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2026 AUAC Conference: Who is Responsible for the Archives?

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2026 AUAC Conference: Who is Responsible for the Archives?

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Who is Responsible for the Archives? An Interdisciplinary Approach to Ethics in a Digital Age

When: Friday 26 June 2026, 9:00–5:00 pm

Where: Aston University campus in Birmingham, UK, and online (hybrid format)

Theme: Archives are vital repositories for preserving the past, for documenting the present, and for building memories and legacies for the future. Although they hold relevance to everybody’s history and affect society as a whole, they have long been the purview of a limited group of archivists and historians. In recent years, this has begun to change: archives, both as documents and as repositories, have received increasing attention from scholars across diverse disciplines and also from the broader public.

However, if questions of representation, digital transformation, and long-term preservation have become central to contemporary debates, issues related to ethics remain often limited to legal compliance or confined to a limited group of specialists. Building on previous debates including the US 2018 National Forum on Ethics & Archiving the Web and the ICA’s 2022 Ethics and Archives Online Discussion, and also on the ARA’s ongoing work in this area, this conference seeks to expand this discussion by bringing together experts and practitioners from all fields.

Submission guidelines

Contribution type: proposals for a 15-min paper to be presented at the conference either in person or online.

Submission: please send a 250-word abstract and one-page CV by 13 April 2026 to AUACConference2026@aston.ac.uk, specifying if you would be presenting remotely or in person.

Contact and information: Dr Ilaria Scaglia i.scaglia@aston.ac.uk

Notifications of acceptance in the programme will be sent by 30 April 2026.

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CfP AUAC 2026 Who is Responsible for the Archives 

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Dr Ilaria Scaglia is Head of the Aston University Archives and the Archives centre. She is a Senior Lecturer of Modern History and has an interest in the history of internationalism and the history of emotions.

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Ilaria studied at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice and at the State University of New York at Buffalo where she earned her Ph.D. in History. She joined Aston as Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Modern History in May 2018. Before this, she was Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Geography at Columbus State University, USA (2013-2018) and a Volkswagen-Mellon post-doctoral research fellow in Germany (Free University Berlin) and a Visiting Researcher at the Centre “History of Emotions” at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin (2016–17).

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Dr Sarah Atkins is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Culture and Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics

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Employment

Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication and Culture and Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics

Contact Details

Teaching Activity

During 2024/25, I teach on:

- Spoken Discourse Analysis (UG)
- Leadership and Managment Communciation (UG)
- Advanced Leadership and Management Communication (UG)
- Reading and Wellbeing (PG)
- Dissertation Supervisor (PG)

I previously taught on the modules; 'Introduction to Language Study' (UG), 'Introduction to Intercultural Communication' (UG) and 'Analysing Discourse' (PG).

I have taught on organisational communication and healthcare communication at the Univerisity of Nottingham and Birkbeck, University of London. I am also an expereinced tutor in delivering CPD courses to practitioners.

PhD Supervision

Current:

Jordan Robertson - The perception of silence in police-suspect interviews (Aston University, primary supervisor)

Lauren Morgan - BSL-interpreted police investigative interviews (Aston University, associate supervisor)

Biography

Sarah Atkins is a linguist who conducts applied research on professional communication, with her work at Aston focussing on forensic/legal contexts. She completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham and subsequently held posts at King's College London (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) and the University of Nottingham (PI, Economic and Social Research Council Future Research Leaders award), where she worked on projects researching the assessment of spoken communication for postgraduate doctors. She was then a member of Linguistic Profiling for Professionals, University of Nottingham, conducting linguistic consultancy projects with a range of external organisations. She has also worked for and remains a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Working Life, Birkbeck, University of London, researching spoken interaction in Schwartz Center Rounds®, which are supportive forums for healthcare staff to discuss the emotional and ethical complexities of their jobs.

As a member of the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, she currently works on a number of collaborative projects, including;

The ID2 project, looking at the complexities of anonymising linguistic research data

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS foundation trust - effective communication in patient outreach and referral letters

'Crimes in Action' - analysing communication in emergency calls reporting kidnap and extortion

FoLD - the Forensic Linguistic Databank

the EXCROW corpus of commercial extortion letters

Her work has a strong emphasis on applying findings in practical ways and she has developed a number of successful training interventions, including award-winning workshops and e-learning materials for healthcare professionals. She is interested in the ways in which linguistic methods and theories can be applied to real-world problems across various settings.

