The Mass Observation Archive boasts an international reputation for the material it holds and generates about everyday life in Britain. In 2012 it will be 75 years since Mass Observation was founded. The newer Mass Observation Project is 30 years old in 2011. To celebrate we are hosting a series of lectures starting in October 2011 and ending in May 2012.
The first two lectures in the series are:
Juliet Gardiner - ‘Writing the mid century with Mass Observation’
Wednesday 12th October 2011, 6.30pm, Fulton lecture theatre, University of Sussex
Juliet Gardiner is the bestselling author of popular histories such as The Thirties: an Intimate History (2010) and The Blitz: The British Under Attack (2010). Juliet’s lecture will explore the complex ways in which intention and reception framed Mass Observation’s work.
This lecture is sponsored by the Mass Observation Trustees in partnership with Special Collections and the Heritage and Culture Research theme at the University of Sussex.
Virginia Nicholson - ‘The Living Archive’
Thursday 8th December 2011, 6.30pm, Fulton lecture theatre, University of Sussex
Virginia Nicholson’s Millions Like Us – Women’s Lives in War and Peace 1939-1949 was published to widespread critical acclaim in 2011. In this book, Nicholson tracked the hopes and fears of Mass Observation diarists during the war years. Here she will explain how the Archive enabled her to “eavesdrop” on the innermost thoughts of such ordinary women.
This lecture is sponsored by the Mass Observation Trustees in partnership with Special Collections and the School of History, Art History and Philosophy at the University of Sussex.
RSVP essential
Book online via www.sussex.ac.uk/bookalecture