Wed 22nd December 2021
Why BALH?
Supporting your academic research
There is an increasing interest in local history as a key element of academic studies ? not just the content that has been published by local historians over the decades as a key research resource, but also in co-produced projects. Grant-awarding bodies such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have placed an increasing emphasis on collaborations and partnerships when considering the award of research funding, and BALH provides the perfect platform for academic researchers to locate key groups and ongoing activity.
Nick Barratt, Historian and Author
Meet the team
Daniella Marie Gonzalez
Born and raised in Gibraltar, I came to the UK in 2010 to study a BA in History at the University of Kent and I?ve never looked back since. Upon the completion of my BA, I continued my studies at Kent undertaking an MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies between 2013 and 2014. After taking a gap year, I returned to Kent in 2015 to pursue my PhD and passed my viva in February 2020. Funded by the Consortium for the Humanities and Arts in the South East (CHASE), my PhD, titled ?Common Profit and Civic Governance in Ricardian London, c.1376-c.1391?, focused on political discourse and how this was expressed within civic records in Richard II?s London.
I am interested in the social, cultural and political history of late medieval London, especially understandings of medieval political theory in an urban environment. I have an interest in political language and the way this was used by London?s civic leaders to enforce their authority and negotiate the political landscape that they found themselves in, examining how ideological concerns, specifically common profit rhetoric, influenced documentary culture. Part of my research is also concerned with the relationship between monarch, civic officers and the London populace and how ideas of body politic are expressed in London?s civic records.
After completing my doctoral studies, I have taken on work in the archive sector working on local history projects for several archives. These include projects undertaken with Special Collections & Archives at the University of Kent, focusing on early modern legal documents produced in Kent between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, and, more recently, with the Gibraltar National Archives, where I?ve been transcribing eighteenth-century letter books outlining Gibraltar?s administrative history. I have a deep interest in making archival records more widely accessible to the public and am very keen to work with county archives to engage audiences with historical records and to learn more about the communities that they are a part of. As from September 2020, I will be undertaking a distance learning MA in Archives Administration at the University of Aberystwyth.
I am also a Co-founder and Editor of MEMSlib, a lockdown library created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to assist medievalists and early modernists in carrying out their research from home (www.memslib.co.uk). Recently, I have also taken up the role of Communications Officer for the Archives and Records Association?s Section for New Professionals, which aims to support archivists and records managers in the early stages of their career.
I was honoured to join BALH as the Social Media Fellow for 2020/21, where I was responsible for BALH?s various social media platforms. This was a very exciting opportunity for me, highlighting the importance of local history and engaging wider communities with the stories of the places that they live in.
With the end of my Fellowship, I remain an active member of the BALH Outreach team.
Daniella Marie Gonzalez, BALH Outreach
Wed 19th January 2022 7:00 pm
Thu 27th January 2022 7:00 pm
Wed 16th February 2022 7:00 pm