Media and Policy

UCL History staff make regular appearances in media and inform policy. Here is a list of selected appearances since 2018.

Individual staff profile pages contain more detail about their media and policy expertise. We also frequently share details about their activities on our New and Events page, as well as on social media.

Ancient History

• Hans van Wees featured on BBC Radio 4 ‘In Our Time’: ‘Solon the Lawgiver’, March 2023.
• Eleanor Robson interviewed on BBC ‘Cunk on Earth (Episode 1: In the Beginnings)’ by Diane Morgan, September 2022.
• Julietta Steinhauer interviewed for WIRE (Women in Research, University of Munster) uncovering the lives of 'normal people' in Ancient Greece, June 2021.
• Julietta Steinhauer interviewed for BBC program on the Eleusinian Mysteries, BBC World Service, January 2021.
• Valentina Arena interviewed for UCL's European Institute podcast, COVID-19: The Pandemic and Europe, May 2020.
• Vivienne Lo interviewed on BBC World Service CrowdScience progamme 'How did Humans Discover Medicine?', February 2020.
• 'Violence and Conflict': Eleanor Robson appeared on Radio 4's Start the Week programme in January 2019.
• Valentina Arena appeared on Radio 4's In Our Time to talk about the Roman orator Cicero, January 2018.

Medieval and Early Modern History

• John Sabapathy quoted in The Guardian article 'How do faithless people like me make sense of this past year of Covid?', March 2021.
• John Sabapathy was interviewed for the UCL Minds podcast Coronavirus: The Whole Story - What can we learn from the history of pandemics?, May 2020.
• Ben Kaplan was interviewed by the Dutch magazine Elsevier about UCL's Chair of Dutch History and his work as a Low Countries historian in London.

Modern History

• Heather Jones discusses the new series of A House Through Time on BBC Points of View, October 2024
• Mitchell Robertson explains how US elections are won at the margins and that celebrity endorsements can help in winning over swing voters on BBC Radio Scotland (from 1hr, 48 min, 15 sec)
• William Booth discusses the failed coup in Bolivia on TRT World, June 2024
• Mitchell Robertson joins BBC News to preview US Presidential Debate, June 2024
• William Booth writes op-ed on ‘What Mexico’s election outcome means for the country and the world’ for TRT World, June 2024
• William Booth contributes to France24 interview on ‘Mexico to vote for new president after violent campaign’, June 2024
• William Booth features on BBC World Service: The History Hour [Latin American Revolutionaries], June 2024
• Andrew Seaton features on BBC Radio Cornwall speaking about pressures on the NHS and the role of community medicine, May 2024 
• Andrew Seaton writes op-ed about the UK's infected blood scandal for Le Monde, May 2024
• William Booth contributes to TRT World: The Newsmakers [on Argentina/Milei], May 2024
• William Booth appears on AlAraby TV [UK/US Elections and Student Protests], May 2024
• William Booth contributes to France24 interview on the ‘Redrawing of Mexico’s political reality’, May 2024
• William Booth writes op-ed on the student protests for TRT World, April 2024
• Michael Collins gives evidence to select committee at Westminster, February 2024.
• Heather Jones quoted in BBC News article 'King Charles: What sort of monarch has he been in his first year?', September 2023.
• Heather Jones quoted in BBC News article 'Can Prince William navigate politics and privilege to cure homelessness?', June 2023.
• Michael Collins commissioned for ICEC report into racism and sexism in cricket. The report has received widespread media coverage, June 2023.
• Heather Jones contributes to Michael Portillo's 'Taking Sides: Britain and the Civil War', a television documentary on the Irish Civil War by Ireland's state broadcaster RTE, May 2023.
• Mitchell Robertson appears on BBC Radio 4 “The Briefing Room” to discuss ‘Trump’s legal woes’, April 2023.
• Shirli Gilbert contributed to the Deutsche Welle television documentary: ‘Klassik Unterm Hakenkreuz: Der Maestro Und Die Cellistin von Auschwitz’ [Music under the Swastika: The Maestro and the Cellist from Auschwitz’], documentary film, 52”/90”. Deutsche Welle, December 2022.
• Shirli Gilbert appeared on ‘Over to You: Making the documentary Music that Survived the Nazis’, February 2022.
• Shirli Gilbert wrote and presented a 2-part documentary for the BBC World Service ‘The Documentary: Music that Survived the Nazis’ (Part One and Part Two), January 2022.
• Mark Frost’s documentary film ‘SCENE UnSEEN’ won the award for Best Documentary on Music at the 2022 Bangkok International Documentary Awards and Festival, January 2022.
• David Sim features in BBC1 TV Programme Murder, Mystery and My Family. 
• Lucia Patrizio Gunning interviewed for the Fingerprints podcast run by the Ashmolean Museum (Episode 5: Hunting the Minotaur), November 2021.
• Heather Jones contributes to this BBC Northern Ireland podcast on the centenary of King George V's speech calling for reconciliation in Ireland at the opening of the Northern Irish parliament in 1921, June 2021.
• Heather Jones writes article for BBC History Extra Magazine about the partition of Ireland, May 2021.
• Mark Frost interviewed about documentary-making and his own current documentary history project for the South China Morning Post, April 2021.
• Tim Gibbs interviewed on Voice of Islam Radio and Radio France Internationale about Black History Month and Postcolonialism, October 2020.
• Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite interviewed on BBC Radio 4 programme 'Anthony Blunt: A Question of Retribution', June 2020.
• Vivienne Lo interviewed on BBC4 TV programme 'A Very British History: The British Chinese', February 2020.
• Margot Finn interviewed for The Wonder House podcast, January 2020.
• Nathaniel Morris interviewed by the FT, January 2020.
• Margot Finn gives Royal Historical Society Presidential Address, available as a podcast, December 2019.
• Heather Jones interviewed for BBC2 documentary, A House Through Time, April 2019.
• Heather Jones contributes to major three part television series on the Irish War of Independence, February 2019.
• 'Remembering the Silence': Heather Jones appears on armistice documentary for Radio 4, November 2018.
• Melvyn Stokes appeared on BBC Radio Berkshire to discuss postwar cinemagoing in Britain and the career of the film actress Valerie Hobson, October 2018.
• Shirli Gilbert wrote and presented a Sunday Feature on BBC Radio 3: 'Music on the Brink of Destruction', July 2018.
• The Evening Standard published an article (pdf) on the 'British Cinema-going in the 1960s' project's immersive screening of Barbarella, January 2018.

American History and Politics

• Kathleen Burke featured in BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Franco-American Alliance 1778', April 2021.
• Kathleen Burke appears on Channel 4 News, July 2019.
• Kathleen Burke interviewed for Radio 4 programme 'The Moral Maze: The Morality of Leadership', March 2019.
• Stephen Conway interviewed as part of the 'Monologue for Two' series, March 2019.

History of Gender and Sexuality

• Victoria Dawson interviewed on BBC1 TV Programme Murder, Mystery and My Family, March 2019. 
• Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite appeared on the BBC Radio 4 show, Mind the Gender Pay Gap, discussing women and pay through history, March 2018.