UCL History Alumni Newsletter 2025
Contents
Welcome
Department News
- Spotlight on Teaching: Anna Maguire awarded the Outstanding Community-Engaged Learning Award
- Spotlight on Research: Dr Yağmur Heffron Receives Prestigious Research Grant from the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund
- Spotlight on Students: Award Winners
- Spotlight on Careers: History Alumni Careers Panel 2025
- Selected Publication: Our NHS: A History of Britain’s Best-Loved Institution
- Selected Publication: Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic
- Spotlight on Professional Services: UCL Arena Fellowships
- In Memory of Professor Emeritus John North
Alumni Spotlight
- Spotlight on Fleur Elkerton
- Revenge, Punishment and Anger in Ancient Greek Justice – Joe Whitchurch
- Beatrice Pestarino Begins Leverhulme Fellowship at Liverpool
2024-25 Events Overview
- Inaugural Lecture: Coşkun Tunçer
- Neale Lecture
- Inaugural Lecture: Rebecca Jennings
- Alumni Roundtable
- Aaron Graham Memorial Lecture
- Upcoming Events
Keep in Touch
A Summer Message from the Head of Department
Dr Antonio Sennis
Associate Professor of Medieval History
Head of UCL History
Dear UCL History Alumni,
I hope this message finds you well, and that you are enjoying some moments of rest, reflection, or travel over the summer. Whether you’re reconnecting with friends, revisiting a favourite book, or just enjoying the longer evenings, I hope you find time for restoration and pleasure.
It’s been a tremendously active year in the History Department, full of energy, collaboration, and achievement. As ever, I write with a sense of pride in the extraordinary work being done by colleagues, students, and alumni—and with gratitude for your ongoing support and connection to our community.
Among the many highlights, I want to begin by celebrating our collective achievements in teaching and research. Dr Anna Maguire received a UCL Provost’s Education Award for her exceptional module at UCL East, which placed students in direct dialogue with local communities to explore histories of migration, memory, and belonging. It is a striking example of how we teach history not only as knowledge, but as practice—grounded in public engagement and ethical collaboration.
Our research continues to shape understanding across time and space. Dr Yağmur Heffron’s award from Oxford will fund new archaeological fieldwork at Uşaklı Höyük in Türkiye—a site rich in Hittite history and once possibly home to the ancient city of Zippalanda. Her work bridges the remote ancient past with the demands and debates of the present.
Our students, too, have been making their mark. Geneva Virasami won a Laidlaw Research and Leadership Award; Berry Pillot De Chenecey was awarded the Batman Prize for a compelling dissertation on children’s wartime play; and Euan Toh Yu-Yuan and Charlie Gutteridge received accolades for their outstanding work in mentoring. Their achievements are testament to the intellectual curiosity and sense of community that run through this department.
It was a joy to welcome alumni back to campus for our annual Careers Panel, where we heard from graduates working across the legal, media, parliamentary and healthcare sectors. Their generosity and insight reminded us just how varied and impactful a History degree can be—and we’d love to hear from others interested in contributing to future events.
Among our colleagues, several have had an especially notable year. Dr Andrew Seaton’s Our NHS was shortlisted for the Wolfson Prize and won the Morris D. Forkosch Prize—an extraordinary recognition of a book that links historical research with one of the most pressing issues in British public life. Dr Chloe Ireton’s Black Freedom Papers was launched at UCL to great acclaim, highlighting her pioneering work on race, freedom, and knowledge in the early modern Atlantic world.
We also celebrated achievements among our professional services colleagues. Jessica Davidson and Sladana Radanovic were awarded UCL Arena Fellowships—recognising their critical work in supporting our students, shaping inclusive practice, and strengthening the day-to-day life of the department.
This year we marked two significant retirements. Professor Melvyn Stokes, who joined the Department in 1972, retires after more than fifty years of outstanding service. His work on American film and political culture has shaped entire fields of scholarship and inspired generations of students. Whether analysing The Birth of a Nation or guiding PhD students through the archives of Hollywood, Melvyn has brought rigour, insight, and generosity to everything he’s done. He leaves behind not just a body of exceptional scholarship, but an indelible presence in the life of the department.
