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This is the first in a short series of posts about a workshop in Oxford organised by Siv Gøril Brandtzæg to discuss the European news ballad. I was lucky enough to be invited along on a glorious day at the beginning of April for some fascinating insights into people’s work on ballads in various European…

My contribution to the Historical Association’s Teaching the Tudors Continuing Professional Development day in York last month was to provide A History of the Reformation in 5 Ballads. This talk was newly developed, from my Singing the News work and my Tudor Voices talk, to concentrate on what ballads can tell us about the process…

Last Saturday, I gave a lecture to teachers at the Historical Association’s free Continuing Professional Development day in York. The day focused on Teaching the Tudors, with workshops on teaching pedagogy and subject knowledge lectures. Unfortunately, I didn’t arrive in time to catch Tracy Borman’s lecture on Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him,…

Wearing one of my other, semi-academic, hats, I’m on the editorial board of the Historical Association‘s members’ magazine, The Historian.  I’m about to start the process of putting together an edition for the first time, not by myself, but with Trevor James. The edition, which will be out in the autumn, is about history and…

At the end of February, I travelled up to Glasgow to speak at the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s Broadside Day at the Unviersity of Strathclyde. This is the third in a short series of posts about the day. After the afternoon tea break there was a final panel of two speakers. The first…

At the end of February, I travelled up to Glasgow to speak at the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s Broadside Day at the Unviersity of Strathclyde. This is the second in a short series of posts about the day. The first of the afternoon’s talks was given by Peter Shepheard on ‘The Master-piece of…

I’m pleased to say that the first review of Singing the News appeared in the Folk Music Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society at the end of 2018. It was noticeable that the reviewer, David Atkinson, had read the book in detail, and I really appreciate the time he must have taken…

The UCU is currently running a questionnaire on casualisation and precarious contracts in the university sector.  I filled in my return over lunch on the first day.  Although it is meant to be anonymous, I decided that I would share some (although not all) of my responses.  In places these have been edited in order…

One of the pleasures of working at Lancaster has been putting together a new MA module on the early modern world. It is a small group of students who are very interested and engaged. After discussing what makes the early modern early modern (rather than medieval or modern) during our first session, our second seminar…