Leeds Beckett academic makes every second count

In the penultimate instalment of the Leeds Cultural Conversation (LCC) series, Dr Rachel Rich, Senior Lecturer in European History at Leeds Beckett will be discussing how European men and women placed much emphasis on good time keeping and punctuality in the nineteenth century, and valued clocks as ornaments within the home.

‘Cooking without a clock: women, domesticity and timekeeping in nineteenth century Europe’ will take place at 12.30pm on Wednesday 13 April at Leeds City Museum.

An accomplished author and expert on nineteenth-century food, eating and etiquette, Dr Rich said: “In this talk, we will think about what time meant to society in the nineteenth century, looking in particular at how time was written about in diaries and published books.

“We will also look at clocks; how they were not very reliable, but punctuality was highly prized.  Cookbooks offered women time-sensitive instructions, but few people kept a clock in the kitchen.  Clocks were expensive and ornamental, and many chose to use them to display good taste rather than for more practical uses.”

A collaborative venture by the Centre for Culture and the Arts at Leeds Beckett and Leeds City Council, and sponsored by Palgrave Macmillan, the LCC series has seen some of the Centre’s leading academics deliver lunchtime talks in some of the city’s most iconic buildings.  Previous speakers have included Dr Katy Shaw and Professor Alison Oram.

Dr Rich’s research interests are varied, from class and gender (how the food we eat, and the way we eat, make us who we are) to cookbooks, diet fads and self-help manuals from the Victorian era.  She is also interested in nineteenth century interior design which has led her to look at a range of spaces, both public and private, including dining rooms, restaurants, clubs and banqueting halls.

The last talk in the series entitled ‘Eastern European ‘show trials’ of the 1950s: the Slansky case’ by Dr Kelly Hignett will take place at 12.30pm on Wednesday 11 May at Leeds Town Hall.