Early modern history

History is delicious at Cardiff!

Posted on 13 August 2026 by Keir Waddington

In the History First Year core module ‘Global Histories’, one of the weekly seminars covers histories of potatoes. As a collective spin-off, this blog post offers three vignettes by Cardiff […]

Talking Politics in the Seventeenth Century

Posted on 22 November 2025 by Keir Waddington

In his new post, Professor Lloyd Bowen talks about his current research on political labels and words were used to confer identifies and divide people. “Brexiteer”, ‘Remoaner”; “Fascist”, “Communist”; “Radical […]

Writing the Supernatural

Posted on 15 December 2024 by Keir Waddington

In his post, Jan Machielsen, Reader in Early Modern History, writes about a new venture where his students write blogs to showcase the work they are doing on the supernatural. […]

Making Histories

Posted on 7 October 2024 by Keir Waddington

In this blog, Esther Wright (Senior Lecturer in Digital History), Steph Ward (Senior Lecturer in Modern Welsh History), and 10 students reflect on their experiences of writing group projects for […]

Living with Seasons

Posted on 11 June 2024 by Keir Waddington

In this multi-authored post, a series of scholars from Cardiff explore the idea of living with seasons from different perspectives It is the time of year when trees are in […]

Perishables: Encounters with the Ephemeral in the early East India Company Archive

Posted on 28 May 2024 by Keir Waddington

In this blog, Mark Williams reflects on what a chance encounter with 350-year old pieces of cloth in an archive might tell us about the history of the English East […]

Living with Seasons

Posted on 18 March 2024 by Keir Waddington

In their blog post, Mark Williams, Rachel Herrmann, and Keir Waddington talk about their exciting new project together Living with Seasons. It is becoming increasingly apparent that humans have taken […]

Habitual Petitioners: John and Jane Danyell

Posted on 19 February 2024 by Keir Waddington

In this blog post, Lloyd Bowen, Reader in Early Modern and Welsh History, writes about an inveterate Elizabethan petitioner who was incarcerated for forging the earl of Essex’s correspondence. In […]

Saving ‘the Lives and Limbs of many’: at sea with early modern ship’s surgeons

Posted on 22 January 2024 by Keir Waddington

John Woodall. Line engraving by G. Glover, 1639. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection In her new research, Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin explores early modern ship's surgeons. She explains how in the early […]

“Geographies of Power”: An undergraduate research opportunities project

Posted on 3 January 2024 by Keir Waddington

Rachel Herrmann writes: How do academic historians incorporate undergraduate students into their research processes and questions? This was the question I considered from early summer 2018 to late 2019, when […]