We also bid farewell to Professor Eleanor Robson, whose leadership as Head of Department was a masterclass in leadership, vision, and compassion. As a scholar of ancient Mesopotamia, Eleanor has illuminated the worlds of mathematics, science, and knowledge in the ancient Near East. Through the Nahrein Network, she has pioneered equitable partnerships with Iraqi institutions, helping transform how knowledge is produced and shared in global contexts. Her departure marks the close of a chapter, but the influence of her work—and her leadership—will long endure.
We also remembered with affection and admiration Professor Emeritus John North, who passed away this year. John joined the department in 1963 and became one of the most distinguished scholars of Roman religion and ancient intellectual history of his generation. His legacy lies not only in his scholarship, but in the lives he touched, the students he taught, and the generous, rigorous spirit he brought to academic life.
Looking ahead, we are already preparing for one of the most significant milestones in UCL’s history: its Bicentennial in 2026. The History Department will play a full role in the commemorations, with public events, exhibitions, and reflections on the role of the historical discipline within UCL and in wider society. We’ll be in touch soon with further details—and we very much hope that you’ll join us in celebrating this occasion.
In the meantime, thank you. Your engagement—whether through mentorship, events, donations, or simple interest—continues to nourish and sustain this department. UCL History is not simply a building or a timetable. It is a community of thinkers, teachers, researchers, students, and alumni, connected across generations by a shared belief in the power of history to understand the world around us.
With warmest wishes,
Dr Antonio Sennis
Spotlight on Teaching: Anna Maguire awarded the Outstanding Community-Engaged Learning Award
Congratulations to Dr Anna Maguire who was the winner of the Outstanding Community-Engaged Learning Award at the UCL East Engagement Awards Ceremony in Marshgate.
The MA Public History module Critical Public History programme (HIST0867), led by Dr Anna Maguire and Dr Mark Frost, champions community engagement. The core course module provides multiple opportunities for the students to learn about community engagement practice and to work with east London communities while undertaking their coursework.
The impact is a series of mutually beneficial relationships: with students embedding themselves in local communities, and local organisations gaining from the skills, time, and alternative approaches being brought in by the students.
Dr Antonio Sennis, Head of Department: “The fact that this is a core course (a notoriously difficult type of course to pitch right) seems to me to add a further dimension to Anna’s achievement! Brava Anna!”
Read Anna’s Research Spotlight here.
Spotlight on Research: Yağmur Heffron Receives Prestigious Research Grant from the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund
Dr Yağmur Heffron has been awarded a prestigious research grant by the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund for Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Oxford, in support of archaeological fieldwork at the site of Uşaklı Höyük in Türkiye.
Uşaklı Höyük is a multi-period site in central Türkiye, where an Italian-led team from the Universities of Pisa and Florence has been excavating since 2008. Dr Yağmur Heffron joined the Uşaklı Höyük Archaeological Project (UHAP) as Assistant Director in 2022. UHAP’s long-term research agenda is invested in the multidisciplinary investigation of the site’s settlement landscape, focusing primarily on the preclassical history of communities from the period of initial urbanisation into the various transformative phases (territorialisation, state formation, collapse, fragmentation, regeneration) during the Bronze and Iron Ages (2000-1100 BCE). Particularly for the second millennium, UHAP’s programme of research, sheds light on a significant but underexplored part of ‘the Hittite heartland’ in north-central Anatolia.
The site is widely identified as the ancient city of Zippalanda, which was one of the holy cities of the Hittite Empire, and served as an important cult centre. During annual festivals, the Hittite king stopped at Zippalanda to carry out religious rites. The remains of a monumental temple discovered at Uşaklı Höyük would have been the focal point of such rites. The temple also boasts what the Turkish press has described (not inaccurately) as the world’s earliest mosaic floor – a courtyard paved with coloured pebbles in a geometric design, dating back to ca. 14th century BCE. Not far from the temple, we have discovered a mysterious circular structure with a spiralling wall, and a series of unusual ritual deposits containing animal remains as well as infant/child burials. We believe this to be some kind of ceremonial construction. It has no known parallels in the Hittite world, nor in the broader Near East.
