The current battle for the leadership of the Labour Party is in full swing with televised show downs between the candidates hitting the airwaves. A new edition of ‘A History of the British Labour Party’ by a historian at the University of Exeter has recently been published. The book brings up to date analysis of the party, examining both Gordon Brown's period in office and the Labour Party under the leadership of Ed Miliband. Professor Andrew Thorpe's study has been the leading single-volume text on the Labour Party since its first edition in 1997 and has now been thoroughly revised...
Debra Myhill, Professor of Education at the University of Exeter has been awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for her leadership of the Secondary PGCE programme and the Centre for Research in Writing.
The fields of language and literacy are Professor Myhill’s main areas of expertise, with a focus on the teaching of writing, gender and literacy, and talk. Her research is conducted collaboratively with colleagues in the Centre for Research in Writing. Their most recent research has looked at the role of grammar in the teaching and learning of writing, with a focus on...
The University of Exeter is hosting a series of events for Being Human 2015, the UK’s only national festival of the humanities. This involves a broad range of events including digital storytelling in Dartmoor, a theme park installation game aimed at teenagers, macro filming workshops exploring the body to creating modern folk ballads that reflects the heritage of the South West.
The programme has been made possible by a grant from the festival organisers, the School of Advanced Study, University of London with additional funds for specific projects from the University of Exeter....
A new study from the University of Exeter has revealed that the Central African country of Gabon is providing an invaluable nesting ground for a vulnerable species of sea turtle considered a regional conservation priority.
A huge ground survey covering nearly 600 km of Gabon’s coastline has uncovered the largest breeding colony of olive ridley turtles in the Atlantic.
The study, published today (4 June) in the journal Biological Conservation, is the first to combine existing monitoring data with a back-to-basics coastal survey of the area. The results suggest that Gabon...
Ladybirds use colour to reveal their toxicity to predators says new research
For one of Britain’s best-loved and colourful group of insects, ladybirds, the brightness of their colour reveals the extent of their toxicity to predators, according to new research undertaken at the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge.
The study which is published in the journal Scientific Reports, also found that the more conspicuous and colourful the ladybird species, the less likely it is to be attacked by birds.
Lina María Arenas, a PhD student at the Centre for Ecology and...
The final episode of a three-part BBC 2 TV drama-documentary series Armada: 12 years to save England - Endgame will feature a University of Exeter medical historian on Sunday 7 June at 9pm.
Dr Alun Withey will share his knowledge about the role of the barber surgeon on board ship and the sorts of things he had to treat in battle and the sorts of instruments he used.
Elizabeth I played by Anita Dobson shows the monarch as politically astute and presenter Dan Snow takes to the sea to tell the story of how England came within a whisker of disaster in summer 1588. He explores...
PETA's first-ever Student Award has been delivered to the University of Exeter's Animal Welfare Society in recognition of the student advocacy group's outstanding work in bringing to light the suffering of nearly 30,000 animals – 17,000 of whom are currently housed on campus – imprisoned and experimented on by the university over a seven-year period.
After submitting a Freedom of Information Act request and working with the school's student newspaper to publish their findings, the group kick-started a petition calling on the university to reduce the number of animals used in...
Exeter University’s top choir are busy rehearsing a lively programme ahead of a special concert at Exeter Cathedral next week.
The University Chapel Choir (made up of 20 of the campus’s best choral singers) will sing Bob Chilcott’s lively A Little Jazz Mass as part of a programme that includes familiar works by Parry and Stanford. The performance takes place in Exeter Cathedral on Saturday 30th May at 19.30
Michael Graham, the choir’s director, said: “It’s a great honour for the choir to perform such an exciting programme in the Cathedral. Several of its members are...
The new film version of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd feeds into the ongoing fascination for fashion depicted in classic novels and their modern adaptations for TV and film. A new online facility has been developed by the University of Exeter and Dorset County Museum to catalogue references to clothing in Hardy’s writing and the time in which he lived.
The costumes worn by the actress Carey Mulligan, who stars as Bathsheba Everdene in the latest Far From the Madding Crowd production, will be on display at the Dorset County Museum until the 8 June and will provide an...
A University of Exeter historian is part of a brand new TV programme about Sir Winston Churchill on the Discovery Channel. The Churchill & Me with Hugh Dennis premieres this Friday 15 May at 9pm and follows the comedian, actor and writer Hugh Dennis, on his journey to discover what Sir Winston Churchill means to people today and explore the legacy he left behind across the globe. Hugh Dennis meets people and visits places upon which Churchill left his indelible mark. He uncovers information from historians like the University of Exeter’s Churchill expert, Professor Richard Toye who has...
