Rylands BlogCall for Papers – ‘Comment is Free, but facts are sacred’: The Guardian in Local, National and Global History

Thursday 6 April 2017, The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester

Keynote speaker: Alan Rusbridger, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and former Editor-in-Chief of the Guardian.

The University of Manchester Library and the John Rylands Research Institute invite submissions for a one-day interdisciplinary conference on the history of the Guardian newspaper.

Founded in 1821, the Manchester Guardian began life as a provincial journal, but under Scott’s inspired editorship it was transformed into a national newspaper with a reputation for journalistic integrity and honesty. The Guardian is still remembered in the North West of England as a great Manchester institution, but today its scope and reputation are truly international – its groundbreaking journalism brought to the widest audience through its pioneering use of digital media.

This event celebrates the cataloguing of C.P. Scott’s Editorial Correspondence in the Guardian Archive, a project made possible by the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives.

We welcome papers focusing on any aspect of the Guardian’s history, from 1821 to the present. However, reflecting the newspaper’s Manchester origins, we are particularly interested in submissions which take account of the relationship between local and global, provincial and metropolitan, in the newspaper’s history, as well as submissions which focus on Scott or issues with which he is associated. We are also interested in research which has made use of the archive – either the earlier material held by The University of Manchester Library, or the more recent papers at the Guardian News and Media Archive in London.

We invite submissions for papers of 20 minutes (with an expectation of an additional 10 minutes for questions). Potential topics might include, but are by no means restricted to:

• Coverage of specific issues, including but not limited to those associated with Scott’s editorship, e.g. British Imperialism and the Boer War, the First World War, women’s suffrage, Irish nationalism and Zionism.
• Individual editors, journalists, correspondents and contributors associated with the Guardian.
• The development of foreign correspondence and coverage of foreign policy and international news.
• The international reputation and influence of the Guardian.
• Women associated with the Guardian.
• The influence of the Guardian on political life, and its role in the history of radicalism in Manchester.
• The role of the Guardian in Manchester life, including that of its minority communities.
• Scott’s influence within the Liberal party.
• The Guardian and the history of the provincial press.
• How changing technology has shaped the history of the newspaper – both developments in printing and the digital revolution.
• Comparative studies of the Guardian (and/or its archive) and other newspapers (and/or their archives).
• How the Guardian Archive can shed light on internal debates and the editorial process.
• Coverage of business and economics.
• Coverage of leisure and cultural topics such as literature, theatre, music, sport.
• The readership of the Guardian.
• The role of the newspaper in shaping public opinion.
• Photography in, and photographers associated with, the newspaper.
• Cartoons and cartoonists associated with the Guardian.
• The Guardian as an employer.
• The history of advertising in the Guardian.
• The development of investigative journalism.
• The development of journalistic interviewing.

Please submit abstracts of up to 250 words to fran.baker@manchester.ac.uk. The deadline for submissions is Monday 31 October 2016.

C.P. Scott at his desk. Reproduced courtesy of Guardian News and Media Ltd