Yağmur’s project focuses on life of Uşaklı Höyük (ancient Zippalanda?) as a religious centre, by targeting a previously unexcavated portion of the lower town between two special zones, marked by a monumental Hittite temple, and the highly unusual Circular Structure. New excavations will document the spatial/chronological connections (or disconnections) between the temple and the Circular Structure, and how the religious-ceremonial profile of an urban site was created, sustained, or altered through strategies of architectural programmes, as well as through human use and experience. The project is also designed with a pedagogical agenda for establishing a new field school model to train students in a wider range of excavation methods, as well as field recording skills in two languages.
The first year of Dr Heffron’s project at Uşaklı Höyük is supported by a fieldwork grant from the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund (University of Oxford).
Each year at least one UCL student accompanies Yağmur in the field as a trainee assistant. Yağmur hopes to bring more students to participate in the real-life collective research effort of the project.
Spotlight on Students: Award Winners
Transition Mentor Programme Award Winners 2024
Congratulations to our brilliant History students, Euan Toh Yu-Yuan (History BA, Third Year) and Charlie Gutteridge (History, BA, Third Year), for winning the Transition Mentor of the Year and Senior Mentor of the Year respectively!
Transition and Senior Mentors play an important role in supporting first-year undergraduate student transition to UCL. Mentors give advice on academic topics, support services and administrative tasks need to be completed as a first year undergraduate student.
Berry Pillot De Chenecey Wins Prestigious 2024 Batman Prize for Outstanding Research
UCL History is proud to announce that Berry Pillot De Chenecey, Public History MA, has been awarded the 2024 Phil Batman Family History Prize for her outstanding undergraduate dissertation at King’s College London, “No Place to Be a Child? The Persistence and Peculiarities of Children’s Play During the Second World War.” The award recognizes her exceptional undergraduate dissertation, highlighting her dedication and excellence in historical research.
Geneva Virasami Wins UCLU Award for Commitment to Co-produced Research
Geneva Virasami, MA Public History, was honoured with a UCLU Award for Commitment to Co-produced Research. The award recognises her outstanding collaborative work with the grassroots organisation No More Exclusions. Geneva’s project focuses on developing an educational workshop exploring the bead trade in 8th-10th century East Africa, a subject often overlooked in mainstream history curricula. By highlighting this rich and complex period of pre-colonial African history, the workshop seeks to provide new resources to support secondary schools in delivering a more diverse historical narrative.
Spotlight on Career: History Alumni Careers Panel
Simon Macdonald
Lecturer in Modern European History
On Wednesday 4 June the History department held an alumni panel event about careers, welcoming back five recent graduates from our BA and MA programmes as panellists. This event was the keynote element of our Careers Week programme, a series of information and guidance sessions coordinated by the department and the UCL Careers Service, and which is now in its second year. These events provide our current students with an introduction to the variety of fields of employment to which their History degree can lead, and provide students with support as they begin to develop their own plans for their future careers. Opportunities to connect with alumni offer especially valuable personal insights into the transition between University and a career. A further advantage for the broader department is that these encounters allow us to maintain contact with our alumni and to hear about how their studies informed their careers.
This year’s alumni panellists encompassed an excitingly broad range of career trajectories. Ameerah Patel is a recent graduate who is currently working as a Legal Tech Analyst at law firm A&O Sherman; Conor Hicks studied on our MA History and is now working for a communications consultancy; Fleur Elkerton is Creative Lead for Social Media at UK Parliament; Nicholas Zeolla is a commercial barrister at Atkin Chambers specialising in construction, energy, infrastructure and international arbitration disputes; and Shreiya Singh is a trainee on the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme. The panellists were hugely generous to our audience with their experience and advice, and the event benefitted from being a student-led one. The panel discussion was followed by a questions-and-answers session and concluded with a social mixer over refreshments. We had very positive feedback from student attendees about the kinds of new pathways and connections that the evening helped to foster. Many thanks to Ameerah, Conor, Fleur, Nicholas and Shreiya for returning to campus and creating this important opportunity for our current students.