Research Projects/Collaborations

Crimes in Action: Communicating and recording 'crimes in action' in 999 calls (PI)
In this collaborative project with Felicity Deamer (Aston), Emma Richardson (Loughborough) and Joanne Traynor (Anglia Ruskin), we are working with a police control room in the UK to examine the communication and miscommunication that can occur in emergency 999 calls, focusing on calls where members of the public are potentially reporting serious incidents of kidnap and extortion. Calls to 999 are known to have increased in number and complexity - there can be difficulties in classifying 'crimes in action' (incidents occurring in real-time which potentially present a threat to life, such as kidnap and extortion), difficulties that can have serious real-life consequences. Drawing on a dataset of anonymised emergency calls and accompanying incident logs, we seek to shed light on communicative patterns in how such incidents are reported and subsequently classified. The findings will have implications for call handler training, with the opportunity to develop collaborative, practical outputs with the project partner.

ID2 - IDentifying the IDentifiable: a linguistic approach for textual expressions that carry personally identifying information (PI)
A £54k funded project looking at the complexities of anonymising linguistic research data, particularly in removing sufficient information to render data truly anonymous to different audiences with differing degrees of background knowledge.

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (PI)
A collaborative project looking at effective communication in patient outreach and referral letters - the project received £66k in funding.

FoLD: The Forensic Linguistic Databank
I am a member of the team developing the Forensic Linguistic Databank FoLD, a pioneering resource that provides a permanent, controlled access online repository for data of value to forensic linguistics.

EXCROW - the Extortion Corpus of Writings
A project analysing genre and pragmatic patterns in extortion letters. The EXCROW corpus (the Extortion Corpus of Writings) currently includes 40 commercial historic extortion letters and emails from law enforcement partners, with the aim to provide a resource to develop investigative techniques.

Applied linguistic research ethics
As part of my independent research time at the Aston Institute for Forensic Lingusitics, I have been conducting a study on ethics and professional practice in applied linguistics, particularly in the areas of consultancy and partnership work in which linguists are increasingly conducting their research.

Qualifications

BA (Hons) English Studies (University of Nottingham)

MA Applied Linguistics (University of Nottingham)

PhD Applied Linguistics (University of Nottingham)

PGCHE (Aston University)

Membership of Professional Bodies

- FHEA, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- BAAL, British Association for Applied Linguistics
- IPrA, International Pragmatics Association
- IAFLL, The International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics

Visiting Appointments

Education/Academic qualification

PG Cert, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Distinction), Aston University

PhD, Applied Linguisitics, University of Nottingham

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Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication and Culture and Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics During 2024/25, I teach on: - Spoken Discourse Analysis (UG)- Leadership and Managment Communciation (UG)- Advanced Leadership and Management Communication (UG)- Reading and Wellbeing (PG)- Dissertation Supervisor (PG) I previously taught on the modules; 'Introduction to Language Study' (UG), 'Introduction to Intercultural Communication' (UG) and 'Analysing Discourse' (PG).

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Professor Ali Z. Bigdeli is the Associate Dean Research and a Professor of Industrial Service Innovation at Aston Business School, Aston University. He is also the Co-Director of the Advanced Services Group, the centre of excellence in research and practice on servitization and advanced services.

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Professor Andrew Ellis, is Professor of Optical Communications, as part of the Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies.

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Andrew D. Ellis received the B.Sc. degree in physics with a minor in mathematics from the University of Sussex, Brighton, U.K., in 1987. He received the Ph.D. degree in electronic and electrical engineering from The University of Aston in Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K., in 1997 for his study on all optical networking beyond 10 Gb/s. He previously worked for British Telecom Research Laboratories as a Senior Research Engineer investigating the use of optical amplifiers and advanced modulation formats in optical networks and the Corning Research Centre as a Senior Research Fellow where he led activities in optical component characterization. From 2003, he headed the Transmission and Sensors Group at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland, where he was also a Member of the Department of Physics, University College Cork and his research interests included the evolution of core and metro networks, and the application of photonics to sensing.

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If you'd like to know more about the holdings in the archive or the work of the archives centre, please do email.

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Until 1st March 2021 Helen was Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Aston University.  She is now Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management in Aston Business School, and Associate Dean Aston Business School.

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Contact Details

Biography

Until 1 st March 2021 Helen was Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Aston University. She is now Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management in Aston Business School, and Associate Dean Aston Business School.

