Gale Ambassadors

How Gale Primary Sources Supports Students Taking Exeter University’s ‘Approaches to Criticism’ Module

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│By Poppy Sargent, Gale Ambassador at the University of Exeter│

The first year ‘Approaches to Criticism’ module taught to English students at the University of Exeter is notoriously one of the hardest compulsory modules, spanning across both first and second term. Throughout this module, you learn to think about yourselves as infinitely complex social and political subjects and how our social and political being shapes reading practices, focusing on systems and subjects in relation to one another.

Leveraging literature from Gale Primary Sources, this blog will highlight how Gale supports this module, sourcing manuscripts and monographs to aid students and lecturers in their work. By focusing on three of (in my opinion) the most interesting and crucial topics of this module, I will show you how Gale’s extensive archives highlight articles covering Marxism, Bodies and Medicine, and Critical Race Studies.

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Lights, Camera, Snaption: The Impacts of Living in an Imaged Based Society

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│By Olivia McDermott, Gale Ambassador at the University of Liverpool│

In our contemporary world, visual media plays an increasingly important role in how we socialise, develop our opinions and create online personas. Though the ability to capture and translate the world around us into images can be dated back to the time of Aristotle, the invention of the photographic camera occurred in the early nineteenth century by Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.

Over a period of just under two hundred years, the commercialisation of the camera now means that anyone can become a photographer. However, many scholars argue that such rapid technological advancement is leading to social changes that we are struggling to adapt to. For example, the pressures on people to only post perfect, airbrushed photos are causing an identity crisis, particularly amongst the youth; AI deepfakes are causing detrimental, psychological issues and the obsession with only sharing the good parts of life is leading to increasing reports of isolation.

As a young woman who has grown up in the digital age, I am more than aware of the ways in which social media infiltrates through to all areas of life. Living in an imaged-based society continues to overlap within the personal, relational, academic and professional spheres, but how did we get here?

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Edward Teller: No Cold War without the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb

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│By Sofía Sanabria de Felipe, Gale Ambassador at the University of Oxford│

On July 21, 2023, the world – or at least the world that exists on the internet – was taken over by a cinematic phenomenon: the simultaneous release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. ‘Barbenheimer’, if you will. The long, pandemic-delayed release of a film about the world’s most famous doll and the man behind the Manhattan Project became an unlikely couple, drawing people back to the cinema screen in unprecedent numbers.

As a historian who’s particularly fascinated by popular culture and the Cold War, the summer of 2023 became a perfect opportunity for me to reflect on the relationship between these two concepts, especially when understanding the prevalence of the American – arguably Western – perspective on the twentieth century. Two years on, Gale Primary Sources’ collections, primarily Archives Unbound, have given me the tools to explore my interests further.

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Reimagining Global Politics: International Relations through a Non-Western Lens

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│By Aiman Urooj, Gale Ambassador at the University of Delhi│

International Relations (IR) has long been dominated by Western-centric theories, primarily shaped by European and American intellectual traditions. These frameworks—Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism prioritise state sovereignty, individualism, and economic liberalism. This Eurocentric lens limits IR’s ability to fully explain global politics, reinforcing a Westphalian state system that does not reflect realities outside the West.

Non-Western epistemology challenges the universal applicability of mainstream IR theories by offering alternate frameworks for understanding contemporary IR. This blog explores these alternate perspectives, with concepts like Ubuntu’s relational ethics in Africa, Tianxia’s hierarchical harmony in China, Islamic justice, and Russia’s civilizational sovereignty.

By exploring archival sources from Chatham House Online Archive scholars can uncover evidence that highlights the contributions of non-Western societies to global diplomacy.

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From Chains to Change: The Differences Between African Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Trade

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│By Rawan Mohamed, Gale Ambassador at the University of Leeds│

Slavery has been a pervasive institution throughout human history that has manifested into multiple forms across different societies. In Africa, indigenous systems of slavery pre-date the trans-Atlantic slave trade. However, the arrival of European powers and the subsequent demand for labour within the Americas transformed existing practices into a dehumanising enterprise. Delving into Gale’s Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive enables us to uncover the distinct differences between indigenous African slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade and shed light on their enduring impacts upon entire societies.

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The Mirror and Women: Female Readers, Female Writers

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│By Lucy McCormick, Gale Ambassador at the University of Birmingham│

The Daily Mirror began life in 1903 as a journal for respectable women – a burgeoning demographic at the fin-de-siècle, to whom the major daily newspapers did not cater. It launched staffed by women and pursued a female (although not exclusively) readership. Adrian Bingham’s article for Gale is a fascinating exploration of the Daily Mirror’s relationship with women. Building upon this rich contextual knowledge, this blog stresses the significance of this venture to embolden female readers and female writers in the androcentric tabloid press.

How did the Mirror depict women? Why did Arthur Harmsworth centralise women in his newspaper? How did women forge new roles for themselves as journalists and readers? This Women’s History Month, we are delving into Gale’s archive of the Mirror from 1903 to find out more.

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How A Girl Should Be: How Female Experiences Have Changed Over Time

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│By Olivia McDermott, Gale Ambassador at the University of Liverpool│

As International Women’s Day begins to approach, it seems fitting that we should reflect upon the many ways in which the female experience has changed over time.

Historically, from a patriarchal lens, the female experience has been aligned with ideas of subjugation, inferiority, and passivity. With the societal expectations of marriage and childrearing being deemed as intrinsic aspects of womanhood, up until the early Victorian period, women’s freedoms were extremely limited. However, this began to change by the end of the eighteenth century, as the passing of The Education Act (1870) allowed girls to receive the same education as boys.

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Using Newspaper Articles to Uncover the History of Eating Disorders from the Nineteenth to the Twentieth Century

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│By Lebohang Seganoe, Gale Ambassador at the University of Johannesburg│

As a child, you absorb everything you are taught within the community you are raised in. Because your mind is still developing you rarely question how different someone’s reality might be from your own. I grew up in a society that had strong views on beauty standards. These include that a woman in her prime must have a full face and big curves, and she must look like she is eating well so that her potential spouse can see that she can bear as many children as possible. This post will explore different beauty standards and their impact on women’s bodies.

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Mourning and Memory, Transforming Rites: Tracing the Role of Ritual in the Evolution of the British Deathscape

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│By Megan Harlow, Gale Ambassador at Durham University│

Death remains one of the few universal human experiences. After all, as mortal beings, we are all bound to face it. Yet, in today’s British landscape, death and dying have become private, taboo topics—seldom discussed until society and/or the individual is confronted in the wake of loss. For many, encounters with death prove transformative, requiring a renegotiation of identity and an exploration of grief’s emotional complexities. The role of ritual in death and bereavement becomes significant.

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The Development of Poetry in Medieval and Renaissance British Literary Manuscripts

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│By Caley Collins, Gale Ambassador at University College London (UCL)│

Unless you study literature, chances are poetry isn’t the first thing you would think to use as a primary source for an essay. However, poetry gives a fantastic first-hand insight into the language, values, and customs that people were concerned with during specific time periods, making it useful for a wide variety of degrees, including History and Politics. Gale’s Medieval and Renaissance collection, which is part of the British Literary Manuscripts Online archive, contains a vast collection of primary sources ranging from a 1066 Old English historical translation to a 1901 collection of medieval letters.

Using these sources, this post will explore the differences and similarities between poetry written over the course of several centuries. I will quote the sources using modern English spellings, but leave the titles as they were originally written out.

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