The Raphael Samuel History Centre was founded in 1995 to promote research into the history of East London. Since then, its remit has broadened to encompass comparative metropolitan histories, memory studies and psychoanalytic approaches to history. The Centre is interdisciplinary in approach, combining the interests of social and cultural historians with those of researchers in adjacent disciplines, especially cultural studies, human geography and psychoanalysis.

 

 

The Centre’s objectives are:

• To generate a multi-pronged programme of high quality research

• To disseminate the results of this research through publications, lectures, seminars, conferences and symposia

• To generate bids for externally-funded research projects

• To stimulate historical discussion and debate through public media

• To develop a cohort of postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers

• To establish a research network with strong cross-institutional links

• To develop links with the Bishopsgate Foundation to provide access to archival sources and long-term accommodation for the Centre

• To encourage, in conjunction with community-based historians in East London, a variety of outreach educational activities within local communities.

 

From September 2008, the Centre is being relaunched as a three-way partnership between the University of East London (UEL), Birkbeck, University of London and the Bishopsgate Institute.

The partnership will enable an expansion of the Centre's existing work, as well as some new departures. There are plans for new research projects into the Thames gateway and domesticity in the capital, a new urban studies seminar, a London local history database, and 'Young Historians' events for schools. The aim is to for the centre to become a national hub for historians working at all levels.

 

 

Personnel (click here for biographies)

 

The Centre Team

 

Dr Matt Cook (Birkbeck College) (co-director)

Prof Barbara Taylor (University of East London) (co-director)

 

Prof Don Filtzer

Dr Kate Hodgkin

Michelle Johansen

Dr John Marriott

Keith McClelland

Katy Pettit (administrator; PhD student)

Dr Susannah Radstone

Laura Schwartz (PhD student)

 

 

Advisory Board

 

Professor Sally Alexander (Goldsmiths)

Dermot Allen (King Alfred’s School)

Dr Geoff Bell (London Borough of Newham)

Professor Chris Breward (Victoria and Albert Museum)

Professor Mary Chamberlain (Oxford Brookes)

Christine Counsell (Homerton, Cambridge)

Dr Anna Davin (History Workshop Journal)

Dr David Feldman (Birkbeck)

Professor David Gilbert (Royal Holloway)

Dr David Green (Kings, London)

Professor Gareth Stedman Jones (Kings, Cambridge)

Professor Annette Kuhn (QMUL)

Charlie Markwick

Dr James Moore (Centre for Metropolitan History)

Professor Mica Nava (UEL)

Greg Neale (BBC History)

Tom O’Leary (National Archives)

Professor Miles Ogborn (Queen Mary)

Bill Schwarz (Queen Mary)

Dr John Seed (Roehampton)

Professor Judith Walkowitz (Johns Hopkins)

Professor Chris Waters (Williams College)

Jerry White (Birkbeck)

Dr Andrew Whitehead (BBC)