Month: February 2019

This week I’ve decided to write about cooking.  Before I left for the holiday period last semester I was given Michel Roux’s new cookbook, the french revolution. Its packed with traditional French recipes that appear under subheadings like ‘Légumes, Légumineuses et

On 18th October 1954 Antigone Costanda, Miss Egypt, became the first non-European to be crowned Miss World. The following year, during the 1955 Miss World beauty pageant, Costanda did not attend the event and crown her successor as per the

When mentioning terms such as colonialism and English identity, I tend associate words such as oppression and superiority (at least a superiority complex). Within my project however, I will seek to challenge these preconceptions by focusing on the earlier stages

And somehow, miraculously — after almost two years — not a drop of blood has been spilled. At least, unless you count a minor incident on Pancake Day 2018, when the three representatives of our respective nations stepped up to

“No! no!” cried Frodo. “The Council laid it upon me to bear it.” “It is by our own folly that the Enemy will defeat us,” cried Boromir. “How it angers me! Fool! Obstinate fool! Running wilfully to death and ruining

Tonio Andrade’s “A Chinese Farmer, Two African Boys; and a Warlord: Toward a Global Microhistory” was one of the most entertaining historical pieces I have ever read. I found its flowing narrative to be refreshing as it contained vivid imagery

Can transnational history be written without the mention of the “nation”? Reflecting on the Week 4 Readings, I was intrigued by the discussion regarding “nations.” As poignant stated in the ‘Introduction. Space and Scale in Transnational History’ article, the scale

Last weekend I took my mum to see the wonders of Dundee. The main reason we’d gone, other than the fact we’d managed to cover most of St Andrews in about a day, was to see the Victoria & Albert

I completely understand your frustration. Like you, I’m interested in applying the transnational lens to the early modern world and those non-state actors who traversed it. I share your skepticism about the existence of relevant source material though, and your

Who’d of thought a Queen classic would so aptly sum up transnational history. As the first verse goes: I want to break free I want to break free I want to break free from your lies You’re so self satisfied

Delving into biographical histories this week brought me back to what I have always found so interesting in history: storytelling. I am, and have always been, an avid reader of fiction, biography and autobiography. Whether it’s 1950s rural Naples (My

When place is central to the construction of one’s identity, perhaps it is only natural that humans, and especially historians, make sense of the world through strictly defined spaces. As a unit of analysis, the nation-state is often taken to

This month I was reading an excellent article from the Economist reporting on the role of Private Military Companies (essentially mercenaries) in Syria. The more I’ve delved into the issue, the more tangled it becomes. Mercenaries are becoming increasingly prevalent

Reading Transnational Lives this week I stumbled across Shellam’s ‘Travelling Knowledge in Western Australia’s Southwest’. Her article dismantled the ‘binary’ model of ‘power and passivity’ assumed to characterize 19thcentury indigenous-European relations in Australia by charting the career of Manyat; an Aboriginal

So I got started on my project early, because the proposal is due within two weeks of two psych assignments and the short essay for this class. My original topic idea was that I wanted to do something about romantic