James Brown - ePortfolio
Academic Profile:
2003-7: PhD, Department of History, University of Warwick [UK]
2002-3: MA, Religious and Social History 1500-1700
, University of Warwick [UK] (Dist.)
, University of Warwick [UK] (Dist.)1999-2002: BA (hons) History, University of Warwick [UK] (I, top of graduating class)
Research:
Title: The Landscape of Drink: Inns, Taverns and Alehouses in Early Modern Southampton
Department: History
Supervisor: PD Dr Beat Kumin
Funding: ESRC (1+3)
(1+3)Description:
My thesis, confirmed by Professor Steve Hindle and Dr Phil Withington in February 2008, represents the first urban case study of public houses at all levels of the victualling hierarchy (inns, taverns and alehouses) in an early modern English context. Moving beyond representational economies, and emphasising social practice, the study mobilises the administrative, judicial and fiscal records of the borough and port of Southampton to reconstruct a ‘landscape of drink’ in all its institutional variety: its geographical and physical dispositions; the agents who made livelihoods and joined company in it; a full range of social, economic and political functions; and its relationship to public order and urban stability. The study emphasises the local particularity of the topographical, socio-economic and jurisdictional frameworks that structured public drinking spaces and cultures, and, drawing on interdisciplinary impulses from cultural geography and architectural theory, pays particular attention to the constitutive role of the material and spatial properties of early modern public houses in determining the range and meaning of the activities which they enclosed. Far from being regarded as problematic or marginal spatial constituents of the early modern port, these distinctive urban locales emerge as central to the imaginative, economic and social worlds of early modern town-dwellers and visitors as well as to the governing strategies of the corporation itself.
and Dr Phil Withington in February 2008, represents the first urban case study of public houses at all levels of the victualling hierarchy (inns, taverns and alehouses) in an early modern English context. Moving beyond representational economies, and emphasising social practice, the study mobilises the administrative, judicial and fiscal records of the borough and port of Southampton to reconstruct a ‘landscape of drink’ in all its institutional variety: its geographical and physical dispositions; the agents who made livelihoods and joined company in it; a full range of social, economic and political functions; and its relationship to public order and urban stability. The study emphasises the local particularity of the topographical, socio-economic and jurisdictional frameworks that structured public drinking spaces and cultures, and, drawing on interdisciplinary impulses from cultural geography and architectural theory, pays particular attention to the constitutive role of the material and spatial properties of early modern public houses in determining the range and meaning of the activities which they enclosed. Far from being regarded as problematic or marginal spatial constituents of the early modern port, these distinctive urban locales emerge as central to the imaginative, economic and social worlds of early modern town-dwellers and visitors as well as to the governing strategies of the corporation itself. Select Conference/Seminar Papers:
2008: 'The English Alehouse? Globalising Drinking Places in Early Modern Southampton', Early Modern Economic and Social History Seminar, University of Cambridge [UK] (f/c 13.11.08)
2008: 'Rethinking Men's Drinking in Early Modern England', Men's Dilemma: Sources and Methodologies in the History of Masculinity, University of Exeter [UK] (f/c 22.7.08)
2007: 'Sensory Landscapes: Experiencing the Vernacular in Early Modern Southampton', Verncular Architecture Group Winter Conference: Towns and Town Houses 1000-1700, University of Leicester [UK]
, University of Leicester [UK] 2006: 'Inns in Early Modern Southampton: Sites, Premises and Practices', Inns, Taverns and Public Houses (weekend residential workshop), University of Oxford [UK]
2006: 'Alehouses and the Poor in Early Modern Southampton', XIV International Economic History Congress, University of Helsinki [Finland]
, University of Helsinki [Finland]2006: 'Spatialising the Alehouse in Early Modern Southampton', Culture, Space and Power: Peopling the Built Environment in Renaissance England 1450-1700 (two-week residential workshop), University of Warwick [UK]
(two-week residential workshop), University of Warwick [UK]2006: 'Public Houses, Order and the Urban Nightscape: Drunks on the Streets in Early Modern Southampton', Social History Society Conference, University of Reading [UK]
