News
September 2015
New Scientist and Woman’s Hour
Tiffany Watt Smith’s Book of Human Emotions (Profile Books, 2015), published earlier this month, continues to generate huge interest.
Tiffany Watt Smith in the Guardian
A feature by Dr Tiffany Watt-Smith of the QMUL Centre for the History of the Emotions is published in the ‘Review’ section of today’s Guardian
New book by Thomas Dixon published today
Today sees the publication of Thomas Dixon’s new book Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears
August 2015
Major new grant to explore emotional health
The Centre for the History of the Emotions has been awarded a grant of £1.6m by the Wellcome Trust for a five-year inter-disciplinary research project…
July 2015
Tiffany Watt Smith on BBC Radio 3
Dr Tiffany Watt-Smith interviewed alongside Siobhan Davies on BBC Radio 3.
April 2015
Tiffany Watt-Smith interviewed for Psychologies Magazine article
Tiffany Watt-Smith, British Academy postdoctoral fellow at the Centre, has been interviewed for an article on powerful emotions and how history can help us understand them, for the June edition of Psychologies Magazine.
Jules Evans presents Radio 4 documentaries on Aristotle and Jung
Jules Evans, the Centre’s policy director, recently presented two mini-documentaries as part of Radio 4’s History of Ideas series. The first was on the revival of Aristotle’s idea of flourishing in modern politics, and featured interviews with Sir Gus O’Donnell and James O’Shaughnessy. It can be heard here.
March 2015
Reading Emotions: New community book group
Sally Holloway and Jane Mackleworth are excited to announce their new community reading group: ‘READING EMOTIONS: LOVE IN FICTION 1750-1950’
The group is specifically aimed at members of the public so please invite your neighbours, friends and family members to take part. Men and women of all ages are welcome to join.
We will meet one Friday per month 6-7.30pm from April-September 2015.
December 2014
Chris Millard supports ‘parity of esteem’ in Parliamentary role
Chris Millard, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre and one of the pioneers of the ‘Lost Emotions’ project, recently spent three months on secondment at the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology, where he researched and wrote about the issues of ‘parity of esteem’ between physical and mental health. His work resulted in him co-authoring an editorial for the British Medical Journal, as well as writing a post for the history of emotions blog reflecting on the experience.
New book: ‘The Transformation of the Psyche in British Primary Care 1880 – 1970’, by Rhodri Hayward
The Centre is proud to announce the publication of a new book by Rhodri Hayward.
November 2014
Stoic Week 2014 conference at the Centre
Over 300 people attended ‘Stoicism Today’, a conference funded and organized by the Centre, which is part of Stoic Week 2014.
Clare Whistler and ‘vessels of tears’
Clare Whistler’s artist-in-residency, which was a collaboration linked to Thomas Dixon’s work on the history of weeping, investigated the emotional history of water – ‘Weather, Tears, and Waterways’. The residency is documented in a series of blog posts explaining the thinking and outcomes leading up to the ‘Vessels of Tears’ event in May 2014, including a post by PhD candidate Hetta Howes writing about the emotional meanings of water for women in the middle ages. We also worked with audio producer Natalie Steed to make three podcasts recording various aspects of the project, including an original composition by Kerry Andrew.
Seasonal Affective Disorder at 30: podcasts and interviews
As the nights drew in, during November, we continued our more melancholy train of thought with a podcast produced by Natalie Steed to mark the 30th anniversary of ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’. This podcast was a collaboration with our QMUL colleagues in the History of Modern Biomedicine Research group, headed by Professor Tilli Tansey, and arose from a joint witness seminar.
Earlier in the year Jules Evans had interviewed Norman E. Rosenthal, who wrote the first paper naming ‘SAD’ in 1984, for this blog. The transcript of the SAD Witness Seminar is now published and available to read in full.
October 2014
History of Emotions Lecture: Professor Michael Roper
Registration is now open for the 2014 History of Emotions Lecture by Professor Michael Roper, ‘Children, Veterans and Domesticity in Britain after the Great War’, on November 26 2014 at 6.30pm in the Arts Two Lecture Theatre, Mile End Campus.
September 2014
Lloyd Newson explores movement and verbatim theatre
Lloyd Newson, a Leverhulme artist-in-residence in 2014, led two extremely well-attended and successful events at QMUL, in collaboration with Dr Rhodri Hayward and others: one on the relationship between movement, music and text, and the other on verbatim theatre.
New book: ‘The Smile Revolution in 18th century Paris’, by Colin Jones
The Centre is proud to announce a new book by Professor Colin Jones: ‘The Smile Revolution in 18th century Paris’.
June 2014
In Memoriam: Philippa Maddern
For all of us working on the history of emotions, around the world, the achievements of 2014 were tinged with sadness after the death, in June, of Professor Philippa Maddern, the founding director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. Many friends and colleagues were moved to record their thoughts and recollections of Philippa in an online book of condolences.
One of the numerous ways in which Philippa’s contributions to the field will continue to be felt is through the work of a new journal – Ceræ: An Australasian Journal Of Medieval And Early Modern Studies – which was launched in 2014 with an inaugural volume on ‘Emotions in History’. The editorial committee of Ceræ published their own collective tribute to Philippa, recalling the time and energy she devoted to supporting and mentoring them in their new initiative.
May 2014
Tiffany Watt-Smith picked as BBC New Generation Thinker
The Centre’s Tiffany Watt-Smith has been picked as one of this year’s BBC New Generation Thinkers.
