Aliya A Ali explores how kinship and marriage alliances shaped political power and governance in the early Islamic city of Kūfa.
We are pleased to announce a new series in our continuing partnership with Studies in Photography. The Scottish Photographic Artists series will launch on April 30, 2023 with the publication of In Search of the Blue Flower: Alexander Hamilton and…
By Louise Chapman In 2012, I uncovered an array of boxes containing 177 items of dress in the School of Fashion and Textiles archives at Birmingham City University (BCU). Found in a store cupboard the assemblage included a large selection…
By Peter Burke The idea that the unintended consequences of human action are often more important – for better and even more often, for worse – than the intended ones is a well-known theme among historians, whether they study politics,…
By Dr Ingrid E. Mida In April 2018, I was invited by artist Sarah Casey, as part of a collaborative project partially funded by the British Council and Arts Council England, to don my dress detective hat and study the…
The notion of “sovereignty” has been made central to the debate heading toward Brexit, but what does it mean? Does ‘getting one’s country back’ mean recovering it from immigration, neoliberal capitalism, or both? Does it mean closing one’s borders and…
By Andy Mousley I sometimes wonder which of Shakespeare’s characters most closely resembles Shakespeare himself: ambitious Macbeth? brooding Hamlet? the simultaneously romantic and anti-romantic Rosalind? It’s idle speculation, of course. Less idle (because the evidence is before us) is to…
By Gordon Graham The Scottish philosophical tradition found its richest and most influential expression in the investigations Scottish philosophers of the 18th century conducted in their project of a ‘science of human nature’. This project, uniquely, tackled traditional philosophical problems…