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Image by Kenrick Mills

Letter from the Editors

The Editorial Team
Issue 02 - December 2020

Dear Reader,

 

For many, the autumn of 2020 has brought an unusual assortment of sentiments. These past months have witnessed the drudgery of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to seep into all aspects of life, and we wait as the promise of respite hangs over the horizon.  Despite this state of seeming inertia, we at EPOCH are pleased to say that we have had some triumphs.

The first issue of the magazine was received with great commendation from members at all levels on the academic and professional spectrum, and the editorial board has taken each word of gratitude and praise to heart. We have been, and continue to be, fortunate to participate in such a well-received initiative. Once again, we owe a debt of gratitude to our contributors, who have demonstrated so skilfully that history is relevant, exciting, and surprising.

The December issue has a very different character from our initial issue.  The pandemic has forced researchers to consider new approaches and methods in our work, and much of what you see here will reflect some of the new avenues we can take into the future.  Some articles challenge us to view sources with a great deal of humanity and objectivity in equal measure, while others explain how new technologies encourage and facilitate exciting advances in our field. Our contributing authors have brought to light that misinformation is not unique to the twenty-first century, and that sometimes time itself is more difficult to contextualise than we imagine.  We invite you to browse the articles by geography or theme to fully appreciate the scope of the exciting work unfolding in the field.

We also had the opportunity to speak with Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, spoken-word poet and author of Postcolonial Banter (2019). Suhaiymah shares some powerful reflections on her own experience as a poet and as a Muslim woman of colour in modern Britain, and we discuss the enduring power of poetry to form connections and alter perceptions in our history and in the present day.

With sincerest well-wishes (marked by a twinge of sadness), we say goodbye to two editors, Louis Pulford and Steve Birkett, as they step away from the editorial board to complete their PhD work.  Joining the team are Sophie Merrix and Sam Hollins, both first-year PhD students here at Lancaster. The editorial board operates on a rolling membership, and we look forward to building on new ideas and perspectives.

Yours sincerely,

 

The Editorial Board

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