Who are you and what do you do?
Hi, I’m Chris and I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for this project based at the University of Exeter. My research background is in Allied relations and the First World War but I’ve also branched out into public history and the centenary, the portrayal of the war in computer games, and the use of real world history and politics in the Star Wars franchise.
Where do you live?
I’ve always lived in the south-east of England and am currently living in Canterbury.
Which interests, personal or professional, link you to this project?
As with many of my historian colleagues, including those on this project, I did a lot of public outreach and engagement work during the First World War centenary. Some of the outputs that came from that period were fantastic and really helped to sculpt the way the conflict is understood. However, there was also a clear sense that certain groups were not being given the room to discuss their histories and background relating to the war. This is therefore one of my primary motivations for this project: to try and continue what was begun during the centenary but not finished, and to allow for a wider and more diverse interaction with the war’s memory.
What kinds of ephemera would we find preserved in your home?
As both a historian and a geek my house is filled with a weird mix of different ephemera and objects. There are a lot of books and maps but also board and computer games (some of which interact with history and the war). There are also a lot of photographs dotted around from happy events in the past which act as useful memory triggers!
Do you have a favourite kind of historical ephemera?
I’ve always found diaries and letters to be both fascinating and problematic for historians in equal measure. Much of my own research has drawn from such material, and they often contain the exact types of detail and information that historians need. But, at the same time, they must also be understood as objects that were never intended to be read by us. Balancing the requirements of the field, with an appreciation of the line that is crossed by reading them, is an important part of how I approach being a historian.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your involvement with the project?
I am incredibly excited to begin this project and to start meeting people and interacting with their ephemera and objects. But alongside this I am not just interested in particular objects or stories but rather the context of those objects and the way those stories are told. One of my hopes is to incorporate not just the ephemera itself but also the spirit and nature of its link to the war into material that can eventually be used to design new and more diverse computer games. The way that computer games have approached the war has, at times, been overly narrow in its representation of race or different narratives. Hopefully that approach can be widened as an outcome of this project.