Helen graduated from Newnham College Cambridge, and subsequently gained an MA from the Open University and a PhD from Birkbeck College, London University. She has worked in the university sector since 1983 and a major part of that was spent in Aston Business School where she has held senior management positions including Director of Quality, Associate Dean Undergraduate Programmes and Head of Learning and Teaching. She is a trained executive coach.

Helen is Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management and a member of Aston Business School's Operations and Information Management Group. In 2003 she founded the Centre for Higher Education Learning and Management (HELM) and has undertaken extensive research in the areas of employability and work-based learning, intercultural competences and strategic issues in HE management. Helen wrote a chapter on skills for the Wilson Review of Business-University collaboration on behalf of the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) in 2012.

Helen was Deputy Chair of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) Subject Level Main Panel and was a member of the Universities UK Outward Mobility Strategy Board. She has also been a Subject Reviewer for Quality Assurance Agency (QAA); a member of the HEFCE Quality Assurance Learning and Teaching Strategic Committee; and a member of the Quality Assurance Framework Review Group. Helen is a Governor of Ravensbourne University, London (currently Vice-Chair), and is on the Board of the IKON Gallery, Birmingham (currently Chair). She is also Chair of Navitas UK Ltd and in is on the Governing Body and Estates Committee of Winchester College.

Helen was until recently a Trustee of Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE), and was a Director AdvanceHE Board, and was on the Board of University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) and Chair of the GBSLEP Employment and Skills Board.

Helen is a National Teaching Fellow (NTF) and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a Fellow of the Association of University Administrators (FAUA). Helen was awarded the OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to Higher Education and in 2017 was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands (and Vice Lord-Lieutenant from 2020).

Research Interests

Research work in: intercultural learning, management of higher education, academic load models, quality procedures, reflective learning, links between theory and practice, pedagogy and research

Currently working on research projects on widening participation, BAME attainment gap, learning analytics, and interculture learning and employability, as well as the effect of coaching in HE.

Teaching Activity

Has recently taught a Masters module on Advances in Crisis Management and an undergraduate module on Effective Management Consultancy. Designed and taught on the following modules: Business Game, Foundations of Management and International Foundations of Management, Policy and Strategy in Higher Education

Supervision of MSc and MBA dissertations,

Successful supervisor of DBA and PhD students

Student mentor and placement tutor

Contributor to Aston University Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Have been involved in a range of professional development training for university administrators at Aston and other midland universities

Qualifications

2021 CIM Level 7 Coaching and Mentoring qualification

1996 PhD, Birkbeck College, London

1989 MA in Literature and Criticism, Open University

1982 MA in English Literature, Newnham College, Cambridge

1978 3 A-levels at grade A, Peter Symonds College, Winchester

1975-6 10 O-levels, Winchester County High School for Girls

Membership of Professional Bodies

National Teaching Fellow (NTF)

Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PHEA)

Fellow of Association of University Administrators (FAUA)

Administrative Roles

Currently Associate Dean Aston Business School. In this works with the Pro Vice Chancellor/Executive Dean to support her in running Aston Business School. Has been leading the School's work on Athena SWAN gender equality Charter and Race Equality Charter accreditations. Also leads regular accredation work with AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA and the Small Business Charter.

From September 2021 to December 2023 Helen was interim Head of Mathematics. She chairs the Advance HE accredited Fellowship (RITE) scheme at Aston University.

PhD Supervision

David Dinwoodie: Diversity, Culture, Leadership, Performance: A performance-oriented moel to leading across differences and managing internalisation process (DBA completed in 2011)

Kamla Mungal: How do Public Private Partnerships influence Business School Performance in the English Speaking Caribbean (DBA completed in 2012)

Enric Bernal: Evaluating Euthentic Behaviour change in Leadership development programmes (DBA completed in 2013

Luke Onuoha: Systematic Financial Resources Allocation Processes: A Model for Critical Resources Mobilisation and Deployment in Nigerian Universities (PhD completed in 2015)

Clare Jones: Does Postgraduate Management Education create employable graduates? (PhD completed in 2016)

Gabrielle Daniels-Gombert: Examinating the Group-Level Effects of Corporate Identity Cues on Organisational Identification and Role Behaviours (DBA completed in 2017)

Bernadette Frech: Does Satisfaction Pay Off? A Conceptual Model of Customer Satisfaction in an HE Context (PhD completed in 2018)

