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Community History Newsletter

April 2023

Spring is here and we're delighted to be sending you some exciting updates with our latest Community History newsletter!

Firstly, we have some very good news to report! We have been awarded two funding grants that will enable us to continue and expand the Faculty's community history programme for the next two years.
The two grants combined allow us to support six core community partnerships: featuring research on local Black, Muslim, creative arts, environmental, labour/industrial and mental health-related histories. More broadly, this funding will enable us to pursue our core goals of establishing an innovative hub for inclusive community history research here at the university, in partnership with historians in the community. Opportunities to get involved with the expanded work of the community history programme and these six core projects will be advertised more fully in our forthcoming newsletter next term - including internships - so do keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, read on to discover some brilliant opportunities and events kicking off in Oxford and Oxfordshire in the coming days. We hope you can get involved with as much as possible!

With all best wishes,

Priya Atwal and Stephen Tuck
(The Faculty's Community History Team)

WHAT'S ON IN OXFORD & OXFORDSHIRE

The Museum of Oxford is currently running a new exhibition, Dive In! A history of river bathing in Oxford, until 30 September.

As part of this project, the Museum is looking to recruit volunteers to record oral history interviews with people who once used or worked at Oxford’s outdoor bathing places before they closed in 1990. Training will be provided. The Museum is looking for people who can commit to 3 days of volunteering between April and June 2023 (1 day for training; 2 days to conduct an interview, then edit and transcribe it.) Email Marta Lomza, the Museum's Community Engagement Officer, at mlomza@oxford.gov.uk to register your interest in volunteering.

The Uncomfortable Oxford team has launched a brand new walking tour: Uncomfortable Ashmolean - the Museum Tour:

Explore the 'uncomfortable' side of the Ashmolean Museum - the first public museum in England. This tour highlights the contentious histories inherent in museum spaces, bringing forward discussions about colonial origins, object transferral networks, and requests for repatriation. Through the questioning of labels, displays, and exhibits, this tour asks participants: what is the purpose of a museum?

(Fully wheelchair accessible with moments for sitting throughout.)

Join the tour on 23rd April, at 2.30pm. Find out more and book here.

The Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board invites you to the unveiling of a new plaque, commemorating the life of the 'Father of the Paralympic Games', Sir Ludwig Guttmann (1899-1980). Guttmann was an Oxford-based neurosurgeon, who pioneered treatments for the rehabilitation of spinal injury patients.

The unveiling will take place at 63 Lonsdale Road, Summertown, OX2 7ES on 29 April, 2pm (followed by a celebratory drink at the Dewdrop Inn, Banbury Road, at 3pm). RSVP to eda.forbes@btinternet.com; 01865 552763.

To find out more about other local plaques or contribute your own suggestions, take a look at the Blue Plaque Board's website.

Read the April news roundup from the Oxfordshire Local History Association (OLHA) to learn about the latest opportunities and activities for local historians to get involved in across the county. You can become a member for just £1 a month.

Not to be missed are two events around Florence Park: the first, a talk at the community centre about how Cowley's car plant workers 'helped to win WW2', and the second, a repeat performance of the popular local play, Little Edens, telling the story of the Florence Park rent strikes of 1934 - now on at the Museum of Oxford!

CONTRIBUTE TO OUR WEBSITE

Our website is now live! We continue to welcome your ideas and contributions for making this digital space as reflective as possible of the richness and variety of Oxford/Oxfordshire's community history activity. Please get in touch if you have:

A recent or ongoing local/community history project that you'd like to have featured on our site, with its own profile page. To set up your page, we'd need you to submit a summary of your project (of no more than 400 words), an email contact and any relevant web links for your work, plus any pictures/videos/audio that you can share with us to make your page as dynamic as possible!
Ideas for a blog post on 'ways of doing community history.' We are looking to publish short written pieces (of up to 1000 words), on a rolling basis, reflecting on the meaning, practicalities and value of working in community history. If you might be interested, please send us a short summary (of up to 100 words) of your ideas. We welcome submissions from writers from any part of our city and county.

Please email your ideas to community@history.ox.ac.uk - we look forward to hearing from you!

Copyright © 2021: History Faculty, University of Oxford. All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
community@history.ox.ac.uk

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History Faculty · George Street · Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 2RL · United Kingdom