Been a little quiet here for a while since I've been on the road! Been based at the French Institute Pondicherry for the last 3months as part of the @iias.bsky.social fellowship. I'll be presenting some research next Monday! All welcome, IRL and online: www.ifpindia.org/monday-collo...

"There’s this real sense of connecting a personal, almost existential crisis with the bigger impetus, of using History Workshop, or the reasons for History Workshop, to generate a personal sense of purpose." @inoutofpractice.bsky.social on the founding mission of HWJ.

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · 4mo ago

In August 2025, our editorial collective spent an afternoon exploring the contents of the History Workshop archive held @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social 🗃️ Marybeth Hamilton, Elly Robson, Mary Katherine Newman, Marral Shamshiri, Vivien Chan and Beckie Rutherford reflect on their radical findings.

Listen to the poets.

How has the History Workshop Journal collective sustained its commitment to radical history over fifty tumultuous years? Two HWJ veterans, Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks, sat down to share their memories with @beckierutherford.bsky.social and @inoutofpractice.bsky.social🎙✊🏻

Working Collectively Then and Now

How did History Workshop Journal's editorial collective sustain its commitment to radical history over fifty tumultuous years? Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks discuss.

historyworkshop.org.uk

I recently had the great pleasure to be interviewed by Typesetter, an independent publisher doing incredible work: typesetter.hk/en/2025/12/1...

Modular Market, Everyday Experience, and the Movement of Diversified Historiographies—An Interview with Vivien Chan

Editor’s Note: The recent “walking craze” has brought Hong Kong’s public housing estates into the local—and even international—spotlight in a new way, sparking a wave of aesthetic, nostalgic, and hist...

typesetter.hk

Somehow still hanging on! All jokes aside, I'm so grateful to my HW and NTU colleagues, and of course my former students, for sharing their insights and getting stuck in. Excited to celebrate HWJ100 with everyone on Saturday!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · 7mo ago

Which histories are meaningful to you? Ten illustration students from Nottingham Trent University consider their personal connections to the past and what it means to practice history from below.

How has the legacy of History Workshop Journal inspired our own editorial collective? @beckierutherford.bsky.social, @inoutofpractice.bsky.social, and @marralsham.bsky.social consider their historical practice and relationship to radical history.

Radical Synergies

Three of our past and present editors reflect on the ways in which History Workshop Journal has influenced and inspired their practice during their time on the History Workshop collective.

historyworkshop.org.uk

And that's a wrap! My @historyworkshop.org.uk comes to an end. Two years ends with a grand total of 36 articles, 15 for From Place to Place, and 8 illustration commissions with my students. A huge thank you to the team, I've learned so much about what I want my practice to look like! 💫

The summer has seen anti-trans campaigns across the UK & US, alongside a crisis in healthcare. But what use could trans history have in these times beyond proof 'we have always been here'? Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/queer-histor...

Imagining Trans Futures

Sam Rutherford reflects on how trans histories and historians can work towards building power in the trans community.

historyworkshop.org.uk

It's a huge honour for this piece by Lola and Agnes to be the final addition to the From Place to Place series. As my HW Fellowship draws to a close, I can't think of a more helpful reminder to keep finding new intimacies and continue feeling through my practice. I hope you've enjoyed the series!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · 11mo ago

What if history could be 'weightless'? Lola Olufemi and Agnes Cameron expand on their collaboration, This is a Temporal Landscape You Will Find No Direction Here, a digital assemblage for reimagining our relationship to the radical histories before us: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/practice-his...

Grateful to Az for coming to us to write this piece. As a V&A/RCA alum and design student myself, reflecting on the process of learning what is 'good' design/history through working with Az helped clarify some of the complex emotions I had visiting the Storehouse!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · 12mo ago

The V&A East Storehouse opened earlier this year to great fanfare, heralding a state-of-the-art 'working museum' providing 'radical access' to design and the archive. Az Crawford considers the history and politics behind 'all of this for all of you': www.historyworkshop....↗

🚨HW FELLOWSHIP KLAXON🚨 We're now in the final week for applications, deadline is on Friday! DMs are open for any questions about the position!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

📣We're into the FINAL WEEK for applications for two Editorial Fellowship positions 2025-27!📣 Deadline is midnight 15th August (that's this Friday!), and the fellowships are open to any early career historians. See the post below for the full details: www.historyworkshop....

It's a pleasure to include Sabine's research @sabinehanke.bsky.social in the series! The history of the circus, while problematic in contemporary times, is clearly a site where you can find important intersecting identities and frictions.

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

The spectacle of the circus has long been controversial - but how did performers resist the 'exoticised' commodification of their identities? Sabine Hanke @sabinehanke.bsky.social examines the history of Lakota performers in the Sarrasani circus in interwar Germany: www.historyworkshop....

Sometimes the historical dictionary offers solace through the existence of an obsolete word that is sorely needed now. One of them is ‘respair’, recorded just once, in the 15th century. It means fresh hope, and a recovery from despair.