Catherine Foster: Influence of Parents on First Year Undergraduate Student Adjustment and Academic Achievement at University

Phung Phoung Nam: Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Transnational Education Programmes (TNE) - The Development of TNE in Vietnam within a Transnational UK Education Context (PhD completed in 2021)

Wendy Tabrizi: Students' effective transition to Postgraduate Study (PhD completed in 2022)

Education/Academic qualification

Level 7 Coaching and Mentoring, Chartered Management Institute

Award Date: 1 Mar 2021

Non-Executive Director Certificate, Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales (ICAEW)

Award Date: 1 Jan 2021

PhD, Birkbeck, University of London

Award Date: 1 May 1996

MA, Open University

Award Date: 1 Jan 1989

MA, English LIterature, University of Cambridge

Award Date: 1 Oct 1982

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Until 1 st March 2021 Helen was Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Aston University. She is now Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management in Aston Business School, and Associate Dean Aston Business School. Helen graduated from Newnham College Cambridge, and subsequently gained an MA from the Open University and a PhD from Birkbeck College, London University.

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Jen is the Operations Manager in Aston's School Of Law And Social Sciences.

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Paul Knobbs is the manager of Aston's "Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence", a globally unique, cross-disciplinary institute to develop novel membranes for use in applications as varied as drug discovery and water purification.

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The Aston University Archives house materials related to the history of Aston University (1966–) and its forerunner institutions: the Birmingham Municipal Technical School (1895–1927), Birmingham Central Technical College (1927–1951), the College of Technology Birmingham (1951–1956) and the College of Advanced Technology (1956–1966).

The collection includes institutional records, publications, photographs, and objects which shed light on education, politics, economics, society and culture in Birmingham and the Midlands. It also chronicles a variety of trades and professions, reflecting both local and global developments.

Additional materials include newspapers, brochures and records of the popular music acts which performed in the Great Hall, together with videos and slides of the campus as it has been built up - and knocked down - as well as campus maps through the decades.

The archives contain works of art as well as notable objects that reflect changing cultural and societal norms over the decades: for example, a silver platter presented to the Senior Common Room by the Academic Wives’ Club in 1967. Materials are continuously deposited and catalogued by members of the broader Aston community.

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The centre is closely linked to the Aston University Archives and embeds them within the broader research culture within the university, the city it serves and wider research communities.

It has three aims:

Documenting, preserving and sharing the history of Aston University, its predecessor institutions, and the “community of makers” who made them since 1895.

Documenting, preserving and sharing research, teaching, and other activities conducted at Aston.

Providing a forum and a platform to conduct research and to think about the problem of how best to preserve important documentary material and to archive it for the future in a digital age well beyond the confines of Aston University.

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Senior Lecturer, Communication and Culture

Director, Research Centre for the Humanities

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I am a Senior Lecturer in English Literature, in the Communication and Culture department at Aston University (Birmingham, UK). I am also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Education (Bangor, Wales, UK). In 2022-23, I was the Megumi Visiting Professor in the English Department at Kobe College (Japan).

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Archives of Aston University in Birmingham, UK closely linked with the Aston University Archives Centre and the History programmes at Aston University.

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If you would like to consult any of these holdings, or if you have items that you think may be of interest to the Aston University Archives, please email us.

The Archives are located in Aston University’s Main Building, SW415 and SW417, and are usually open Monday-Wednesday, 9:00am-5:00pm. Additional hours can be arranged. An appointment is essential to secure a table in the reading room and to ensure materials are ready for consultation.

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Professor Monder Ram OBE is the Director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). He is a leading authority on small business and ethnic minority entrepreneurship research and has published widely on the subject, and has extensive experience of working in and acting as a consultant to small and ethnic minority businesses.

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David is a Lecturer in Transport in Aston's transport team. As a historian, he researches transport and mobility in history and has a particular interest in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

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Dive into the research topics where David Turner is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

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James is the Aston University Archives's archivist. He is accredited by both the Archives and Records Association (ARA) and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). His journey in the archival world has been fuelled by a genuine passion for preserving history and cultural heritage.

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The Aston University Archives house materials related to the history of Aston University (1966-) and its forerunner institutions: the Birmingham Municipal Technical School (1895-1927), Birmingham Central Technical College (1927-1951), the College of Technology Birmingham (1951-1956) and the College of Advanced Technology (1956-1966).

