Research
The Department of History has a number of active research centres and clusters.
The Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2005, making it one of the oldest centres of its kind in the country.
The Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Reading was established in 1965 to facilitate and encourage interdisciplinary study at postgraduate level and to serve as a social and intellectual meeting point for all medievalists. It has three aims: To facilitate and encourage multidisciplinary study at postgraduate level, to provide a forum for all medievalists within The University of Reading, and to act as a social and intellectual meeting-point for medievalists from the wider community.
Completing the Calendar of Patent Rolls, Elizabeth (Professor R. Hoyle)
The patent rolls (The National Archives: Public Record Office, C 66) are one of the most important and valuable sources for the administrative, political and social history of the British Isles. From the thirteenth century, down to the present day, these documents have recorded the issue of royal letters open or 'patent', whereby the sovereign has conferred a privilege or communicated his or her will. Their contents provide key information about government action, intention and patronage, and they embrace a wide and varying range of business.
Clergy of the Church of England Database (Professor S.J.C.Taylor)
The Clergy of the Church of England Database will run for five years, and began formally in October 1999. Its objective is to construct a relational database of clergymen of the Church of England between 1540 and 1835, and it is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board. The database will fill a major gap in our knowledge of one of the most important professions in early modern England and Wales, and will take advantage of new technology to provide an invaluable research tool for both national and local historians who often need to discover biographical information about individual clergymen.
The Parker Certificates: The state of the English clergy in 1559.
This project is a collaborative venture, led by Dr Helen Parish (University of Reading), with Dr Felicity Heal (Oxford), Professor Ralph Houlbrooke (Reading), and a Research Assistant, Dr Fiona Youngman, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The project involves the transcription and editing of the certificates returned to Archbishop Parker in 1561 detailing the state of the parochial clergy in England and Wales. The certificates give an exceptionally full picture of the problems of the clergy at this critical moment after the Elizabethan Settlement, but have never been published in their entirety, or used comprehensively by historians. The edited Certificates will be published by the Church of England Record Society.
The Early Modern Research Centre (EMRC) has a long-standing international reputation for research excellence. It provides a focus for research in the political, social and economic history of Britain in the early modern period. It brings together academic staff and their postgraduates from English, History, Politics and Classics; supports MAs in early modern English and in Early Modern History; provides the context for a number of externally-funded research projects; runs a series of conferences, colloquia and seminars; and hosts the Palgrave Macmillan series Early Modern Literature in History.
Research in the EMRC is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. The centre supports networks of scholars specialising in key areas across the spectrum of early modern studies - cultures of print and manuscript, cultures of performance, history of ideas, the clergy and the long reformation, and economic history. Reading has an excellent infrastructure for supporting research projects in the period.
Language, Text, and Power is a Faculty Research Theme of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The Research Theme functions as a platform for cutting-edge individual and group research, providing an inspirational and creative environment for researchers from all disciplines, united by their mutual interest in the uses and abuses of languages within and between societies. Under the umbrella of the Language, Text, and Power theme, we aim to bring together researchers from all areas at Reading who share research interests in the role and development of languages in human societies; to become an internationally recognised centre of excellence in multidisciplinary language research; to attract research funding for our new and exciting, visionary projects; and to make a visible impact on the public discourse of language use and abuse.
In 2004 the School took the lead in the creation of the Centre for the Advanced Study of French the purpose of which is to establish the University of Reading as a centre of excellence in the history of France. Meanwhile, the appointment of Professor Richard Bosworth in 2006 has given a further boost to the Centre for Modern Italian History, which brings together a remarkably strong team of scholars working in this area. The department's modern European historians play an active role in 'European Histories and Cultures,' one of the University's recently created research themes.
Members of the department are part of 'The Liberal Way of War' project, a major research programme funded by the Leverhulme Trust as part of their 'Liberty and Security' scheme. For details about members of the team and about the studentships associated with the programme see: Research at the School of Politics & International Relations
In 2007 the History department hosted Oswald Mosley - New Party Conference which marks the conclusion of an AHRC-funded research project on Oswald Mosley's New Party of 1931, and is supported by a special AHRC Supplementary Dissemination Award. There is also further documentation following the Round Table Discussion.
The issue of minority rights engages insistent and enduring questions around ideas of justice, equality, social inclusion and cultural participation that animate both intellectual and public culture in the twenty-first century. This Research Theme explores the interface where issues of rights meet those of representation and thereby offers a timely opportunity for Arts and Humanities Research within the Minority Identities: Rights and Representations Research Network to engage in multi-disciplinary projects within the that offer a productive exchange between intellectual enquiry and public policy agendas.
The History department contains a strong cluster of modern historians specialising in British and American political history, and has close links to the Research Centre for Evacuee and War Child Studies. It also has a particular strength in the area of English rural history and the department has a number of specialists in this area. Rural History has an outstanding research facility in the form of the University's Museum of English Rural Life (MERL). In short, the School of Humanities supports an exciting and varied range of research activities and resources, providing an excellent environment for postgraduate study.