Ruth Slatter

Many thank yous to @ed-brookes.bsky.social, who has really made this special section possible, really taking the lead while I was ill during pregnancy and on maternity leave over the past couple of months. Huge congratulations Ed, this is a testament to your commitment to participatory research!

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library While historical geographers and historians increasingly recognise the benefits of and need for participatory research, the rigid structures regimenting academic practice have acted as barriers to su...

9/ Finally Juliette Desportes reflects on interviews with academics, heritage professionals, and community historians in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This paper is based on our experience of running a workshop at the Hull History Centre in the Summer of 2023 and reflects on the value of participatory approaches and co-production to open up access ...

8/ There are then 2 shorter articles with specific reflections on short-term participatory projects. 1st @hannahworthen.bsky.social and Claire Weatherall on a participatory workshop titled ‘Watery Archives’: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This paper considers the potential for collaborations between geographers and theatre makers that focus on urban renewal histories. The article reflects critically on the methodological, ethical and ...

7/ In the last of the full-length articles in the section @aledsingleton.bsky.social , @ed-brookes.bsky.social and I explore the potential for participatory theatre to engage local communities in the long-term impact of mid-century urban re-design rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This paper presents our experiences of the participatory, co-creative collaboration with the National Youth Theatre, culminating in a site-specific performance at COP26. In exploring the performance'...

6/ Next up: Briony McDonagh, Kate Smith and Sukhmandeep Dhillon consider the impact of co-created performance and history as a way of engaging audiences and participants with climate challenges: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This paper considers the potential of participatory methods to address the methodological difficulties surrounding the historical geographies of dance, and moving bodies, within archival research. Ex...

5/ Lucy Thompson takes us somewhere totally different, exploring the possibilities of understanding the movement of dance within the archive. rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Many congrats to Lucy, as this paper was highly commended in the annual Area ECR article prize.

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This paper examines how creative counter-maps can be a valuable participatory historical geography tool in their capacity to render visible multiple pasts, presents, and futures, and offer new possib....

4/ Then Sarah Linn, Jina Lee, Mariam Zorba, Cailin Nun and Jennifer Cromwell examine the entangled mobilities of ancient objects and contemporary migrants through participatory map-making methods. rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This article critically reflects on the Victoria County History's (VCH) relationship with participatory historical geography approaches. Telling a story of change, it argues that it is not only possi....

3/ In the 1st article, I reflect on @vch-home.bsky.social as participatory historical geography, arguing that the VCH's current emphasis on participatory methods shows how long-standing research projects can adopt these developing ways of working rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library Over the past two decades, historical geographers have increasingly embraced participatory methods to challenge dominant narratives and engage communities in the production of historical knowledge. T...

2/ First up @ed-brookes.bsky.social and I have written an introduction outlining what participatory historical geography is/could be and why it's important. Read more here: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

1/ All of the papers in the special section of #Area I have co-edited with @ed-brookes.bsky.social are now available online. All focused on #participatory #historicalgeography they are full of practical reflections on innovative pieces of historical research. Follow this thread to find out more!

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library Over the past two decades, historical geographers have increasingly embraced participatory methods to challenge dominant narratives and engage communities in the production of historical knowledge. T...

Delighted to share our AREA special issue on Participatory Historical Geographies 🎉 Co-edited with the brilliant @ruthslatter.bsky.social - exploring the rewards & challenges of collaborative historical research.

Read 👉 rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

#Geography #AREAjournal

Digitising the Victoria County History: first new volume added to British History Online   - On History In this blog post, Dr Ruth Slatter (Co-General Editor of the Victoria County History and the VCH Digitisation Project Manager) celebrates the publication of new digitised VCH material on British…

New #OnHistory blog post fro @ruthslatter.bsky.social updating us on progress of the @vchlondon.bsky.social and @bho.bsky.social digitisation project. blog.history.ac.uk/2025/07/digi...

A new VCH volume available @bho.bsky.social - for more detail, please have a read of this blog from our co-General Editor, @ruthslatter.bsky.social:

Lecturer in Historic Environment:London Senate House

#Job alert! Come and join us for 12 months in our lovely @chppc.bsky.social team @ihr.bsky.social. We're seeking a fixed-term #Lecturer in Historic Environment, who'll work on @vchlondon.bsky.social projects & more. Closing date 29 August. Please share!
www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Professor Claire Langhamer confirmed as new British Academy Fellow IHR Professor Claire Langhamer has been appointed a British Academy Fellow

Brilliant news as my exceptional colleague, @ihr.bsky.social Director @clairelanghamer.bsky.social, is made Fellow @britishacademy.bsky.social. It's a privilege to work with Claire as she ensures the IHR is a supportive, inspiring & inclusive home for all #historians
www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...

