The first histories people learn shape their understanding of the past–and the present–for the rest of their lives.
It is vital that young women see their histories represented, and it is vital that young men learn women’s history.
Not only because representation matters, but because women’s history helps us question and challenge older historical narratives and historical methodologies.
Julia Laite is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London and has been part of the History Workshop collective since 2015. She publishes widely in gender and women’s history, the history of migration and labour, and historical methodology.
Her most recent book The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey (2021) won the Golden Dagger for Non-Fiction from the British Crime Writer’s Association.
Her new book project, The Island of Lost Names, will tell the story of colonial Newfoundland and the Beothuk people.