Undergraduate Student Research
Undergraduate Students can get involved in the research culture of the department.
URSS
The Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme provides funding for students to undertake a piece of original research under the supervision of or in partnership with one of academic members of staff. It is a competitive, university-wide scheme and in 2021 the History Department was more successful than in any previous year.Students produced some brilliant public-facing and academic research projects:
Take a look at Irene García’s blog A Tale of Two Mediterraneans for Think Development and background information about this project
Irene also did a EURSS (a Eutopia URSS) and made this podcast: Irene Garcia Andres' podcast project, Spanish Republican Refugees in Vichy France and the International Brigades: La Revolte des Femmes in Argeles-sur-Mer, 1941.
Enslaved, Exploited and Emancipated: An Investigation of the Slave Registers of St Vincent and Hispaniola by Pravin Daryanani Hispanic Studies with History Student
The Written Word: Muslim Representation in Academia by Maham Mir, English and History Student
Patrick Vasy de la Cruz’ website is also worth a look, Trails of Sustainable Living and background information about this project.
Don't miss Xaymaca Awoyungbo's short film, University Challenge: Decolonising the Curriculum or Declan Dadzie's film about Gay Tourism in South Africa
Some of the students worked with academics in the History Department on research and public engagement projects:
Aysuda Akyan and Curtis Leung worked with Professor Mark Philp on The Diary of William Upcott
Frederick Venables wrote a blog to help promote Professor Benjamin T Smith’s new book as part of a public engagement project.
In addition to these projects, you’ll find some poster presentations and essays by history students on the URSS Showcase including:
How did the Bangladesh Liberation War Contribute Towards the Creation of a New Wave of Bengali Music? by Ahana Mitra
Trying And Punishing Theft in Early Modern England, by Daphne Wu
Sexuality and Gender in the Colonial Landscape: The Paradox of In(Visibility) in the Colonial Archive, by Fatou Sisay
The Rise of Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Baden-Württemberg and The 1848 German Revolution, by Lucy McCormick
Pickets and the Past: A Study of Nostalgia and Trade Unions, by Harry Weaver
Decolonising Travel: Sati from the Subaltern Perspective?, by Chhaya Rai
Decolonising Travel: Rethinking the Study of Travel Writing about Africa, by Kevin Molloy
Other ways to get involved:
Undergraduates can apply to be a Research Assistant in the department as part of the Student Fellowship Scheme
Undergraduates can present at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research. You can see more information about this years' delegates at BCUR and URSS Summer Research Project 2021 below:
BCUR
The British Conference of Undergraduate research takes place at a different University in the Easter Break each year the 2021 conference was at the University of Leeds. Students from the History Department at the University of Warwick prepared presentations to help them get feedback and ideas to set up a summer research project for the URSS Scheme or for their undergraduate dissertation. If you're thinking about undergraduate research you might be interested in reading Xaymaca's blog.
Meet some of the the URSS scholars 2021
Aysuda Aykan and Curtis Leung working with Professor Mark Philp on the diary of English librarian and antiquarian William Upcott. They are planning to turn it into a useful academic resource via transcription, editing and annotations.
Cheryl Nah working with Dr Anna Ross on the wider meaning and symbolism of the graffiti and mural art on the Berlin Wall.
Ann Premkumar working with Dr Song-Chuan Chen on the construction and the emergence of the ‘new woman’ in post-imperial China
Sanmitra Sarkar working with Dr Anna Ross on the procurement of Romani prisoners and their employment as enslaved labourers by the two great business empires of 20th century Germany, I.G. Farben and Friedrich Krupp AG.
Lauren Devine working with Claire Shaw to explore Russia’s historical role as a bastion of women’s liberation, and how this underscores the Putin regime’s sustained assault against women’s human rights.
Declan Dadzie working with Dr Guido van Meersbergen on the importance of queer travel writing and the implicit erasure of minority queer travellers in western scholarship.
Lucy McCormick working with Prof Mark Philp on the ways in which liberalism as an ideology became a key factor motivating the 1848 Revolution across Germany.
Jake Newberry working with Dr Aysu Dincer Hadjianastasis on Blackdown Mill, a monastery in Lillington, Leamington Spa, exploring its relationship to the broader social, economic, and political changes that the region experienced.
Fu Ge Yang working with Prof Roberta Bivins and Prof Anne Gerritsen on the interactions and tensions between the traditional Chinese and Western medical practices in China
Fatou Ceesay working with Prof Rebecca Earle Investigating the role of European colonialism in introducing the criminal sanction and alienation of LGBTQ+ identities in Benin, Kenya, and India
Will Barber-Taylor working with Dr Simon Peplow looking into how history shaped the 1997 General Election for the Labour Party
Tinius Dragland working with Dr Michael Bycroft to investigate how the scientific conception of the galaxy, developed by English astronomer Thomas Wright, had an impact on contemporary culture in the form of theology and popular science.
Sam Warner working with Dr Aidan Norrie on early modern English witchcraft accusations and punishments
Thomas Weldrick working with Dr. Lydia Plath to investigate Korean Americans’ historic and present-day occupation of the ‘Middleman Minority’ role in the USA.
Daphne Wu working with Dr Aidan Norrie on theft cases in the records of the Courts of Assize in early modern England
Rohini Jaswal working with Dr Simon Peplow looking at the historical legacy of colonialism in Britain and how this has manifested in coverage of ‘migrant men’ perpetrating sex crimes.
Fred Venables working with Prof Benjamin Smith on the public engagement around his upcoming monograph, “The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade”