy, authority and significance of different bodies of knowledge from the Renaissance onwards.

Papers could, for example, address the following issues:

the role of ancient knowledge in the intersection of (and the distinction between) the natural sciences and humanities
the role that individuals and informal institutions such as learned societies have played as agents in the formation of concepts and categories of knowledge
how reading and re-reading classical authors and ancient historians, in particular, helped to shape concepts of history, verisimilitude, plausibility and falsehood
the relationship between ancient and modern historiography
the tradition of other ancient authors such as Plutarch, Suetonius, Cicero and Sextus Empiricus which has been particularly influential in the formation of concepts of history

Since the requirement to teach 'Fundamental British Values' in primary and secondary schools was ... more Since the requirement to teach 'Fundamental British Values' in primary and secondary schools was introduced by the UK government in November 2014, it has become one of the most intensely discussed and controversial aspects of the school curriculum and educational policy more broadly. Debate around the teaching of British values has intensified further in the wake of the decision to make schools responsible for helping to deliver the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy. In an attempt to gauge the current state of debate in this area and to discuss future challenges and opportunities, the BERA History SIG has chosen to focus on the theme of 'Teaching British Values' for its annual colloquium 2017. In particular, the colloquium aims to bring together teacher-practitioners and education policymakers interested in debates surrounding the teaching of British values in schools with historians of education working on the history of school curricula, especially the history of moral and citizenship education. More broadly, we welcome all those working in or involved with education in the UK and abroad with an interest in these issues. There will be two keynote talks by Professor Terry Haydn (UEA) and Dr Susannah Wright (Oxford Brookes) as well as an invited panel of speakers including teachers and policymakers.

Final conference programme

Centre for the History of Childhood colloquium, Magdalen College, Oxford 4th July 2015

"Beyond the Knowledge Economy? The Changing Role of the University" (Special Issue), Journal of the Knowledge Economy 4:1 (March 2013)

Anglo-German Scholarly Networks in the Long Nineteenth Century (Brill Academic Publishers 2014)

Juvenile Delinquency and the Limits of Western Influence, 1850-2000 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)

Journal of the Oxford University Historical Society 7 (2009): Special Issue

Masculinity and the Other: Historical Perspectives (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009)

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Intellectual History Review

The MakEY project explores the place of the rising 'maker' culture in the development of ... more The MakEY project explores the place of the rising 'maker' culture in the development of young children's digital literacy and creative design skills.A survey was undertaken of early years professionals, including teachers, staff working in museums and libraries, and makerspace staff to identify what current understanding and practice is with regard to the use of makerspaces. The survey was developed by the project team and placed online using Qualtrics. The survey was translated into the languages of countries participating in the project: Danish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian and Romanian. At a later stage in the project, the survey was translated into Portuguese and Spanish, for future use.

Masculinity and Science in Britain, 1831–1918, 2017

While the early nineteenth century witnessed widespread worries about the British man of science,... more While the early nineteenth century witnessed widespread worries about the British man of science, it also saw the creation of new models of scientific masculinity, intimately bound up with shifts in contemporary understandings of gender identity. According to James Secord, ‘The role for the enquirer into nature was also being transformed, from older images of scholarship and learning to the new ideal of the heroic discoverer, engaged single-mindedly in the investigation of nature.’1 Jan Golinski has described the turn of the nineteenth century as a ‘critical moment’, witnessing a ‘profound transformation’ in the development of the identity of the male scientist. Stressing in particular, the influence of Romanticism, Golinski writes that, ‘[t]he years around the turn of the nineteenth century brought to prominence models of male creativity that stressed imagination and the emotions, rather than classical rationality’.2

The Economic History Review, 2015

Intellectual History Review, 2022

The period between 1800 and 1920 was pivotal in the global history of education and witnessed man... more The period between 1800 and 1920 was pivotal in the global history of education and witnessed many of the key developments which still shape the aims, context and lived experience of education today. These developments included the spread of state-sponsored mass elementary education; the efforts of missionary societies and other voluntary movements; the resistance, agency and counter-initiatives developed by indigenous and other colonized peoples as well as the increasingly complex cross-border encounters and movements which characterized much educational activity by the end of this period. An essential resource for researchers, scholars, and students in history, literature, culture, and education, A Cultural History of Education in the Age of Empire presents essays that examine the following key themes of the period: church, religion and morality; knowledge, media and communications; children and childhood; family, community and sociability; learners and learning; teachers and teac...

