Researchers from the Department of History will be delivering a series of talks at Warwick Words History Festival.

Now in its twentieth year, Warwick Words is a popular annual event, bringing internationally acclaimed historians to share stories from the past to venues around Warwick.

Since 2012, the University of Warwick has collaborated with the festival on a series titled Tea Time Talks, where academics from the Department of History discuss their research. This year, topics are:

• History and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Professor Christoph Mick and Dr Claire Shaw - Saturday 8 October
• Picking up the Pieces: Gender and Romantic Failure in late 20th Century Britain – Dr Zoe Strimpel - Saturday 22 October
• The Politics of Touch in the late 18th Century – Professor Mark Philp - Saturday 26 November

The programme also includes a play written by PhD student David Fletcher and performed by Loft Theatre company: Taking the Waters tells the story of a cholera epidemic that took place in Leamington Spa in 1849, and the medical and political conflicts that surrounded it.

Other speakers at the festival include Tracy Borman, Max Hastings, Dan Jones, Adam Rutherford, Charles Spencer and Alison Weir.

Tickets are available from Warwick Words’ website: https://warwickwords.co.uk/ 

'The Last Taboo of Motherhood' project team are delighted to announce that they have been awarded a generous Research Enrichment - Public Engagement Award by the Wellcome Trust.

This will fund a new project with Fuel Theatre for the development of a series of audio pieces, which will highlight our work on maternal mental illness in the twentieth century. We have also received further funding from Warwick University’s Arts & Humanities Impact Award which will enable us to extend the reach of the project to a wider range of audiences. We will be providing further updates on this exciting project over the coming months on our project website.

Read more about The Last Taboo of Motherhood? Postnatal mental disorders in 20th century Britain

Congratulations to Sophie Greenway on the successful examination of her PhD ‘Growing Well: Dirt and Health in the Home and Garden in Britain, 1930-1970'.

If anyone is interested in finding out about the history of composting or using bicarbonate of soda to keep your vegetables green, basically why we do and how we did the things we do in the house and who does it, then Sophie is the person to ask! It’s a thesis that has important things to say to the environmental debate of today and Sophie will be looking to develop some of those ideas in her upcoming fellowship in the Institute of Advanced Studies here at Warwick.