News and Events in British Studies
Keep up to date with news, upcoming events, ongoing seminars and series, and recent faculty publications.
In the News
Marcus awarded 4 prizes for latest book
Sharon Marcus, the Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature, is the recipient of four distinguished prizes for her latest book, Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England (Princeton UP 2007). She has won the Perkins Prize for best study of narrative, the Albion Prize for best book on Britain after 1800, the Alan Bray Memorial Award for best book in queer studies, and a Lambda Literary Award for best book in Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual / Transgender Studies studies.
Gillooly named National Humanities Center Fellow
Eileen Gillooly has been named a 2009-10 Fellow at the National Humanities Center, where she will work on her project: "Anxious Affection: Parental Feeling in Nineteenth-Century Middle-Class Britain."
New Research Databases Available
The Columbia University Libraries are pleased to announce that they have acquired ongoing access to the following databases:
17th-18th Century British Library Newspapers
Searchable full-text access to the British Library's
collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books
gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817)--the
largest and most comprehensive collection of early
English news media. More than twelve hundred titles and
almost one million pages are included.
19th Century British Library Newspapers
Searchable full text of full runs of more than 45
newspapers specially selected by the British Library to
best represent nineteenth-century Britain. This new
collection includes national and regional newspapers, as
well as newspapers from: established country or university
towns; the new industrial powerhouses of the manufacturing
Midlands; and Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Special
attention was paid to include newspapers that helped lead
particular political or social movements such as Reform,
Chartism, and Home Rule. Penny papers aimed at the working
and clerical classes are also included.
These and other databases will continue to be available from our resources page.
Upcoming Events
BRITISH HISTORY UNIVERSITY SEMINAR
Jon Lawrence, "'Class', 'Affluence' and the Politics of Everyday Life in Britain, c. 1930-1964"
November 9, 2009
6-8 pm
411 Fayerweather Hall
Second meeting of the university seminar in British history: Dr. Jon Lawrence, Senior Lecturer in Modern British Political History at Cambridge University, will speak on "'Class', 'Affluence' and the Politics of Everyday Life in Britain, c. 1930-1964." Lawrence has written widely on 19th- and 20th-century British politics; his most recent book, Electing our Masters: The Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair, was publishehd by Oxford UP last May. For a radio 4 interview about that book, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/the_westminster_hour/8066305.stm
Past Events
Guy Ortolano, "The Typicalities of the English"
October 5, 2009
First meeting of the university seminar in British history: Professor Guy Ortolano, from the NYU history department, on "The Typicalities of the English: W.W. Rostow, Modernization Theory, and the Model of English History." Ortolano specializes in twentieth-century intellectual history; his first book, The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature, and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain, was published by Cambridge UP in February 2009.
Aviva Briefel, "Amputations: The Colonial Hand at the Fin de Siècle"
February 27, 2009
British Studies at Columbia and the Columbia English Department Nineteenth-Century Colloquium present a paper by Aviva Briefel: "Amputations: The Colonial Hand at the Fin de Siècle." Prof. Briefel is Professor of English at Bowdoin College.
Lawrence Goldman, "Rewriting History"
October 29, 2008
Lecture and discussion by Lawrence Goldman:
"Rewriting History: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography."
Dr. Goldman is Fellow in Modern History at St. Peter's College,
Oxford, and has been editor of the DNB since 2004.
Catherine Hall on the Macaulays
March 10, 2008
Catherine Hall, Professor of Social and Cultural History,
University College, London, on: "An Empire of God
or of Man": The Macaulays, Father and Son
British History Lunch
March 10, 2008
Open discussion about recent developments
in British history with Prof. Catherine Hall over sandwiches on March
10, 12 noon to 1:30, in the IRWaG conference room, 754 Schermerhorn
Extention.
Boyd Hilton on British History
March 25, 2008
Professor Boyd Hilton, University of Cambridge,
on his work over the past decades in the field of British
history. Scholars from several fields also participating.
