Reflecting upon Four Years of Criminal Corpses. By Rachel Bennett
Almost four years ago to the day I travelled to Leicester to attend my first PhD supervisory meeting armed with only a pen, a notepad and a head swirling with ideas. When I walked out of that meeting I was nervous yet excited about the mammoth task of getting to grips with such a […]
Rest in Pieces: The story of a hanged woman and her journey to becoming a museum object. By Ali Wells
When referring to “skeletons in the cupboard” we rarely expect these to be literally true, but in the case of Mary Ann Higgins and the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry, it is. In the early 1970s the Herbert acquired an unusual and unique object – the head of the penultimate woman […]
The Bloody Business of the Bloody Code: Dissecting the Criminal Corpse. By Elizabeth Hurren
Imagine hearing local gossip that a notorious murderer was about to be executed, and that everyone in the vicinity of a homicide was planning to turn out to see the violent culprit punished in Georgian England. Getting to the gallows to secure a good spot would mean having to take an unpaid half-day off […]
Turned off at Execution Dock: Thames Scenery in the City of the Gallows. By Richard Ward
Eighteenth-century London has, with good reason, been called “the city of the gallows”. Gibbets lined the approach to London in every direction, not least of which at various points along the Thames, where offenders sentenced to death by the High Court of Admiralty for crimes committed on the seas were hung in chains after […]
#SocialHistoryAssociationAnnualConference2016. By Emma Battell Lowman
In late March 2016, the Social History Association (SHA) met for its annual conference. In beautiful Lancaster, at the University of Lancaster, a large group of energetic scholars met to share new research, connect with colleagues, and celebrate four decades of successful operation. This was my first engagement with the Association. I have hesitated […]
A chance to talk about gibbeting and hanging in France? Yes, please! By Emma Battell Lowman
One of the joys of academic work is participating in study days or workshops that bring together a diverse group of scholars to approach a theme or issue from multiple vantage. It is easy to fall into working within the same networks and groups – whether textually in the form of the bodies of […]
The Geography of the Criminal Corpse: Magic, therapies and bodily pieces across Europe. By Francesca Matteoni
I have been involved in the first two years of the project as a postdoctoral researcher working on the medico-magical employment of the criminal corpse’s pieces: hands, fingers, blood, corporeal fragments, but even those objects who had a direct contact with the body, such as the rope, or more intangible, mysterious substances like the […]
What and When is Death? By Floris Tomasini
In this blog post I’d like to talk about two forms of death, biological and social death, through the conceptual lens of personal identity. This deceptively simple distinction informs a lot of my subsequent conceptual analysis about the harm and redemption of death and dying. It also lays one of the foundation stones for […]
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