The Open University

Retired sub-postmistress notches up her third degree

15 April 2025

At the age of 79 former sub-post mistress Pat Wetherell has proved that age is no bar to higher education since she recently donned graduation robes to collect her hard-earned MA in History from The Open University (OU). It’s the second OU degree the mother-of-two from Eston, Middlesbrough, has notched up, and her third degree […]

OU historian provides timely expertise to Channel 4’s Britain Behind Bars

1 August 2024

The Open University’s Head of History Rosalind Crone recently shared her many years of research into prison history to help make Channel 4’s Britain Behind Bars: A Secret History. The series airing on Sunday evenings at 9pm on Channel 4, and available to watch in full on My4, follows barrister and TV personality Rob Rinder’s […]

How conspiracy theories around George III’s madness and Queen Charlotte’s scheming took hold of the 18th-century British press

12 April 2024

Natalee Garrett is a lecturer in history at The Open University and here she examines how the rumours about the mental health of George III and the supposed scheming of Queen Charlotte began in the press at that time. During the Georgian period, the British royal family had a strange habit of concealing illness, even […]

How will history view the UK’s Brexit process?

19 March 2019

As negotiations continue over Brexit and politicians hold various votes on leaving and delaying one might well wonder how historians will look back at this unprecedented time in UK/EU relations. Last week Theresa May’s deal was rejected for a second time and then MPs voted to rule out leaving the EU without a deal and […]

‘They died with stones in their mouths’: Hiroshima’s last survivors tell their stories

3 January 2019

This article was written by Elizabeth Chappell, PhD Candidate, for The Conversation. At 84, Shoso Kawamoto is one of the few surviving hibakusha – the Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors – orphans, still telling his story. When I first interviewed Kawamoto for my work in 2012, I hadn’t come across tales of orphans in Hiroshima. The bomb, […]

Game of Thrones: imagined world combines romantic and grotesque visions of Middle Ages

17 October 2018

Take the dragons and the zombies away from the television adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire novels and you are left with the seemingly authentic portrayal of a pseudo-medieval world. Indeed, Martin was inspired by historical events such as the Wars of the Roses, the Crusades and the Hundred […]

Why are less than 10% of maths professors women?

23 May 2018

Mathematics has long been dominated by male academics and scientists, but why? In her inaugural lecture, Professor of History of Mathematics June Barrow-Green explores the history of women in mathematics and the centuries-long struggle for women mathematicians to gain equality. Against the odds Professor June Barrow-Green, whose working life began in an art gallery, started […]

Why “civilisation” remains a contested term: OU academics explain

28 February 2018

The new landmark BBC series, Civilisations, co-produced by The Open University, is set to bring history and art to life in a stunning piece of television. Presenters Simon Schama, Mary Beard and David Olusoga travel the globe to examine dazzling works of art and history – helping us to re-examine our own place in the […]

Blitz: The Bombs That Changed Britain

15 November 2017

In 1940, during the Blitz, an unexploded bomb on Martindale Road in London led to residents being evacuated to a local school, where they were told to wait for buses that would take them to safety. But the buses never came. Instead, the people sheltering in the school became a sitting target for returning bombers […]

India in Britain – celebrating a shared heritage

26 September 2017

A major touring exhibition based on research from the OU and the University of Exeter to celebrate the long history of the Indian presence in Britain and its impact on British life has been shortlisted for an Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Award 2018. “At the Heart of the Nation” exhibition is one of […]

OU News