British Studies at Columbia Inaugural
Event:
Anti-Slavery as a Narrative for Our Time?
November 29, 2007
Simon Schama, University
Professor, and Christopher Leslie Brown, Professor of
History, reflect on the intellectual and moral challenges
and rewards involved in writing about slavery and
abolition in today's world.
In 2006, Simon Schama published Rough Crossings:
Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution,
which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for
Non-Fiction in 2007; the books has inspired a film, broadcast on television in the UK, and a play by Caryl Phillips.
In 2006, Christopher Brown published
Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism
which won the 2007 Frederick Douglass Prize of the Gilder
Lehrmann Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and
Abolition, as well as both the Morris Forkosch Prize in
British History and the James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic
History of the American Historical Association.
Methods and Practices in British Studies across the Disciplines
November 12, 2007
Why do we do what we do? A roundtable discussion of methods and practices
in British Studies across the disciplines with Professors
Nicholas Dames and Jenny Davidson from the English
Department and Professors Emma Winter and Evan Haefeli
from the History Department. Followed by a reception to meet graduate students and
faculty interested in this field.
Seminars and Series
British History University Seminar
The British History Seminar brings together faculty and graduate students with an interest in British history at Columbia and other institutions in the greater New York area. The seminar meets monthly to discuss work in progress by a member of the group, a paper by a visiting speaker, or a recent book of interest to the group as a whole. In 2009-10, the seminar co-chairs are Susan Pedersen and Carl Wennerlind. If you would like to receive announcements of forthcoming meetings, please contact the seminar's rapporteur, Toby Harper, at tjh2121@columbia.edu.
Upcoming Meeting: Recent Meeting:
October 5, 2009: First meeting of the university seminar in British history: Professor Guy Ortolano, from the NYU history department, on "The Typicalities of the English: W.W. Rostow, Modernization Theory, and the Model of English History." Ortolano specializes in twentieth-century intellectual history; his first book, The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature, and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain, was published by Cambridge UP in February 2009. Feb. 2, 2009: Mary Poovey,
Professor of English at NYU, and Deborah Valenze, Professor
of History at Columbia. Discussion of various themes on money
explored in their recent respective books,
Apr. 3, 2008: Corrie Decker,
Assistant Professor, Lehman College, and Aaron Windel,
Doctoral Candidate, University of Minnesota, will discuss
their current work on "Education and Empire in East Africa."
Papers will be pre-circulated: please contact Susan Pedersen if you
would like a copy of the paper.
Feb. 7, 2008: A discussion of Queer
London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis
1918-57, by Matt Houlbrook. Dec. 1, 2007: Kathleen Wilson, History
Department, SUNY Stony Brook, will present a paper,
"Rethinking the Colonial State". Discussant: Christopher
L. Brown, History Department, Columbia University.
Nov. 1, 2007: Ellen Ross, History Department, Ramapo College, will
present a paper, "The Disgruntled Missionaries: Mary Neal
and Emmeline Pethick at the West London Mission, 1888-1895."
Discussant: Sharon Marcus, English Department, Columbia
University.
November 9, 2009:
6-8 pm
Dr. Jon Lawrence, Senior Lecturer in Modern British Political History at Cambridge University, will speak on "'Class', 'Affluence' and the Politics of Everyday Life in Britain, c. 1930-1964." Lawrence has written widely on 19th- and 20th-century British politics; his most recent book, Electing our Masters: The Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair, was publishehd by Oxford UP last May. For a radio 4 interview about that book, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/the_westminster_hour/8066305.stm
Past Meetings:
Recent Faculty Publications
Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism
University of North Carolina Press, 2006
Click here to learn more.
The Physiology of the Novel: Reading, Neural Science, and the Form of Victorian Fiction
Oxford University Press, 2007
Click here to learn more.
Breeding: A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century
Columbia University Press, 2008
Click here to learn more.
Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England
Princeton University Press, 2007
Click here to learn more.
The Social Life of Money in the English Past
Cambridge University Press, 2006
Click here to learn more.