April 2014
Thomas Dixon presents Radio 4 series, ‘500 Years of Friendship’
Dr Thomas Dixon, director of the Centre, presents a new 15-part Radio 4 series, ‘500 Years of Friendship’. You can listen to the series here and read a series of blog-posts related to the series here.
January 2014
New book: ‘The Last Asylum’, by Barbara Taylor
The Centre is proud to announce the publication of a new book by Barbara Taylor: ‘The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Time.’
The Last Asylum is Barbara Taylor’s journey through mental illness and the psychiatric health care system.
The book begins with Barbara Taylor’s visit to the innocuously named Princess Park Manor in Friern Barnet, North London — a picture of luxury and repose. But this is the former site of one of England’s most infamous lunatic asylums, the Middlesex County Pauper Lunatic Aslyum at Colney Hatch. At its peak this asylum housed nearly 3,000 patients — among them, in the 1980s, Barbara Taylor herself.
The Last Asylum is Taylor’s powerful account of her battle with mental illness, set inside the wider story of the end of the UK asylum system.
Barbara Taylor’s previous books include an award-winning study of nineteenth-century socialist feminism, Eve and the New Jerusalem; an intellectual biography of the pioneer feminist Mary Wollstonecraft; and On Kindness, a defence of fellow feeling co-written with the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. She is a longstanding editor of the leading history journal, History Workshop Journal, and a director of the Raphael Samuel History Centre. She teaches history and English at Queen Mary University of London.
October 2013
Annual Lecture 2013
The second annual Queen Mary History of Emotions Lecture will be delivered on 9 October 2013 by Professor Steve Connor of the University of Cambridge, entitled “Collective Emotions: Reasons to Disbelieve”.
July 2013
New book: ‘Emotions and Health 1200 – 1700’, edited by Elena Carrera
The Centre is proud to announce a new publication edited by Dr Elena Carrera: ‘Emotions and Health 1200 – 1700‘.
May 2013
Blog 2nd Birthday
The History of Emotions Blog celebrates its second birthday with a round-up of popular posts from the last twelve months.
New Generation Thinker
Congratulations to our Policy Director Jules Evans, who has been named one of the AHRC and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers for 2013.
Practical Philosophy at Queen Mary
Jules Evans is currently running a series of practical philosophy classes, introducing students, staff, and members of the public to ideas and techniques from ancient philosophy as practical tools for living with our modern emotions.
January 2013
Margaret Are You Grieving? A Cultural History of Weeping
The Centre”s Director, Dr Thomas Dixon, will be exploring the cultural history of weeping as both an inspiration and a response to works of art in a ‘Sunday Feature’ on BBC Radio 3 at 7.45pm on Sunday 27 January 2013. Contributors include Miri Rubin, Fiona Shaw, Ian Bostridge, Giles Fraser, Virginia Eatough, and others.
November 2012
Emotional History of Britain on BBC2
Ian Hislop’s new television series about the history of the British stiff upper lip starts this week on BBC2. The series was produced by Wingspan Productions, and the Centre’s director Dr Thomas Dixon acted as academic consultant. Read more about the programme on the BBC website.
Philosophical Communities and Emotional Wellbeing
The Centre”s Policy Director, Jules Evans, has recently completed a major report on “Philosophical Communities”, past and present, as part of an AHRC-funded project in the “Connected Communities” scheme. Jules has also launched an international online Philosophy Hub as another major output of the project.
October 2012
Inaugural Annual History of Emotions Lecture
The Centre”s inaugural annual lecture will be delivered by Professor Ute Frevert on Monday 22 October 2012.
May 2012
Postdoctoral Opportunities at the Centre for the History of the Emotions
As part of the new strategic partnership between Queen Mary and the University of Warwick, the Centres for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary and the History of Medicine at Warwick are collaborating on a history of mental health care in post-war Britain. The first stage of this research has been a witness seminar involving leading policy makers, practitioners, and historians. The Centres are now seeking to appoint two postdoctoral fellows to examine in depth one aspect of this history: the relationship between ethnicity and mental health in Britain since 1945. We look to appoint Fellows who are equipped to undertake advanced level research in the field of post-war British mental health and ethnicity and who have an aptitude for collaborative and interdisciplinary research. The deadline for applications for these two posts is 11 May 2012. Read more….
January 2012
PhD Studentship in Medicine, Emotion and Disease in History
Applications are invited for a Wellcome Trust funded PhD Studentship in Medicine, Emotion and Disease in History. The deadline for applications is 31 January 2012. For more information see: 2012 PhD Studentship.
Society for the Social History of Medicine Summer Conference – Call for Papers
Queen Mary, University of London, 10-12 September 2012
Proposals are invited on the theme “Emotions, Health and Wellbeing”
See: Call For Papers SSHM 2012 [PDF]
May 2011
Congratulations to Tiffany Watt-Smith!
We are delighted to announce that Tiffany Watt-Smith, a former PhD student of the Centre and our current Research and Events Officer has been awarded a prestigious British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship to be held from 2011-14 at the Centre and in the School of English and Drama to work on “The “Echo Principle”: Bodily Imitation in Science and Culture, 1850-1940″.
April 2011
Conference Registration now open
We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for our forthcoming international interdisciplinary conference ‘Mastering the Emotions: Control, Contagion and Chaos, 1800 to the Present Day‘. For more details see: Mastering the Emotions Programme [PDF]
March 2011
Lunchtime Seminars
There will be two lunchtime research seminars in March 2011. See our Events page for full details.
January 2011
PhD Studentships Available
We are pleased to announce two fully funded PhD studentships to start in September 2011: one on “Emotions and the Home in Modern Britain” and the second on “Medicine, Emotion and Disease in History”. Full details on our Funding page.