2005: 'Geographies of the Tavern in Early Modern England', Culture, Space and Power: Peopling the Built Environment in Renaissance England 1450-1700 (one-day workshop), University of Warwick [UK]
(one-day workshop), University of Warwick [UK]2005: ''Ready Receptacles for Malefactors'? Public Houses as Sites of Crime in Early Modern Southampton', Early Modern Research Group, University of York [UK], and in 2007: Truth Will Out: Crime, Criminals and Criminality in England 1500-1700, Canterbury Christ Church University [UK]
, Canterbury Christ Church University [UK]2004: 'The Spatial Reordering of the English Parish Church in the 1630s', Reformation Studies Colloquium, University of Birmingham [UK]
Publications:
Forthcoming 2007: 'Public Houses as Surveillance Sites in Early Modern Southampton', in B. Kumin (ed.), Political Space in Preindustrial Britain and Europe (Ashgate: Aldershot 2007)
2007: (with Dr Susan Boettcher), Conference Report, Social Space and Religious Culture 1300-1800, Workshop II of the academic network 'Social Sites – Öffentliche Räume – Lieux d’échanges 1300-1800' (Leverhulme Trust), Technical University of Dresden [Germany]. H-German
, Workshop II of the academic network 'Social Sites – Öffentliche Räume – Lieux d’échanges 1300-1800' (Leverhulme Trust), Technical University of Dresden [Germany]. H-German2005: (with Christian Hochmuth), Conference Report, Political Space in Preindustrial Europe, Workshop I of the academic network 'Social Sites – Öffentliche Räume – Lieux d’échanges 1300-1800' (Leverhulme Trust), University of Warwick [UK]. H-Soz-u-Kult
, Workshop I of the academic network 'Social Sites – Öffentliche Räume – Lieux d’échanges 1300-1800' (Leverhulme Trust), University of Warwick [UK]. H-Soz-u-KultAdministrative Responsibilities:
2008-9: Facilitator for the academic network The Documentation of Individual Identity: Historical, Comparative and Transnational Perspectives since 1500 (University of Oxford/Leverhulme Trust)
(University of Oxford/Leverhulme Trust)2006-8: Facilitator for the academic network Social Sites – Öffentliche Räume – Lieux d’échanges 1300-1800 (University of Warwick/Leverhulme Trust)
(University of Warwick/Leverhulme Trust)2005-6: Co-organiser, Early Modern Research Seminar, University of Warwick [UK] (HRC)
2005: Organiser, Representing Space in the Renaissance, one-day conference at the University of Warwick [UK] (Warburg Institute/AHRC)
, one-day conference at the University of Warwick [UK] (Warburg Institute/AHRC)2005: Organiser, Thinking Space in Early Modern England, one-day conference at the University of Warwick [UK] (HRC)
, one-day conference at the University of Warwick [UK] (HRC)Teaching:
2006: 'Public Drinking in Local Archives', invited lecture for second/third-year advanced option Studying Local History, Oxford Brookes University [UK]
2004-7: Co-leader (with PD Dr Beat Kumin) of annual field trip to Burford for third-year advanced option The World of the Tavern in Early Modern Europe, University of Warwick [UK]
, University of Warwick [UK]2004-7: Seminar tutor for second-year core module The European World 1500-1720, University of Warwick [UK]
, University of Warwick [UK]Awards & Affiliations:
2005-6: Research Fellow, Culture, Space and Power: Peopling the Built Environment in Renaissance England 1450-1700, University of Warwick [UK]/Newberry Library [US] (Mellon Foundation)
, University of Warwick [UK]/Newberry Library [US] (Mellon Foundation) 2004-5: HRC Postgraduate Research Fellow, University of Warwick [UK]
Postgraduate Research Fellow, University of Warwick [UK] 2003-present: Postgraduate member of the academic network Social Sites – Öffentliche Räume – Lieux d’échanges 1300-1800 (Leverhulme Trust)
(Leverhulme Trust)2002-6: ESRC studentship (1+3)
2002: Felix Dennis Essay Prize, Department of History, University of Warwick [UK]
2001: Second-year Prize, Department of History, University of Warwick [UK]
2000: Beamanoir-Hart Prize, Department of History, University of Warwick [UK]
Keeping abreast of developments in present-day drinking cultures; a carpark in North Leamington is here reconstituted as an al fresco drinking site with the addition of mobile bar, lively paint scheme, beach furniture and attractive young things (pictured).
Contact:
Dr James Brown
Research Hall
Faculty of History
University of Oxford
Old Boys' High School
George Street
OXFORD
OX1 2RL
James.Brown@history.ox.ac.uk
(+44) 07919 073034
(+44) 07919 073034
Artist's impression of Southampton in 1650.
The Water Gate (demolished 1804), with The Globe alehouse visible in its left tower. This cylindrical establishment was popular with mariners arriving at the southern quay.