Kent Learn about the Victoria County History of Kent.

We're very pleased to welcome @themakingofmaidstone.org, a Victoria County History project working on the development of Maidstone in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Led by @jack-newman.com, this three-year project restarts our work in the county. For more:

#Skystorians #LocalHistory

"You Can't Sit With Us": Austen's Lady Karens and the British Slave Trade CHPPC Layers of London Map

It was brilliant to host Tre Ventour-Griffiths in our seminar series earlier this term, talking about the ways in which adaptations of #Austen novels have overlooked her female characters’ role as (absentee) enslavers. The recording is now available here www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

RSMSJ events in Mayfair & St James, London, UK Events | RSMSJ events in Mayfair & St James, London, UK

Are you interested in the history of #London? #Francisboorman from #VCH London will be giving a lecture on the development of #Mayfair as a London Suburb on 15.07.25 for the Residents’ Society of Mayfair & St James’s. More info here www.rsmsj.com/events

This was a really warm & collaborative event, which highlighted the value of historians working in all sectors coming together & sharing their experiences of the joys & challenges of collaborative research. Thank you to everyone who came along & generously engaged in the workshop in this spirit!

Great to see this blog post mention several members of the #VCH community who attended the workshop & shared their practical experiences of engaging in #placebased #publichistory

They are now redeveloping it again, largely sparked by the mass closure of shops & banks in the town centre in the 21st C.

Basingstoke Reinvented, 1800–1925: from Agricultural Town to Manufacturing Centre, edited by Jean Morrin — Hobnob Press Basingstoke is frequently seen as a modern town, the product of the last decades of the 20th century. In reality it has a long, rich and prosperous history dating from the medieval period. This study ...

*NEW BOOK* (yes, the second in a fortnight).

Basingstoke Reinvented, 1800–1925: from Agricultural Town to Manufacturing Centre is the latest in our 'Partnership Publications' series, this title in collaboration with @hobnobpress.bsky.social.

#LocalHistory #Skystorians

You can buy Cradley online from @uolpress.bsky.social:

uolpress.co.uk/book/the-vic...

But not only from there! [cont.]

A book, 'Cradley', by Anastaisia Stylianou and Fergus Eskola-Oakes, with a cover featuring a timber framed building in an autumnal landscape. The gable end of the same building, Cradley parish hall, formerly the church ale hall, built in the 15th century is the backdrop, below a deep blue sky.

The authors, Anastasia Stylianou (left), in a long dress, smiling, and Fergus Eskola-Oakes, wearing a blue shirt and black jeans, holding their book against the backdrop of Cradley parish hall, a timber framed building which is also on the cover.

Our latest book from #Herefordshire, Cradley, was launched last night on a beautiful summer evening.

The authors, Anastasia Stylianou and Fergus Eskola-Oakes and our director, @cathamclarke.bsky.social joined an appreciative audience.

We sold plenty of copies, but if you would like one [cont.]

Many thanks to Tre for sharing in such an open & personal way in this seminar last night. So much food for thought in his reflections on how the representation of white women in Austen screen adaptations is another way of dismissing the violence & trauma of enslavement. Recording coming soon.

Herefordshire Learn about the Victoria County History of Herefordshire.

In Herefordshire, like all out VCH counties, work is dependent on the support of volunteers and donations. To learn more about the project and how to support it, please see our website. #Skystorians

Cover of The Victoria History of Herefordshire, Cradley. Grey title band with, below, an image of a timber framed building against a backdrop of trees in autumn yellows.

NEW BOOK! We are delighted to announce the publication of our latest book from our colleagues in Herefordshire - Cradley is a large parish beneath the Malvern hills, joining VCH Shorts on Eastnor, Colwall, and Bosbury.

Buy direct from @uolpress.bsky.social, or (soon!) from bookshops in #Ledbury. 🗃️

For all you locals, the archivist at the Diocese of Cleveland is really nice and has been extremely helpful for my grad students doing research on old Irish history in Cleveland and the like.

This was a brilliant session. I learnt so much about how Catholic archives have(n’t) been curated & where to look for documents for place-based research. Hugely grateful to @catholicrs.bsky.social @carmenmangion.bsky.social @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social & #LawrenceGregory for sharing their wisdom.

The next event in our summer events series will take place 11.06.25, 5.30-7pm (BST), online only. Tre Ventour-Griffiths will explore female absentee enslavers in #JaneAusten ‘s novels. Everyone is welcome. Use the link below to sign up 👇