The Labour and Society Research Group

Nicole Robertson

The Labour and Society Research Group (LSRG) is a multidisciplinary, inter-institutional network based in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is jointly run by academics from Northumbria University and Newcastle University.  Established in 2009, the group is a vibrant community of scholars with overlapping and diverse interests around the themes of: Labour in War and Peace; Labour and Religion; Labour and Gender; and Transnational labour biographies, transnational social movements, transnational ideas.

Past seminar speakers include: Rémy Cazals (Toulouse), June Hannam (UWE), Nigel Copsey (Teesside University), Belinda Davis, (Rutgers University), Jill Lewis (Swansea University), Marcel van der Linden (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam),  Matthias Neumann (University of East Anglia), Steve Smith (European University Institute, Florence) and Chris Wrigley (Nottingham University).  Past workshops include: Labour and Bombing in Western Europe, 1940–1945 (in association with the AHRC-funded project ‘Bombing, States and Peoples in Western Europe, 1940–1945’); day school on the co-operative movement (in association with the WEA); Histories of Activism conference for postgraduates (in association with the Bishopsgate Institute and the Society for the Study of Labour History); Beyond the Grave: Legacies of Transnational Activists in an International Context; Solidarities That Know No Boundaries: Transnational Advocacy in Historical Perspective; and Death and Labour.

The first LSRG event for the new academic year will take place on Friday, 3 October, 9.45–4.30 pm.  This event, a one-day workshop on the theme of ‘Political and Cultural Identities: Regional, National and International Perspectives’, will include contributions from Paul Pickering, Joan Allen, Lisa Bogert, Richard Allen, Kate Bowen, Sarah Campbell and Jacob Murphy.  It  will be held in the Old Library Building, Newcastle University. If you’d like to attend, you can register by contacting Joan Allen (joan.allen@newcastle.ac.uk).

If you are interested in hearing more about the group’s activities and forthcoming events, you can subscribe to the LSRG mailing list via www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lsrg

Nicole Robertson received her PhD in History from the University of Nottingham.  Her research focuses on 19th/20th century Britain history.  She is particularly interested in the co-operative movement and activism, white-collar workers, and the history of retailing, consumption and consumer society. Nicole is the author of The Co-operative Movement and Communities in Britain, 1914-60: Minding Their Own Business (Ashgate, 2010); and editor with Lawrence Black of Consumerism and the Co-operative movement in modern British history: Taking Stock (MUP, 2009).