We are always eager to hear from alumni who might be willing to share career experiences and sector insights with our students. Your participation is invaluable to us. If you are interested in participating in future alumni events related to careers, please contact Simon at simon.macdonald@ucl.ac.uk.
Selected Publication: ‘Our NHS: A History of Britain’s Best-Loved Institution’ - Andrew Seaton
Andrew Seaton is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the History of modern Britain and his book, Our NHS: A History of Britain’s Best-Loved Institution (Yale University Press, 2023), chronicles the history of the world-famous institution through the perspectives of patients, medical practitioners, trade unions and overseas health experts.
Andrew’s book was shortlisted for the 2024 Wolfson History Prize and won the Morris D. Forkosch Prize. The American Historical Association offers the Morris D. Forkosch Prize annually in recognition of the best book in English in the field of British, British imperial, or British Commonwealth history since 1485.
Antonio Sennis, Head of Department (History): “This is a truly outstanding accomplishment and a testament to the significance and impact of Andrew’s scholarship. We are all incredibly proud to have him as a colleague, and this recognition further highlights the exceptional contributions that he continues to make to the field.”
Selected Publication: Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic
Congratulations to Dr Chloe Ireton whose book Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic was published by Cambridge University Press on 5 December 2024.
IAS Book Launch
On 8 May 2025, the Institute of Advanced Studies hosted the launch of Chloe’s new book, marked by a lively and thought-provoking roundtable discussion featuring the following panel of experts:
- Matthew J. Smith (Chair), Professor of History and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at UCL
- Toby Green (Kings College London)
- Julie Hardwick (University of Texas-Austin)
- Miles Ogborn (Queen Mary University London)
- Danielle Terrazas Williams (University of Leeds)
Spotlight on Professional Services: UCL Arena Fellowships
We’re pleased to share that two valued members of our professional services team in the Department of History have been recognised through the UCL Arena Fellowship scheme. These fellowships acknowledge meaningful contributions to teaching, student support, and educational leadership across UCL. Their work plays a vital role in supporting our students and enriching the educational experience in History. Please join us in celebrating their well-deserved recognition.
Following the May 2025 review panel, we warmly congratulate:
Associate Fellow
Sladana Radanovic – Programmes Administrator (Assessments)
Senior Fellow
Jessica Davidson – Departmental Tutor
“I’m proud to have been recognised for projects I’ve been leading to create a positive experience throughout the whole student lifecycle in UCL History. This includes designing small group activities so that Induction for our large undergraduate cohort offers meaningful opportunities to build relationships with peers and develop a sense of belonging, more resources for tutors and students to re-focus Personal Tutoring as an academic mentoring platform, and our new Transferable Skills Toolkit which will support our students to articulate the value of their degree with confidence on the job market and in future career settings.” - Jessica Davidson
In Memory of Professor Emeritus John North
It is with deep sadness that the Department of History announces the passing of Professor Emeritus John North.
John was one of the giants in the studies of ancient history, renowned for his groundbreaking work on the history of Roman religion and ideas, on the interaction between anthropology and history and on the relationships between ancient history, later historical periods and the contemporary world.
He was an incisive scholar, a dedicated teacher, and a generous mentor. His intellectual depth and kindness left an indelible mark on generations of students and colleagues.
Beyond his academic achievements, we will remember John for his warmth, wit, and the collegial spirit he brought to every aspect of university life. Our thoughts are with his wife, our colleague and friend Professor Nicola Miller, with his family and with all who knew him.
John’s legacy will live on in his writings, in the students and colleagues he inspired, and in the high standards of scholarship and humanity he exemplified.
Alumni Spotlight
Spotlight on Fleur Elkerton
BA History 2016-2019
Before and during my studies, I worked as a theatre producer and designer, having trained with the National Youth Theatre. I was Head of Design for UCL Drama Society and a real highlight was when I helped reopen the Bloomsbury Theatre in 2018 with ‘Saint Joan’.
