Recap: LHPC 2026 ‘Legacy & Lens’
- EPOCH
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Charlie Molony │Lancaster University
As I compose the write-up of this year’s Lancaster Historical Postgraduate Conference (LHPC) ‘recap’, I cannot help but think back to the initial discussions that we had as a committee, reflecting on the frankly grim realities facing the study of the humanities in Higher Education. This backdrop was the rationale for our choice of theme for this year’s conference – ‘Legacy & Lens’ - as it summed up what the study of history and the humanities provide; the means to understand the legacy of events and their framing. It was imperative to us that LHPC 2026 provided a full-throated defence of our chosen fields, in addition to its normal role of providing a welcoming forum for junior scholars to come together and share their hard work with their colleagues. I believe that LHPC achieved both objectives, attracting scholars from nine countries, representing twenty-three institutions, to be informed (and dare I say inspired) by our keynote speakers and their fellow delegates. Assisting in ensuring the delivery of the delegates’ excellent work were the volunteer chairs, without whom the conference would not have been the success it was.
As it is incumbent on me to thank them all, I will, although not by name. As listing all fifty-one delegates who were able to attend, would make for rather dry reading. Needless to say, the quality of research was consistently excellent, and it was a pleasure to attend the diverse range of panels. As it seems to be the consensus amongst historians that the mark of a truly great paper is how it stimulates inquiry, it was gratifying that even faced with some of the hottest days of the year, questions abounded and conversations overspilled into refreshment breaks. I hope that Sam Elliot’s wonderful photos capture the enthusiasm for your work that radiated in person. To EPOCH readers who may scoff at this as mere hyperbole, I would invite you to come and take part in future LHPCs.
Some of our delegates went above and beyond providing their assistance as guest chairs, and I apologise for not thanking you enough. EPOCH’s global platform is perhaps a more fitting stage, especially as the editorial team were so involved. To Alex, Amy, Ed, Ila, and Josh, the committee owes you our greatest thanks not only for your excellent presentations but for curating panels and making other delegates feel welcome. We also extend our thanks to our faculty chairs Dr. Alex Wragge-Morley and Dr. Nicholas Radburn for generously offering their time to chair the Histories of Medicine and Atlantic Legacies panels. To the members of faculty who also volunteered time but were unable to make it owing to other commitments we thank you for your support and I am sure that future committees would be equally delighted to invite you to chair.
To spare you, dear reader, of all the tribulations of securing keynote speakers, I will simply say that sometimes misfortune leads to greater treasure. We took some risks this year and made some changes to the format. Largely those risks were rewarded, bar a minor miscommunication on my part regarding audio-visual requirements for our brilliant opening keynote speaker, Dr. Louisa Munch of Warwick University. Dr. Munch delivered her engaging talk ‘Critical Theory Against the Far-Right: Mobilising Hope in a Time for Monsters’ to our delegates and members of the public on the first day of the conference. Despite the extreme heat, it appeared our gamble to open this event to the public paid-off in terms of audience engagement and was well received by our delegates. As the weather continued to be verging on the uncomfortable, we were grateful for the air-conditioned lecture theatres of Lancaster University’s Management School (demonstrating exactly where Higher Education funding priorities lie). Yet, and perhaps riffing off our conference theme, Thursday’s heat proved that the legacy of humanity has reached a point whereby not all air-conditioning, even those designed for future corporate leaders, was reliable enough; leading to some discussion about whether the future of LHPC lies as an al fresco event. The practicalities of presenting poolside were in the finest traditions of the discipline, analysed, debated, and discussed at length. If nothing else, it proved that historians are as creative as they are resilient.
Thankfully, by Friday the weather had begun to cool off, and the hard work of the committee managed to secure an alternative to the ‘sweatlodge’ that our principal lecture theatre had become. It was in the cool of a substantially more intimate venue that we closed the conference with our final keynote delivered by the superlative Kirsty Parsons - curator of the Charles Dickens Museum. Kirsty’s lecture ‘Extra/Ordinary Women: Re-examining The Women Surrounding Charles Dickens’ provided us all with a much-improved lens by which to understand the legacy of not only the celebrated author but of the creation and curation of masculine legacies. As we witness a concerning reinforcement of patriarchy through the ‘manosphere’, Kirsty’s contribution to LHPC 2026 was timely and necessary. That she also confirmed a long-held belief of mine that the Muppet’s Christmas Carol is the finest adaptation of Dicken’s’ work is purely coincidental to the praise she deserves.
There is one other cohort who deserve lavish praise, and they are my fellow committee members, Angus Dunn, Georgia Platt, and Sophie Anderton. Without all their hard work the foundations upon which all other efforts rested would not have existed. They were a pleasure to work with and helped put on a truly fantastic LHPC.
Thank you to all our delegates (presenters and audience), our chairs, our keynotes, our photographer Sam, and to all those behind the scenes who made LHPC happen. Despite the grim prospects we face in humanities in Higher Education, we made it an event to remember and contributed to a legacy that is impossible to ignore. Here’s to hope for the future.