The collection includes institutional records, publications, photographs, and objects which shed light on education, politics, economics, society and culture in Birmingham and the Midlands. It also chronicles a variety of trades and professions, reflecting both local and global developments.

Additional materials include newspapers, brochures and records of the popular music acts which performed in the Great Hall, together with videos and slides of the campus as it has been built up - and knocked down - as well as campus maps through the decades.

The archives contain works of art as well as notable objects that reflect changing cultural and societal norms over the decades: for example, a silver platter presented to the Senior Common Room by the Academic Wives' Club in 1967. Materials are continuously deposited and catalogued by members of the broader Aston community.

For details please consult this summary description of holdings and preliminary inventory.

If you would like to consult any of these holdings, or if you have items that you think may be of interest to the Aston University Archives, please email us.

The Archives are located in Aston University's Main Building, SW415 and SW417, and are usually open Monday-Wednesday, 9:00am-5:00pm. Additional hours can be arranged. An appointment is essential to secure a table in the reading room and to ensure materials are ready for consultation.

For additional information about Aston University's history and archives, you can watch the video above or listen to this Aston Originals podcast.

The archives are closely linked to the History programme at Aston.
Follow us on Twitter/X @AstonUnArchives and Bluesky@astonunarchives.bskyb.social

Policies and Regulations

The Aston University Archives are closely linked to the History programme at Aston and its ongoing research projects.

Preserving the Histories of a Community of Makers Exhibition (2022-23)

Thanks to funding from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, it has been possible to conserve a number of important historical documents in the archives. In November 2022, Aston Archives Committee unveiled an exhibition in the University's Main Building foyer, showcasing a selection of of these volumes along with contextual information about Aston University's predecessor institutions. In addition to a ribbon-cutting by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aleks Subic, talks were given by Dr Ilaria Scaglia and Professor Helen Higson, OBE, while Dr Brian Sudlow presented a film about the archives.

View some of the exhibition findings on the Birmingham Municipal Technical School: General Register for Session 1893-94 and Birmingham Municipal Technical School: General Register for Session 1920-21 pages.

Making History with Queen Elizabeth's Pen

On 26 June, 2024, the Aston University community and its friends in the fields of archives, heritage, and culture, gathered at John Cadbury House to celebrate a new exhibition of a remarkable item preserved at the Aston University Archives: the pen that the late Queen Elizabeth II used and gifted when she visited Birmingham to inaugurate the Main Building of what is today Aston University.

Dr Ilaria Scaglia, Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Aston University, researched the history of this object and of the day in which it was used and shared her findings at the event.

As the Birmingham Pen Museum testifies, there are countless histories that one could write starting from a pen. The first that comes to mind is related to technology, Aston University's soul. Aston University officially started in 1895 as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School on Suffolk Street. The institution changed name a few times but it stayed true to its origins. It was and still is a place for crafting new things to help people face a fast-changing world. The Parker 51 pen was an object of the kind Aston's predecessors tried to devise. It was a marvel of craft, meant to provide emancipation from the quill in order to write a new future. As detailed in David and Mark Shepherd's (2004), Quink, or fast drying ink, had been invented by a Filipino chemist and then introduced by the Parker company in 1931 to free all from the hassle of blotting. Yet Quink corroded the materials fountain pens were previously manufactured from, and new ones needed to be created as a result. Lucite (or PMMA) was patented in 1932 and later applied to anything from aircraft parts to train car windows. Eight different patents were filed to design what one might mistakenly think as 'just a pen'. 23 components, 238 different operations to manufacture it, 43 of which by hand. There is indeed a story about design and craft to be told, one that is right up Aston's alley.

Queen Elizabeth's Parker 51 pen and her 1955 visit for the inauguration of the Main Building

A newsreel from conveys the excitement of that day. British Pathé

The following year, in 1956, the same institution would become a College of Advanced Technology. In 1963, the would establish that education 'should be available to all qualified by ability and attainment'. Its purpose should be not only to impart skills but also to create 'cultivated men and women', and to promote 'balance in research and teaching' in order 'to transmit a common culture and common standards of citizenship'. As a consequence of this report, Queen Elizabeth would give its charter to Aston University in 1966. This pen embodies the trajectory that led to that point and charted the course of the institution's development to this day. Robbins Report

Queen Elizabeth's pen, History, and the Aston University Archives

Queen Elizabeth's Parker 51 pen was long cared for by Chief Executive of Aston University and Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management and Associate Dean of Aston Business School, Helen Higson. With the establishment of the in 2018 and its development into a full-fledged degree that emphasizes archival skills, new attention has been devoted to the history of the institution and to the archival materials and objects that document it. The History section also established and cares for the and continuously organises events and displays related to the history of the institution, city, and region often placing them in a global context. History Programme Aston University Archives

Collection Conversations

A Tale of Register and Programme
Collection Conversations #2: Alternative Futures: A 1964 Newspaper Article, College and Senate Minutes, and Decades, worth of Press Cuttings.