The Academic World in the Era of the Great War, 2017

The Journal of Modern History, 2022

British Journal of Educational Studies, 2022

Springer International Handbooks of Education, 2020

Juvenile delinquency remains a central term for academics and professionals

While the nineteenth century can and has been characterized in many different ways, it is always ... more While the nineteenth century can and has been characterized in many different ways, it is always considered pivotal in accounts of educational developments taking place in earlier and later periods. The eighteenth century is frequently portrayed as preparing the ground for it; and much of the twentieth century (at least until 1945) is considered to have unfolded in its shadow. The period between 1800 and 1920 witnessed many of the key developments that still shape the aims, context, and live experience of education today. Empire, as the title of this volume indicates, was a key organizing principle through which major educational developments across the globe were filtered in this period and without reference to which they cannot be properly understood: the spread of state-sponsored mass elementary education; the efforts of missionary societies and other voluntary movements; and the resistance, agency, and counter-initiatives developed by indigenous and other colonized peoples as well as the increasingly complex cross-border encounters and movements that characterized much educational activity by the end of this period.

By focusing on the example of scholars working and travelling within the British Empire, this ess... more By focusing on the example of scholars working and travelling within the British Empire, this essay explores the relationship between the act of traversing networks and the identity construction of those who traverse them. Studies adopting a global history approach have tended to assume that scholarly collaboration between individuals within the Empire had the effect (and often also the aim) of strengthening both imperial ties and the idea of empire itself. An important factor in this argument is the alignment of the spatial domain of the British Empire with the idea or ideology of empire. Following the work of Lambert and Lester, this essay argues that when we consider the Empire in purely spatial terms, decoupled from a necessary connection with imperialism, a much wider variety of responses among British scholars networking within its bounds becomes apparent. In particular, it becomes clear that many examples of scholarly travel, exchange, and collaboration were undertaken with m...

The two-day conference, ‘Juvenile Delinquency in 19th and 20th Centuries: East-West Comparisons’,... more The two-day conference, ‘Juvenile Delinquency in 19th and 20th Centuries: East-West Comparisons’, held at the Centre for British Studies in Berlin, was organised by Heather Ellis (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Lily Chang (Oxford) and was generously sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Cologne. The conference brought together junior and senior scholars from a wide range of institutions and disciplinary backgrounds to discuss the different ways in which juvenile delinquency has been constructed historically in the cultural fields of East and West. The central aim of the conference was to encourage dialogue amongst scholars to move beyond conceptualising the subject of juvenile delinquency from an exclusively national perspective. The majority of papers addressed individual aspects of juvenile delinquency in schools, families, courts, prisons, the world of science, and in relation to the state, but many of them also stressed the comparative and transnational elements of their...

This article argues that generational conflict between junior and senior members was a major fact... more This article argues that generational conflict between junior and senior members was a major factor in promoting, and determining the course of, university reform at Oxford in the first half of the nineteenth century. In particular, it seeks to show how the traditional syllabus of classical studies became an important battleground in the increasingly tense relationship between undergraduates and their tutors. It is suggested that behind the famous Examination Statute of 1800, which introduced competitive examination and a uniform syllabus to Oxford for the first time, lay the desire of Oxford’s senior members, against the background of the French Revolution, to increase the degree of control exercised over the undergraduate population, both in terms of what they read and how they spent their time. It goes on to show how their chosen syllabus, which focused on Greek and Latin composition and translation, was criticised as childish and little different from school-boy studies by external commentators such as Sydney Smith in the Edinburgh Review. Contrary to the familiar claim that such critics were opposed to classical education per se, it is suggested here that Smith and his fellow journalists argued instead for an alternative classical curriculum based on ancient history and philosophy which, they believed, encouraged students to think for themselves. The article then goes on to trace the ways in which Oxford undergraduates, engaging with, and responding to, such criticism, took it upon themselves to campaign for the introduction of an alternative classical syllabus which emphasised history and philosophy at the expense of grammar and word-for-word translation. Moreover, it argues that this growing undergraduate lobby for reform of the classical curriculum had a profound impact on the debate about reform at Oxford in the years after 1815, particularly against the background of increased student participation in the continental revolutions of 1830 and 1848.

Generational Conflict and University Reform, 2012

A Cultural History of Education in the Age of Empire, 2020