History press releases

Dr Joan Fitzpatrick

Raising children in the 16th century: Parenting tips you may (not) want to try

“Children should be seen and not heard”, “we didn’t raise children like that in my day”, “children today don’t have any manners or respect”.
Sara Read

How different were things in ye olde Christmas?

Nowadays, there are many unforgettable traditions surrounding the holidays – decorating the Christmas tree, exchanging presents, watching Christmas movies with loved ones, and more. But just how much has changed from Ye olde Christmas, and how did we get here?
Landing of Italian Troops in Tripoli, Libya in October 1911. (Image supplied by the Illustrations Bureau (Whitefriars, London)).

Photos of wartime Europe still shape views of conflict – here’s how we’re trying to right the record

A war in Europe instantly creates parallels with the world wars for people in the UK and other European countries. This connection represents what most people know and are taught about conflict on the continent. The media coverage and response to the war in Ukraine have also invoked familiar images of the second world war, in particular those of bombed buildings, armed soldiers and civilians, and children clinging to their parents.

Irish Ambassador to the US welcomed to Texas exhibition about James Joyce’s Ulysses

The Irish Ambassador to the United States has commended an exhibition which highlights the vital role the women in James Joyce’s life had in his masterwork, Ulysses.
Illustration of women's faces in different colours

New project to record, curate and archive 50 years’ worth of feminist stories and memorabilia to secure the legacy of an extraordinary movement

Loughborough University and the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire, are working together to record, curate, and archive 50 years’ worth of oral histories and digitised records of feminist artists in Ireland and the UK.

From the great plague to the 1918 flu, history shows that disease outbreaks make inequality worse

In May 2021, virologist Angela Rasmussen reflected how “if the last 18 months have demonstrated anything, it’s that we would do well to remember the lessons of past pandemics as we try to prevent future ones”. This includes ensuring we come out stronger.
Illustration of a computer with a lock sign on the screen

Loughborough expert to lead international project that will investigate how AI can make digital cultural records more accessible to users

It’s no secret that emails have largely replaced letters, and PDFs and Word documents have taken the place of paper reports – and though it makes communication faster and more effective, the shift to digital concerns archivists.
Silhouettes of people against an LGBT flag

LGBT+ history month: forgotten figures who challenged gender expression and identity centuries ago

Non-binary and trans people have always been here, not least in every recorded society from the ancient world onwards.
Live streaming a theatre show

Electrophone: the Victorian-era gadget that was a precursor to live-streaming

As the battle against COVID-19 continues to rage, the plight of Britain’s theatres, which have suffered catastrophic financial strain thanks to lockdown, continues to rumble through the arts world.

An old illustration of a woman writing.

Why it’s not empowering to abandon the male pseudonyms used by female writers

In a letter to James AH Murray in 1879, the writer ME Lewes wrote “I wish always to be quoted as George Eliot”. She perhaps would not have been pleased by a new campaign from The Women’s Prize for Fiction and its sponsor, Baileys called Reclaim Her Name campaign.
Image of a bus stop shelter design for the 1960s Leicester art trail

Student uses illustration as a powerful tool to celebrate the stories of everyday people from 1960’s Leicester

Lauren Jefferis is a final-year Graphic Communications and Illustration student within the School of Design and Creative Arts at Loughborough University.
Lakes shaped like the globe.

New study finds lakes have tripled the amount of carbon they bury in response to human disruption of global nutrient cycles

A new study led by Loughborough University has revealed that lake burial of organic carbon has increased three-fold over the last 100 years in response to human disruption of global nutrient cycles.

Illustration of a planet with coronavirus around it

Coronavirus reveals how important the nation is to our daily lives

The coronavirus pandemic cuts across borders, cultures and political systems. As the virus spread across the planet, global institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) called for worldwide solidarity, arguing that “we’re all in this together and we can only stop it together”.
Cover image for the workout video.

Exercise in the 16th century: Historical workouts for body and soul

New Year, new me… we’ve all heard the saying and usually scrawled at the top of our resolution list is the promise to exercise more.

No-tivity: The 17th century satirical backlash when Parliament banned Christmas

Three hundred and seventy years ago, between 1645 and 1660, Parliamentarians completely outlawed Christmas.
Plate with no food on it

Migrants on hunger strike follow long tradition of people using their bodies to protest against cruelty

Those Western states pursuing more aggressive border control policies in recent years have increased the use of immigration detention centres. These are often squalid, degrading places where detainees are deprived of their most basic human rights and due process.
A drawing of a woman sat on a moon.

How women and the moon intertwine in literature

In the late 17th century, the female English playwright Aphra Behn wrote a smash hit play about a man obsessed with the moon, who was constantly travelling there in his imagination. Exactly 282 years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin actually made that dream a reality.
Cinema seats.

Shaft: America’s race politics from Black Power to Black Lives Matter

John Shaft, the African American private eye introduced by Ernest Tidyman in a novel of 1970, has proved surprisingly resilient as a character on the big screen.

Books on a light blue background.

From talking cats to time travel… here’s what I recommend you read this World Book Day

It’s World Book Day and what better way to celebrate than getting your specs on, a bookmark out and stuck into a novel you’ve never read before.
The 134m-long S. A. Agulhas II. Image courtesy of Weddell Sea Expedition.

Academic to embark on scientific expedition that will study giant ice shelf and attempt to locate Shackleton’s lost ship

A Loughborough University academic is embarking on a 45-day scientific expedition that hopes to increase understanding of one of the largest ice shelves in Antarctica and locate Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated ship.

Pictured is a landscape in Colombia.

Loughborough and Colombian researchers to work together for sustainable peace

A Loughborough University academic is to work with researchers in Colombia on a project that aims to address issues facing the country’s transition from conflict to peace.

Pictured is the Loughborough University Arts Festival logo.

New 10-day Arts Festival to bring top industry names to Loughborough

Renowned creatives, the history of food, poetry and an artist that once destroyed all their belongings…
Historical image of items being produced at the handicraft unit

University history unveiled with Handicraft Unit furniture auction and exhibition

Loughborough University will unveil a rich collection of period furniture for auction from the Handicraft Unit, a programme established in the 1930s which trained students in furniture making under leading craftsmen.