‘Anniversary cultures’: New histories of students and higher education

18 June 2026

Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, London

Organised by the International Centre for Historical Research in Education (ICHRE) at UCL Institute of Education and the Institute for Historical Research (IHR)

This conference marks 200 years since the foundation of London’s first university in 1826. Students have formed a significant part of London’s population since then and new research centres their experiences in the capital. The ‘Generation UCL: 200 Years of Student Life in London’ project examined life at the original London University (known as University College London since 1836) alongside many other institutions that eventually joined with UCL, capturing a diverse range of higher education experiences. The resultant book Student London: A New History of Higher Education in the Capital is published in February 2026.

Through this free one-day event, we seek to open the discussion beyond London students, examining new ways of writing histories of universities and inviting exploration of students’ everyday lives, fees and funding, collegiate cultures, social and political engagement, religion, physical and mental health, recreation, sports and leisure as well as changing student attitudes to class, race, gender, sex and sexuality. We are keen to hear about innovative methodologies in researching students and higher education. Following Huxford and Wallace’s (2016) discussion of ‘anniversary cultures’ in universities we also invite reflection on how and why different types of institutions mark anniversaries, and the role historical research can play in this process.

The event features an invited roundtable on anniversary cultures chaired by IHR Director Professor Claire Langhamer and ends with the annual Richard Aldrich Lecture, this year given by Professor Rosinka Chaudhuri, Professor of Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta and author of India’s First Radicals: Young Bengal and the British Empire.

We are now calling researchers at all career stages (including academics, archivists and students) to submit proposals to share their research via a:

5 minute lightning talk
15 minute paper
Panel of 3 or 4 x 15 minute papers on a theme

Please submit proposals of 150-200 words explaining what form of presentation you would like to give to Professor Georgina Brewis g.brewis@ucl.ac.uk by 14 February 2026.