ePortfolio of Brendan Tam
Biography:
I am a first year PGR at the Department of History. My research project, titled ‘Pledged by Habit, Connection or Personal Honour’? Friendship and Politics in the late Hanoverian Period: 1760-1837 is supervised by Professor Mark Knights and Professor Mark Philp.
I previously completed my BA, majoring in History and Political Science at the University of Melbourne (2014-2018), followed by a MScR in History at the University of Edinburgh (2018-2019). My research is focused on exploring the dynamics of political friendship in British politics during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Through focusing on both well-known examples of friendships in politics. alongside more quotidian examples I hope explore the wider practices of friendship within a political context in the era of my study.
Research Interests
- Late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century British Political History
- History of Sociability and Friendship
- History of Political Thought
Memberships:
- Royal Historical Society (Postgraduate Member)
- The Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre (EMECC), History Department, University of Warwick.
- British Society of Eighteenth Century Studies (BSEC)
- Social History Society
- Political Studies Association
- Society for the History of Emotions (SHE) (Ordinary Member of the SHE Council 2024-Present)
Publications & Research Activities:
Book Reviews:
- 'Book Review - A Historian for All Seasons: Essays for Geoffrey Bolton' Melbourne Historical Journal 46, 2018
Completed Dissertations:
- MScR, History, University of Edinburgh, 2018-2019 - Dissertation: 'The Friends of Mr. Pitt: Political Friendship during the Age of Revolutions.' Supervised by Professor Gordon Pentland and Dr Benjamin Weinstein
- BA (Hons), History, University of Melbourne, 2014-2017 - Dissertation: 'William Pitt the Younger and the Sedition and Treason Trials 1793-5,' Supervised by Professor Trevor Burnard.
Articles:
'Poll Mania', Farrago Magazine, 21 March 2016 (republished on the University of Melbourne's 'Election Watch' Blog)
Conference Papers:
- 'The Friends of Mr. Pitt' Without Pitt - The Reconstitution of a Political Network (Unsettling Certainties: Fourth Biennial Conference of the Society of the History of Emotions, University of Adelaide, November 2023)
- 'Speaking Without Personality': 'Honourable Friend' and the Parliamentary Rhetoric of Friendship in the Eighteenth-Century House of Commons (Eighteenth-Century Emotion with Workshop of Memory and Emotions, Cambridge University, November 2023)
- 'The Friends of Mr Pitt' and being a Friend of Pitt: William WIlberforce and Pitt's Political Network (Redefining 'the Age of Wilberforce': a Workshop, Cambridge University, September 2023)
- “Bringing Pitt forward again, in spite of himself” - the political instrumentality of sociability, (Sociability in Politics, Food and Travel in the Early Modern Era Conference, Warwick, June 2023)
Conference Organisation:
- Organising Committee Member, University of Warwick History Department Postgraduate Conference (May 2023).
Departmental Activities:
- Co-Convener, Postgraduate Work in Progress Session, 2023-4
- Postgraduate Representative, Departmental Research Committee, University of Warwick History Department, 2022-2023
Education:
2022-2026, PhD in History, University of Warwick
2018-2019, MScR in History, University of Edinburgh (with Distinction)
2014-2017, BA (Hons) in History, University of Melbourne (Upper Second Class Honours)