After UCL, I received a full scholarship to study an MA in History of Design and Material Culture at the V&A Museum and Royal College of Art. I spent a semester at Bard Graduate Center in New York, and during the pandemic co-founded Design in Quarantine, a global digital archive of design responses to lockdown. The platform was featured in the New York Times, Financial Times and at the London Design Biennale.
Since completing my MA in 2021, I’ve worked in creative communications across the public sector, with a focus on storytelling and accessibility. I’ve managed digital content and campaigns for UCL, David Parr House and the British Academy. Since 2022, I’ve worked at UK Parliament, first as a producer and then as Creative Lead for Social Media from 2023. I manage all content for the House of Commons and Parliament channels - from livestreams to same day image releases from the Chamber, no two days are the same. Highlights have included working on Lying in State, visits from President Zelenskyy and the 2024 General Election.
I’m also a board member of the Heritage Trust, a national architectural heritage charity, where I founded our Youth Forum and support engagement and communications.
My time at UCL shaped my understanding of how creativity can support public understanding, trust and engagement. It also set me on the path to study design and material culture at a postgraduate level. Ultimately I’m always curious about how stories - whether stitched, staged or shared online - can help people feel more connected to the world around them, and studying history gave me the tools to explore this.
Image credit: House of Commons
Revenge, Punishment and Anger in Ancient Greek Justice – Joe Whitchurch
We’re delighted to announce that Revenge, Punishment and Anger in Ancient Greek Justice, the book version of Joe Whitchurch’s 2022 PhD thesis, has been published by Bloomsbury (September 2024).
Joe’s work explores how anger was not merely a disruptive force in ancient Greek society but a key driver of justice. From Homeric heroes to Athenian jurors, it was anger that fuelled demands for retribution - often with harmful consequences not just for individuals, but for entire communities.
By the seventh century BCE, Greek communities had begun to formalise the management of revenge through legal institutions. Yet these courts didn’t eliminate vengeance - they reframed it. Anger and punishment became subject to public oversight and, increasingly, served public purposes.
By the fifth and fourth centuries, Athens had developed a highly structured legal system. But despite its procedural sophistication, Athenian justice remained emotionally charged. Jurors responded emotionally to cases, and the system itself legitimised anger as a civic emotion. As Joe shows, ancient Greek justice never evolved into a dispassionate, state-run apparatus. Instead, it remained rooted in the emotional landscapes of its citizens, with anger taking centre stage as a powerful, public force.
Congratulations to Joe on this exciting publication!
Beatrice Pestarino Begins Leverhulme Fellowship at Liverpool
We’re proud to share that Dr Beatrice Pestarino (PhD Ancient Greek History, 2021) began a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Liverpool’s Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology in September 2024.
Beatrice’s research explores the politico-administrative and economic systems of Mediterranean city-states across the Archaic to Hellenistic periods, with a particular focus on Cyprus. Her award-winning first book, Kypriōn Politeia (Brill, 2022), investigated the political institutions of Classical Cypriot city-kingdoms, looking beyond royal authority to highlight the roles of local magistrates and assemblies.
Her current Leverhulme project, Rethinking Regionalism and Power in Hellenistic Cyprus, examines the persistence and adaptation of local institutions under Ptolemaic rule, as well as broader patterns of resistance and regional connectivity.
Beatrice’s recent research posts include a postdoctoral fellowship at the Haifa Center for Mediterranean History (2022–2024), where she explored Cypriot-Levantine connections in the Archaic period, and fieldwork as a Greek epigraphist at the Mitzpe Shivta Archaeological Project in the Negev desert. She has also held fellowships at Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, the Fondation Hardt, and the University of Cambridge, and continues to teach and inspire students of Classics across the UK and beyond.
2024-2025 Events Overview
Inaugural Lecture: Professor Coşkun Tunçer
29 October 2024
“Swallow flying south”: capital, democracy, and the making of the Global South
Neale Lecture
Upcoming Events
- Neale Lecture - TBC
- Alumni Roundtable - TBC
Keep in Touch
Social Media
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Get Involved
Stay up to date with UCL History News and Events. If you have any ideas for alumni engagement and events, contact our Communications Manager, Ella Thompson. We are excited to bring you new alumni opportunities in 2025-26 - watch this space!