Miniatures: Small Stories - Big Histories

What can radio broadcasts, school curriculums and letters to the headmistress tell us about everyday experiences of mass education in 20th century Britain? Dr Nathaniel Andrews is joined by Dr Laura Carter for a discussion of her fascinating research on British mass education and the everyday . Tune in to hear Dr Carter’s thoughts on the role of everyday life history in pedagogic practice, the way...

What can the act of waiting tell us about the everyday lives and emotions of those living in informal settlements around the world? Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani is joined by Dr Joseph Mujere for a fascinating discussion of Dr Mujere’s work on everyday interactions in South Africa’s Platinum Belt. Listen to hear all about Dr Mujere’s experiences undertaking oral history and ethnographic research in So...

Miniatures is Back! New episodes every 2nd Monday, starting this week! What can couscous, Soul Food and meat-free meals tell us about the everyday lives of people in the past? Prof. Kate Ferris is joined by Dr Sarah Frank and Dr Peggy Brunache to explore all things food history! Tune in as they discuss everyday food practices, agency and power among French Colonial POWs in WW2, citizens of Fascist...

What can the everyday practices of people at the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border reveal about challenges to state power and state definitions of criminality? Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani is joined by Nicholas Nyachega to discuss Nyachega’s fascinating work on the Honde Valley and the Zimbabwe-Mozambique borderlands. Nyachega introduces us to the Honde Valley as an example of a contested space, in which lo...

Statement following the death of Pilar Gonzalbo Aizpuru (1935-2024) We would like to express our deepest condolences to the family, friends, colleagues, and students of Dr. Pilar Gonzalbo Aizpuru who sadly passed away on the 26th of February 2024, at the age of 89. Pilar Gonzalbo Aizpuru was a pioneer in the history of everyday life and, as we discuss with our guest in this episode, her work has h...

What can a children’s essay assignment tell us about the hopes and dreams of a generation of schoolgirls? Dr Huw Halstead is joined by Professor Claire Langhamer and Professor Hester Barron to discuss their book ‘Class of ’37: Voices from Working-class Girlhood’, published in 2021. Hester and Claire take us through the writing of the book, from the use of mass observation reports and the essay pro...

What can drinking customs and advertising company employees wearing cheap shoes tell us about Argentine consumption habits? Dr Nathaniel Andrews is joined by Professor Natalia Milanesio to explore her fascinating work on consumerism, advertising and the everyday in Argentina. Professor Milanesio introduces us to her fascinating work on consumer culture and the everyday in the Argentine and Latin A...

Just why do people travel thousands of kilometers to go to the shops? Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani is joined by Dr Nedson Pophiwa to delve into the fascinating world of shopping at the borderlands. Dr Pophiwa takes us to the Zimbabwe-South Africa border towns of Beitbridge and Musina, exposing the realities of cross-border shopping, the complex networks of transport and trade, and the methodological...

What do hot baths, umbrellas, teenage bedrooms and KPop have in common? Dr Nathaniel Andrews and Islay Shelbourne are joined by Professor Frank Trentmann to discuss all aspects of consumption and the everyday, including methodological challenges, the impact of routinization on everyday energy consumption, and how understanding past consumption practices can help us navigate current and future clim...

How can a group of grandmothers in a town square change your understanding of the place you grew up? Former St Andrews student Patrick Bence-Trower talks to Huw about his experiences creating a documentary on the sociocultural impact of the Francoist penitentiary system, the merits of an ethnokafenological approach to research, and the ways in which his documentary-making experiences allowed him t...

In this special episode on everyday life in the COVID-19 pandemic recorded during the UK lockdown, Dr Emma Hart (University of Pennsylvania) talks about how the pandemic caused her to reflect differently on the 18th-century diarists she studies, and Prof. Kate Ferris (University of St Andrews) discusses how the insights and conceptual tools of everyday life history can be used to interpret the fur...

A landlady whose miniature silt island was at the centre of an Anglo-French territorial spat. The Scottish noblewoman who freed her kidnapped husband by masterminding an abduction of her own. The Greeks who reach back in time to memories of famine to understand the financial crisis. The ancient potter whose thumbprint has survived the ages. And the temptation of the box marked ‘Happiness’. Join Dr...

What’s it like to live in a country dealing with the traumatic aftermath of a genocide? And in a country that also criminalises most public expressions or discussions of ethnicity? Dr Meghan Laws (University of St Andrews) joins us to talk about her work in Rwanda and the ‘hidden transcripts’ of ethnicity that lie beneath the surface of the official ‘ethnic amnesia’. This podcast was originally pu...

Archives may be dusty places, but as Dr Claire Eldridge (University of Leeds) shows us they are far from being dry and emotionless ones. Drawing on her research on Algerian history and French colonialism, Claire discusses first how two groups of postcolonial migrants from Algeria to France remember the colonial past, and second what we can learn about soldiers’ lives during the First World War fro...

You’ve heard of ‘Americanisation’, but what about ‘Sovietism’? Dr Nikos Papadogiannis (University of Sterling, formerly Bangor University) describes youth culture, leisure, politics, and sexuality in Cold War Greece in the years after the fall of the Greek military dictatorship in 1974. This podcast was originally published on 21st October 2020 as part of the ERC research project ‘Dictatorship as...

Why did the Italian Fascists excavate Rome? Dr Joshua Arthurs (University of Toronto) talks to us about Fascist archaeology and what this can tell us about how the regime understood the past and envisaged the future, as well as introducing us to his latest research on everyday life during the 45 days in 1943 when it seemed that Fascist rule was over. This podcast was originally published on 7th Oc...

What’s the secret to everyday happiness? Prof Claire Langhamer (Institute of Historical Research) joins us to discuss this question as well as love, agony aunts, the concept of ‘ordinary people’, and the importance of reliable stationary. This podcast was originally published on 7th October 2020 as part of the ERC research project ‘Dictatorship as experience: A comparative history of everyday life...

What can we learn from studying small, localised, and perhaps seemingly inconsequential incidents? Prof. Kate Ferris and Dr Huw Halstead unpick some compelling stories that reveal the richness and texture of everyday life history. Featuring special guests Prof Claire Langhamer (Institute of Historical Research, formerly University of Sussex), Dr Claire Eldridge (University of Leeds), Prof John Ben...

We all experience everyday life – but just what exactly is it? Prof. Kate Ferris and Dr Huw Halstead discuss what it means to study ‘everyday life’ in the past and why this is such an engaging yet challenging kind of history. They are joined by special guests Prof Claire Langhamer (Institute of Historical Research, formerly University of Sussex), Dr Claire Eldridge (University of Leeds), Prof John...