Collection Conversations #3 of 1980s glossy magazines and brochures
Collection Conversations #4 The 1895 Programme and Prize Day Speech

Stories from Aston University Archives

"Rosa Kathleen Spencer" by Anastasia Anthony (21 May 2025)Early Life
Rosa Kathleen Spencer, who was also known as Kathleen, was born in Hampton-Lucy in Warwickshire in 1873. She was the sixth out of 7 children and had 4 brothers. Her family came from a generation of wealthy farmers, all based in the Warwickshire area. Her father Samuel was born in 1827 and continued the farming legacy. Her mother, Anna Bolton King, was born in 1831. During her upbringing, Rosa and her siblings all benefitted from a live-in governess (as per the 1881 census) to help boost their education. Eventually, one of her brothers and a sister moved to Australia, and another brother to New Zealand.
Birmingham Municipal Technical School
When Spencer came to BMTS in 1894-95, she decided to study advanced chemistry. She was already employed as a dispenser at the general hospital.

1899-1909

In 1899, Rosa became a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. This was a great honour and not one that many med had at the time either, and she was celebrated for it in her local paper, the Stratford-Upon-Avon Herald. The title (shortened to M.P.S) allowed her to expand her duties beyond basic dispensary work. She has the potential to kickstart her solo career as a pharmacist and had more autonomy than a dispenser. In the 1901 census, she listed herself as a Chemist and Druggist Manager and in later newspaper articles, discussed purchasing her own business. During this time, she was also an advocate for women in pharmacy, publishing in the popular newspaper Girls Own Paper in 1899 and later in 1903.

1909

In 1909, Rosa conducted an interview with the popular newspaper; the Daily Express. She described how initially, 'a woman chemist in High Wycombe was something of a novelty', but thrived from the start. Spencer discussed making her own prescriptions, ointments and tinctures as well as actively conducting experiments to enhance her knowledge, which eventually, meant she grew to see her career as a hobby. The Daily Express memorialised her as 'one of the most successful woman pharmacists in the country', a testament to Spencer's resilience and desire to pursue passion in the face of adversity. Her career did not come without obstacles and Rosa found herself writing in to the Daily Express again to defend women's education and training. She refuted the claim that working women receive lower salaries, explaining that this would not last much longer due to an increasing access to training. She concluded that 'women pharmacists are most anxious to co-operate rather than compete unfairly with men'.

( Figure 4 and 5)

Later Years

Throughout her career, Spencer trained young girls like herself in pharmacy thus; contributing to the movement which facilitated female employment. She had a remarkable career as a pioneering female pharmacist and served as an example of the successes which can be reaped from the vocational training the Birmingham Municipal Technical School provided. As far as census records go (1939), Spencer continued managing her business on 62 Eastern Street, High Wycombe, until her death on 18 January 1952. She never married nor had children and in her probate left behind £5805 3 shillings and 6 pence, suggesting she found a comfortable financial status in her work but most importantly, a career she enjoyed.
Citations
Probate

England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 accessed via ancestry.com

Inventing the Future: An Aston Archive Story

In Memoriam

Colin Gilmore

We have been informed of the death of Colin Gilmore who was a lecturer in Accounting at Aston Business School from 1976 to 1999. He was a very much-admired lecturer and a very supportive Programme Director for the BSc International Business and Modern Languages for many years. He was also an excellent cook and a friend to many.

Colin went to school at Wolverhampton Grammar School and then studied at Exeter College, Oxford.

After retirement he moved to Gunnislake in Cornwall, where he spent a very contented 15 years with his second wife Kathy. He reached the age of 86 in October but also became very frail with kidney and mobility problems. He passed away a few days ago after a long spell in the hospital.

Dr Shelia Handley

It is with sadness that I recently learnt of the death of Dr Sheila Handley, a senior lecturer in pharmacology at the time of her retirement from Aston around 20 years ago.

