Biology, Brain Theory and History: What, if anything, can historians learn from biology?

Chair: Professor Joanna Bourke (Birkbeck, University of London)

What can history learn from biology is the basic question set out in this session of Dispensations and Conversations. The three panellists all deal with this question according to their own research interests some seeing biology as useful or in need of further integration whilst others believing it intrusive and inaccurate as a historical methodology. The question here relates to the ‘turn to affect’ in the social sciences which has increasingly meant an incorporation of biological and neurological insights to be incorporated into analysis, including historical, of human behaviour.

11 November 2011

Cultures of Memory in Early Modern England: discussion by Institute of Historical Research

Andrew Hiscock uses Shakespeare’s Tempest as his starting point emphasising the symbolic practice of memory that it enacts. The conversation is between Prospero and Miranda and recalls both selective remembrance and the drawing out of alternative scenarios: PROSPERO The hour’s now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; Obey and be attentive. Canst thou remember A time before we came unto this cell? I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not Out three years old. MIRANDA Certainly, sir, I can. PROSPERO By what? by any other house or person? Of any thing the image tell me that Hath kept with thy remembrance. MIRANDA ‘Tis far off And rather like a dream than an assurance That my remembrance warrants. Had I not Four or five women once that tended me? PROSPERO Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? If thou remember’st aught ere thou camest here, How thou camest here thou mayst. Hiscock argues that the early modern reader was encouraged to consider the past in terms of memorial and as symbolism for the present. What should be remembered? This is the key question that early modern writers grappled with. John Foxe, for instance, sought out a revised knowledge of the past; one where the Roman Catholic religion was repositioned as a foreign enemy and heretical groups – such as the Lollards – recast as true followers. Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene emphasised the training of memory for the pursuit of memorial.

Kate Chedgzoy focused on the archive and how memory could be drawn out from documents where it is not obviously there. For Chedgzoy’s own studies – women history and the history of children – the archives rarely give the limelight to such evidence. However, if one looks closely and from alternative perspectives evidence can nonetheless be amassed. Children’s history is a case in point and one where Chedgzoy has identified a problem with current studies. Historians tend to look at children as the subject of their study rather than ask the question of what children thought or what they saw as their own memories. Of course, the main reason for this is that the archives do not easily give up such information. However, stray references to what parents of children write can help to give a partial picture as can adults memories of their childhood. One particularly striking example is a 1670s manuscript by Nathanial Friend who wrote a memorial to his boy who had recently died.

The Audacity of Veracity - the Rev. Tiyo Soga's role and part in the translation of the Bible into Xhosa

Jo Davis (University of South Africa)

29 May 2013

Floundering in the Slough of Despond - singleness, unfitness, and the British woman missionary in India, c.1920-1950

Andrea Pass (University of Oxford)

5 December 2012

Brian Stanley (University of Edinburgh)

10 October 2012

Protestant Missions, Progressivism and Global Modernity: The YMCA in China, 1895-1935

John Heavens (University of Cambridge)

30 January 2013

Nine and a half years: The impact of London Metropolitan Archives LGBT History and Archives Conference.

Jan Pimblett (London Metropolitan Archive)

For almost 10 years now the London Metropolitan Archive has hosted an annual conference on LGBT History and Archives. It originated through a desire to engage people with the archive in new ways; to unearth hidden histories and rediscover the lost past of specific communities within the metropolis. Jan Pimblett reflects on how successful this approach has proven to be and on how interest and considerations in LGBT history and culture has changed over the course of a decade. As with many under-represented communities archiving of LGBT history is largely made up of negative representations as revealed through criminal records, popular reporting and uninformed discourses. However, look far enough into the archive then other pictures begin to emerge such as materials produced through activism and via campaign literature. Pimblett also discusses attempts to ‘fill in the gaps’ through gaining co-operation and aid from people in some way involved in LGBT history. However, this is not an easy job. Much of LGBT history is invisible or highly personal. There is also a hurdle over ‘trust’ to overcome. Due to continued social tensions there is concern, whether fair or not, that an archive might turn against the ‘community’ and the material hidden again from view.

Private Minds, Public Collections: Exploring the Public Use of Mental Health Records

Julian Pooley (Surrey History Centre)

What happens when an archive receives a freedom of information request from the BBC concerning a sensitive subject such as institutional records dealing with mental health patients? Julian Pooley discusses this and other stories concerning the Surrey History Centre’s mental health records and documents. The archives contain a wealth of documentation from before institutions were closed down in preference to care in the community. Pooley looks at the reactions to mental health both then and now, and to stories of the patients themselves from the early eighteenth century right through to the present day. In conclusion, Pooley looks at ways to improve communication with the public and to promote an archival collection for better public understanding.

7 February 2012