RKT News February 2013 - University of Portsmouth

Focus on a researcher
Brad Beaven
Principal Lecturer in the School of Social,
Historical and Literary Studies (SSHLS)
Current project titles:
I am a social and cultural historian who focuses on British
society in the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. I lead
one of the Faculty’s strategic research projects; ‘Port Towns and
Urban Cultures’ exploring the social and cultural impact of ports
on the urban hinterland from the eighteenth century to the
modern period. We have developed this project in collaboration
with the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN). My own
research focuses on the social and cultural context to
‘sailortowns’ between 1800 to 1939 and I have begun
examining over 200 sailor diaries of all ranks.
Why did you become a researcher?
History is not a static subject but one that is constantly reinterpreting
and challenging orthodox viewpoints. You can go
for days without finding relevant material and then stumble upon
a fantastic set of archives that alters your whole perception of
an event. It is that piecing together of fragments from the past
and shedding new light on a long-standing historical
controversy that makes research an enjoyable experience.
Describe a typical day at work:
I am currently organising an international conference titled ‘Port
Towns and Urban Cultures’ with our partners at the NMRN for
July 2013. I am also writing a paper for a social and cultural
workshop on maritime history in Aland Islands, Finland. The
diaries that I have been researching will hopefully provide a nice
contrast as they reveal the sailor’s actual experience of sailor
town life. With this project, the advantage is that there are a
huge number of sailor diaries on my doorstep.
Who has influenced you most in life and why?
My parents brought me and my brother up in a very happy
household in Coventry between the late 1960s and 1980s, a
period which saw great changes in the city’s industrial
landscape. My whole family – grandparents, Dad and brother
worked in the declining car industry. My grandfather used to
take me to play snooker at some of the large, elaborate social
clubs complete with ball rooms, bars and snooker tables. These
have long since been demolished but I think it inspired me to try
to capture ‘club life’ in my research on working-class leisure.
More recently it has been my wife Becky, and our sons George
(eight) and Sam (two) who can always be relied upon to help me
keep work in perspective.
What are your interests outside of work?
At every opportunity I will try to watch a Coventry City game.
Despite their slow decline to the lower reaches of League 1 and
being under the constant threat of liquidation, I still can’t help
myself from becoming wildly optimistic after they win a couple
of games. I have also started learning the ukulele and have
mastered four chords, which according to some musicians,
allow you to play a whole range of songs. This theory is
somewhat disputed by my wife and children.
If you could invite any three people to dinner (past or present)
who would it be?
It would have to be Champagne Charlie, the music hall star of
the 1870s who used to drink pints of champagne on stage – if
anyone could start a party I’m sure he could. I’d also invite a
working-class man and women who lived in the 1870s and just
simply ask them; ‘did I get it right?’
Pick five words that you associate the most with research:
Port towns, social and cultural history, leisure, social class.
One of the increasingly important aspects to research now is
‘impact’ and my diary is beginning to be filled with meetings
with museum curators and arranging collaborative projects with
the heritage sector.
What do you perceive to have been the biggest challenge you
have ever undertaken?
It would have to be my last book, Visions of Empire: Patriotism,
Popular Culture and the City, 1870- 1939 (Manchester
University Press, 2012). This book took six years to research
and write as I covered a fairly long chronology and investigated
three cities representing the south, midlands and the north of
England. That, and trying to keep my two year-old son in one
place for more than 30 seconds.
What is your greatest achievement?
For a historian I’m perhaps surprisingly reluctant to dwell on
past activities and prefer to look forward to the next big task. I
would like to develop and strengthen our relationship with
external partners such as the NMRN, the Imperial War Museum
and the Portsmouth City Museum. In this era of ‘impact’, it
would be great to have Portsmouth historians routinely fostering
community contacts and getting recognition for their research
beyond the narrow confines of academia.
Research and Knowledge Transfer newsletter • February 2013
14
www.port.ac.uk/research