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Dr Anna Hajkova shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:42:12 GMT

We are delighted to share that People without History are Dust, the new book by Dr Anna Hájková, Reader in Modern European Continental History, has been shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award. The book is the first to examine queer Holocaust history, exploring same-sex desire and gender variance during the Shoah.

The National Jewish Book Awards are North America’s longest-running programme recognising outstanding work on Jewish history, culture, and ideas.

Find a full list of shortlisted titles and more about the awards on the Jewish Book Council website.

New Book Release: People Without History Are Dust: Queer Desire and the Holocaust

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 14:05:00 GMT

Author: Dr Anna Hájková, Reader of Modern European Continental History, University of Warwick

Book Overview:

People Without History Are Dust: Queer Desire and the Holocaust

Where are the stories of great queer love in the Shoah? There are almost none. Anna Hájková explains why the history of same-sex desire in the Shoah, that is, queerness among Jews persecuted by the Nazis for their race, has been excluded and marginalized, and how its return to our understanding of the Holocaust can offer an inclusive and feminist history of this genocide. Based on extensive archival research, her book offers a concise insight into the queer history of the Holocaust for beginners and advanced alike.

From Duties to Rights in History

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 19:55:09 GMT

The EHRC will be hosting a workshop at our Venice Centre organised by Charles Walton.

When: 3 - 4 April 2025

Where: Warwick in Venice Centre, San Marco 2893, 30124 Venice, Italy

More information here

The purpose of this workshop is to begin conceptualising the history of ‘duties’ and their relationship to ‘rights’. Historians have long treated duties either parenthetically or as afterthoughts in their histories of rights. Although legal scholars are well-aware of the problems of ‘duties’ and ‘duty-bearing’ in law, historians have tended to neglect them. But what would a history of ‘rights’ look like by foregrounding the problem of ‘duties’? How might this history be approached? And is a ‘long’ or ‘deep’ history of duties (the two are not the same) possible and useful?

Second Ukrainian Summer School, 9-23 June 2024

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 11:47:13 GMT

This summer, the University of Warwick welcomed 20 students from the Ukrainian Catholic University for a two-week summer school, featuring a mix of classes, workshops, and field trips.

The programme is led by Professor Christoph Mick, Department of History, Warwick. Dr Nataliya Pratsovyta, a lecturer from Ukrainian Catholic University and a visiting fellow at Warwick remarked, "This experience is invaluable for my students, offering them new academic perspectives and international exposure. We would like to express our gratitude to The University of Warwick for the unwavering support of Ukrainian students and scholars. We are very grateful to the Institute of Advanced Study through which the Ukrainian Summer School was funded, especially to Professor Mohan Balasubramanian, to the Faculty of Arts, Professor Christoph Mick and all the wonderful professors, staff and student volunteers who made this experience possible for Ukrainian students.”

More information

Technologies of Mind and Body in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 14:00:00 GMT

edited by Claire Shaw, Co-Director of the European History Research Centre, and Anna Toropova, EHRC Associate.

The project to create a 'New Man' and 'New Woman' initiated in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc constituted one of the most extensive efforts to remake human psychophysiology in modern history. Playing on the different meanings of the word 'technology' - as practice, knowledge and artefact - this edited volume brings together scholarship from across a range of fields to shed light on the ways in which socialist regimes in the Soviet bloc and Eastern Europe sought to transform and revolutionise human capacities. From external, state-driven techniques of social control and bodily management, through institutional practices of transformation, to strategies of self-fashioning, Technologies of Mind and Body in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc probes how individuals and collectives engaged with - or resisted - the transformative imperatives of the Soviet experiment.

Warwick Words History Festival

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 08:24:15 GMT

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 Urbanist Legacy Series

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 13:08:26 GMT

Dr Pierre Perseigle is interviewed in part three of the Urbanist's summer series covering the legacies of the biggest names in architecture, city planning and design.

Listen to the interview here

Fighting for the future

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 09:32:14 GMT

Dr Pierre Purseigle was interviewed by France 24 about the post-war reconstruction of Ukrainian cities destroyed by war.

Read the article here