Open Spaces. Open Minds.

Centre for Research in History and Theory (CHAT)

Conferences and events

From Space to Place: the Spatial Dimension in History of Western Europe, April 2010

A two-day international and interdisciplinary conference, organised by the Centre for Research in History and Theory and the German Historical Institute, will take place on 16 and 17 April 2010 in the German Historical Institute, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2NJ.

This conference will explore the so-called 'spatial turn in history' discussed among historians for the last decade or so and inspired by earlier anthropological ideas (e.g. proxemics) and the interdisciplinary approach by sociologists, especially geographers. It challenges the idea of place or space in history as an unreflected essentialist category linked to tradition and immutability. Instead, space as place is shown to be socially and culturally constructed, mediated and contested. Organised into three separate but interlinking topics (social space, workplace and intimate space) papers will investigate how specific spaces in the past not only evoked but conveyed political, social, cultural and symbolic meaning and conversely how particular spaces/places influenced this meaning.

The conference is interdisciplinary; historians and geographers with an interest in politics, society, culture and gender as well as anthropologists, archaeologists, and literary scholars will explore the meaning of space in the past by situating it in its precise historical context. There will be broader reflections on historiography and theory as well as case studies from a wide chronological span (from the medieval, early modern to the modern period) but geographically restricted to Western Europe.

A programme and booking form are available. 

For further information contact Dr Susan Deacy (s.deacy@roehampton.ac.uk).

Third CHAT workshop

Public Histories, Past & Present
28 February 2009

We have invited a group of very interesting speakers to discuss the question of how historians attempt – now and in the past - to fulfil a public role and hope to raise your interest in this event. For more information please see the programme or email Sandra Rugea directly at rugeas@roehampton.ac.uk.

Please download and display a poster.

Second annual CHAT conference

The Pictorial Turn in History
4–5 April 2008

Is there a `pictorial turn’ in history? Or do historians continue to use visual sources as mere illustrations? What can scholars of art history, cultural studies, archaeology and anthropology teach us? How best to theorise the relationship between image and context, form and meaning?

These were some of the questions debated on 4 and 5 April 2008 at this cutting-edge conference, organised by William Gallois, Declan O’Reilly, Sara Pennell, Krisztina Robert, John Tosh and Cornelie Usborne. A large audience came from nine European countries, Israel, South Africa and the US and left inspired and wanting more. Internationally renowned and younger scholars spoke on topics including:

  • 'Visual History: the Ten Commandments' (Peter Burke, Cambridge)
  • 'The Text of Images' (Dawn Ades, Essex)
  • 'Patient Photography and Propaganda' (Philipp Osten, Heidelberg)
  • 'Just What is it that Makes the Pictorial so Different, so Appealing?' (Lynda Nead, Birkbeck). 

Full conference programme (Word document).
See a review of the conference on the influential H-Soz-u-Kult website.

First annual CHAT conference

Time and History
24 March 2007

This symposium offered historians a rare opportunity to discuss the concept of time and the manner in which it is conceived in History and other disciplines. The symposium addressed the question of time and history from a series of disciplinary perspectives, looking at non-western temporalities, such as Buddhism and the Dreamtime, as well as those from the west. Speakers at the symposium included:

Full conference programme (Word document).

 
 
 
 
 
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