Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
In his inaugural professorial lecture, Professor Shane Ewen will discuss how histories of fires and burns, unearthed during the ‘Forged by Fire’ project, have been used to inspire creative learning, especially amongst school children in urban communities shaped by their experiences with fire.
Shane Ewen is Professor of History at Leeds Beckett where his research and teaching interests coalesce around urban history and the politics and culture of disasters and emergency preparedness.
He is co-editor of Urban History, the leading academic journal in the field. He is also Co-investigator on the Arts and Humanities research project; "Forged by Fire: Burns Injury and Identity in Britain, c.1800-2000", during which he has worked alongside the Fire and Rescue Service in England and Scotland, the Fire Brigades Union, burns charities and several schools to deliver novel educational and community-engagement resources.
This lecture is part of Leeds Beckett University's inaugural professional lecture series.
Shane Ewen is an urban historian specialising in 19th and 20th century urban space, identity, emergency preparedness and disasters. He is the author / editor of four books, most recently Before Grenfell: Fire, Safety and Deregulation in Twentieth-Century Britain (London University Press, 2023), which has been highly praised in debates in both the House of Commons and House of Lords. He is co-editor of Urban History (Cambridge University Press), an accomplished public speaker and educator, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
