What is the project about?
‘Ephemera and writing about war in Britain, 1914 to the present’ was a collaborative research project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project ran from September 2021 to May 2024. Our team of researchers was led by Dr Ann-Marie Einhaus (English Literature, Northumbria University), who worked alongside Co-Investigators Prof. Tony Williams (Creative Writing, Northumbria University), May Sumbwanyambe (Creative Writing, Northumbria University) and Prof. Catriona Pennell (History, University of Exeter). In addition, each institution hosted one full-time Research Fellow, Dr Ann-Marie Foster (History, Northumbria University) and Dr Chris Kempshall (History, University of Exeter). In February 2024, we were joined by a short-term Research Fellow, Dr Julia Ribeiro S. C. Thomaz.
To mark the end of our project, we held a Project Conference on 8 and 9 April 2024. You can download a conference report on our Conference page.
We have also now launched three public-facing publications: a Finding First World War Ephemera Field Guide, a Writing First World War Ephemera Toolkit and a short anthology of creative responses to First World War ephemera, Fragments: An Anthology. Find out more on our Publications page.
The ephemera pictured in our banner image above belong to the descendants of Drummer Andrew Hanton, 7th Northumberland Fusiliers, reproduced with kind permission of Georgia Godsmark and family.
Why were we doing this work?
Our project was a response to the enduring need, even after four years of centenary commemorations, to ensure that conflicts like the First World War are commemorated in all their diversity and complexity. We approached the memory and commemoration of the First World War in Britain through the twin lenses of ephemera (broadly defined as any small physical traces of everyday life other than printed books) and storytelling. Through a mixture of historical enquiry, literary criticism, creative writing and – most importantly – work with community groups and individuals interested in expanding public understanding of the war, we investigated how ephemera can be used both publicly and privately in diversifying the memorialising and narrating of conflict.
We are particularly committed to researching how working-class and ethnic minority experiences of the war can be brought into the public eye by drawing on ephemera and storytelling methodologies. Find out more about our team, the questions we set out to answer and the activities we undertook by exploring this website!
