christian o’connell

The Man – or his Times?

Having just been to see Race, the (rather boring, I have to say) bio-pic about the great African American athlete, Jesse Owens, I found myself thinking about people like Owens, and Joe Louis, and contrasting them with Muhammad Ali.  How…

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Discovering Native America

When I was thinking of a subject for a possible blog post on my Fulbright experience, I had no shortage of options. I could have easily talked about teaching American history to American students at Elon University, which has been…

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North Carolina Bound

This weekend I leave for Elon in North Carolina, where I will be spending four months teaching and researching as part of the Fulbright-Elon Scholar Award 2015-16. I was delighted to receive this award as I would have the opportunity…

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History Dissertation Day

Thank you and well done to all of the Level 6 students who presented their posters at History Dissertation Day on 14 January at the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum in Cheltenham. You’ve made us all proud! Thanks also to…

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Happy Birthday

How often is “Happy Birthday”, the song by Stevie Wonder, played to celebrate people’s birthdays?  It features quite a lot on Radio 2 …  but how many people realise the song was written by Wonder in 1981 as part of…

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