Myself and Mary's fellowships are ending in October, and we're now looking for two new fellows! I have had the best time, it's been a brilliant way to transition out of the PhD alongside teaching. It's been a joy to learn from the team and contribute something of my own too! Any questions? DM me!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

Join us! We are advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop in 2025-27. Our fellowships support early career historians to develop expertise in public, radical and digital history & to gain experience of working in an editorial team. www.historyworkshop....

I'm so pleased to include Kar Yern in the series, both because we share lots of research interests, and because his research is so dynamic and rich! Keep an eye out for his upcoming book on Malay(si)a Foodways 👀👀👀

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

‘We always witness hawkers bringing necessities to kampungs with bicycles’. Chin Kar Yern traces a history of hawkers, movement, state power and (ultimately) survival in Malay(si)a. www.historyworkshop....

Another in From Place to Place today, and so excited to include sensory histories in this piece by Meg Parsons and Karen Fisher. Thinking about how processes of itinerance have the capacity to be violent, in colonial notions of exploration and transformation.

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

How was smell weaponised in settler colonial processes of scoping and transforming landscapes inhabited by indigenous people? Meg Parsons and Karen Fisher on the use of the eucalyptus tree by Pākehā settlers on Māori swamp-land: www.historyworkshop....

I'm so excited to share that from October I will be a fellow at IIAS @iias.bsky.social in Leiden. I'll be working on a project on wetness in spatial histories of Hong Kong and SEA, continuing on from my research on wet markets. Looking forward to exploring NL! www.iias.asia/profile/vivi...

Another super exciting one to add to the From Place to Place roster! What if we thought of itinerance through objects? how are histories materialised? So wonderful to work with Hege on this piece!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

What can the shipping container tell us about the history of capitalism? Hege Høyer Leivestad unpacks these icons of global labour and goods. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/capitalism/c...

A huge honour to have Becky Taylor in From Place to Place, and amazing to see such beautiful and rare archival material alongside her research.

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

From the 1920s onwards, Scottish authorities systematically targeted Travellers in an attempt to force them out of their traditional, nomadic way of life. Becky Taylor explores how sedentarism has been used to subjugate the Scots Traveller community. www.historyworkshop....

So happy to be able to commission more design historians to write for HW! As a grassroots archive enthusiast, I was so excited to find out about Elli's collection of garments.

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

How can a Jamaican fashion archive challenge colonial histories of the Carribean, and what resistances does it reveal? Elli Michaela Young responds to the provocation 'Is there really fashion in Jamaica?' www.historyworkshop.org.uk/black-histor...

Huge congrats to @maryknewman.bsky.social on her new series on Indigenous histories!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

How can we better approach the histories of Indigenous peoples? Mary Katherine Newman introduces a new History Workshop series which will introduce a range of scholars, educators, and activists and the ways in which they examine Indigenous histories. www.historyworkshop....

I had the pleasure of being one of the people Juli would share her insights with while walking around Hong Kong. It sparked lots of conversations about what we can vs. what we choose to call history. Super honoured to share Juli's work in From Place to Place!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

How do you tell a history of a city hidden in plain sight? Fifty years since the first arrival of Vietnamese refugees to Hong Kong, Juliana Yat Shun Kei asks how to adequately locate Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugee camps.

Such an imaginative and exciting piece from @davehitchcock.bsky.social and a significant question about the relationship between itinerance and the making of public spaces - who gets to make it theirs?

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

How does a public space become a 'begging place'? In our latest article, Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/urban/beggin...

How does a public space become a 'begging place'? In our latest article, Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/urban/beggin...

Begging Places

How does a public space become a 'begging place'? David Hitchcock on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.

historyworkshop.org.uk

We stand in solidarity with trans women and the trans community and we will always be a space that recognises the importance of trans history. Read on for a selection from our archive 🧵 1/8

There isn't a story on the BBC News site about today's trans rights rally at Parliament Square where it's estimated 20k attended. But they did have a story last week about the Let Women Speak transphobe rally in Bristol where 100 people attended.

Another piece for From Place to Place today! Anitha was so generous with me when I was in Surabaya for a conference late last year, and knows so much about her city. She took me around so many places, and at every corner was something and someone she knew. Such a gift to have her on board!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

What histories are we missing when places operate in unofficial and responsive ways? Anitha Silvia on the on-going histories of Surabaya's street markets, and how to archive as history unfolds on the street: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/public-histo...

What histories are we missing when places operate in unofficial and responsive ways? Anitha Silvia on the on-going histories of Surabaya's street markets, and how to archive as history unfolds on the street: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/public-histo...

Mapping Surabaya's Street Markets

Anitha Silvia explores the intricate histories found in mapping the informal street markets of Surabaya.

historyworkshop.org.uk

Really excited to have Felicity involved in the series, thinking about precarity and romanticism, the reality vs. fantasies in narratives of women's histories. Also seems fitting now the flowers are all coming up for springgggg 💐

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

🌹"Who will buy? Two blooms for a penny!"🌹 In this addition to From Place to Place, Felicity Hall @thingyness.bsky.social on the romanticised lives of Victorian flower sellers, and the lived experiences of these women making their mark in London's markets: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/womens-histo...