Lived Experiences of the Westminster Parliament in History
Lived Experiences of the Westminster Parliament in History: People, Sociability, Communities & Space
One-day conference, University of Warwick
Friday 14 March 2025
On Friday 14 March 2025, a one-day conference titled Lived Experiences of Westminster Parliament in History: People, Sociability, Communities, & Space, will be held at the University of Warwick. Organised by Brendan Tam and Chloe Challender and supported by the History of Parliament Trust and the University of Warwick’s Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre, the conference will examine the evolving dynamics between individuals and the Westminster Parliament throughout history.
The conference seeks to explore the complex historic interplay between people and the Westminster Parliament, shedding light on how changing social mores, institutional interactions and the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion have developed and changed over time. While numerous accounts of Westminster Parliament have been written over the centuries, the focus has primarily been on its democratic and constitutional function as an agent of national legislature and accountability, rather than its identity as an institution whose inner life is both shaped by and shapes its public role. By considering interdisciplinary perspectives and critical inquiry, this conference aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the private dynamics of one of the world's oldest public representative institutions.
Through nine papers and a keynote address, the conference will explore how Parliament has developed over time in relation to individual behaviours and private experiences, considering the influence of factors such as gender, race, and class. Broad conceptual questions that will be considered include: what are the hidden rather than displayed parliamentary rules, conventions, and expectations that have developed over this period, in terms of culture, approach, language, and behaviour of Parliament, and how are they determined by private experience and individual agency?
To register your attendance for the conference, please email Brendan Tam (brendan.tam@warwick.ac.uk) and Chloe Challender
(chloe.challender@warwick.ac.uk) with your intention to attend and any dietary requirements you may have by the Friday 28 February
Lived Experiences of the Westminster Parliament in History: People, Sociability, Communities & Space, University of Warwick, Friday 14 March 2025
Wolfson Research Exchange, Floor 3 Extension, University of Warwick Library
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
09.30 – 9:50: Registration and Coffee
9:50 – 10.00: Welcome and Introduction
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10.00 – 11:00
KEYNOTE ADDRESS and Q&A:
Dr Paul Seaward, Idem sentire de republica: friendship, community and party in the House of Commons from Bolingbroke to Badenoch
Chair: Paul Evans (Former House of Commons Clerk)
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11:00 – 11:15: Tea and Coffee Break
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11.15-12:45: Session 1: Gender, Agency, and the Institutional Regime: Women’s Experiences of the Westminster Parliament in the 20th and 21st Century
Chair: Holly Dustin (Durham University)
Dr Mari Takayanagi (UK Parliamentary Archives), 'Lace cravats, buckled shoes and the latest in photocopying machines': the gendered nature of the MP's Secretaries' Room in 1950s-60s Parliament.
Dr Lisa Berry-Waite (UK Parliament's Heritage Collections), ‘We are therefore asking you to provide us with more suitable facilities’: women MPs and parliamentary space, 1945-1997.
Dr Emma Peplow (History of Parliament Trust), ‘Emotions on the Green Benches: Women’s experiences of the Chamber as told to the History of Parliament Trust’s Oral History Project’.
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12:45 – 13:45: Lunch
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13:45-15:15: Session 2: 19th Century to the Present Day: Westminster Parliament as a Home and as a Stage
Chair: Dr Martin Spychal (History of Parliament Trust)
Dr Dave Steele (Warwick), ‘Where people confront power – The Liminal Spaces of Westminster’.
Colin Lee (UK Parliament), ‘Living over the shop: the public and the private for clerks residing at Westminster and their families in the long nineteenth century’.
Dr Alex Prior (London South Bank University), Dr Sophia Psarra and Dr Naomi Gibson (UCL), ‘Frontstage and backstage: Theatricality and visibility in the House of Commons’.
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15.15 – 15:30: Tea and Coffee
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15:30-17:00
Session 3: Feeling, Individual Encounter and Lived Experience in the Pre-1800 Westminster Parliament
Chair: Professor Mark Knights (University of Warwick)
Dr Elizabeth Biggs (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Parliament, Administration and Empire: The Case of Late-Medieval Ireland and Westminster’.
Dr Anna Harrington (University of Leicester), Parliament and Family Ties in William Wilberforce’s Diaries’.
James Orchin, (Queen’s University Belfast), ‘'Fated to be something of a suicide': Public and private perceptions of the political career of William Windham, 1780-1810’.
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17:00 Close
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Keynote Speaker: Dr Paul Seaward
For further information and to register your attendance to the conference, please email Brendan Tam and Chloe Challender with your intention to attend and any dietary requirements you may have by Friday 28 February