Sheila did a pharmacy degree at the School of Pharmacy in London, where amongst others, she was taught by Mike Brown, who was later her Head of Department at Aston. She did have some stories of those days to share... Sheila followed a career in research, specialising in behavioural pharmacology and for many years ploughed a lone furrow at Aston as a neuropharmacologist. She began her research at Allen and Hanbury's neuropharmacology research group working under Paul Spencer and when he came to Aston in 1966 as head of Pharmacology, he recruited Sheila as a junior lecturer.

Sheila was much respected in her field, being particularly interested in how metabolites of tryptyophan and imadazoline influenced behaviour. For many years she kept the discipline of neuropharmacology alive at Aston until new appointments in the 1990s. I suspect that today she would have been awarded a chair; she had in excess of 100 publications. None-the-less, Sheila did not shrink her duty and was acting head of pharmacology from the retirement of Professor Brian Ferry to the appointment of Professor Ian Martin.

Sheila showed me much kindness when I arrived at Aston and gave me my first experience of examining a PhD. She also provided sound advice. She enjoyed the banter of the lab, giving as good as she got and was loyal to her colleagues. I remember particularly her delight when a member of staff in another school, assuming she was male, accused her of sexism; the individual was never quite the same again... Outside of work her passion was her horse; she was an accomplished rider. I remember her fondly. David Poyner (with thanks to Professor Keith Wilson for help with this tribute).

Professor Rod Latham

November 16, 1936-2025
A Pioneer of High-Voltage Vacuum Insulation

Professor Rod Latham, one of the most respected and enduring figures in the field of high-voltage vacuum insulation, passed away in early 2025 at the age of 88. His scientific career spanned more than six decades, during which he became a foundational voice in understanding vacuum breakdown phenomena and electron emission processes.

Rod Latham began his academic journey under challenging circumstances in post-war Britain. His path into science was nottraditional; yet, through persistence and intellectual independence, he rose to become a leading contributor to vacuum insulation theory and practice. After earning his PhD from Queen Mary College, University of London, and later a DSc for his contributions to surface science, Latham established himself asa central figure in the study of field emission and the causes of vacuum breakdown.

His book, High Voltage Vacuum Insulation: Basic Concepts and Technological Practice, published in 1995, became a valuable reference for engineers and scientists working in high-gradient vacuum systems. His work not only clarified key mechanisms behind pre-breakdown current, but also challenges prevailing assumptions, favouring a diagnostic and materials-driven approach over purely theoretical models. Latham's research prompted a broader re-evaluation of the role of particulate contamination and electrode surface condition in limiting vacuum insulation performance.

Throughout his career, Latham was recognized for both his technical excellence and his scientific integrity. He received the Whitehead Memorial Lecture Award in 1988 and the Dyke Award in 2010 (Figure 7)-honours that reflect a body of work both rigorous and forward thinking. But, he was equally known for his character: a quiet resolve, a resistance to dogma, and a belief that science should remain an open, evolving conversation.

Even in the final months of his life, Latham remained intellectually active, engaged in correspondence and discussion about emerging challenges in high-voltage engineering. His curiosity remained undimmed, and his contributions continued to inspire peers and younger generations alike. Rod Latham's legacy is imprinted not only in the literature of electrical insulation but in the spirit of scientific inquiry he embodied-one rooted in clarity, skepticism, and a deep respect for both ideas and people. He is remembered with admiration and gratitude by colleagues across the international community.

Moein Borghei

Avalanche Energy

Dr Gloria Lee

Dr Lee was a ground-breaking academic at Aston and in the UK, not least because she was in those times very often the only senior woman in the room.

Gloria was an important part of what became known as The Aston Approach,and helped to make "The Aston Studies" (a programme of research which looked at the structures of organisations within their context (e.g. technology, size, dependence), significant on the international map. Indeed, she led what came to be regarded as the fourth generation of this work.

Dr Lee's work was strongly in the Aston University tradition, looking at innovation, technology, and management. Her studies included one from 1977 which revealed that immigrants are no more accident prone than other workers, and her contribution to an Aston-authored 1991 book on Achieving a competitive edge through Technology and People was entitled Technology and the Drive for Quality: A study of survival in the foundry industry. Gloria's work on Technology Transfer, helped create a platform to an area in which Aston University is still a leader.

She has a passionate advocate of both research and executive education, and as a member of the Business School Executive led from the front both research and education initiatives, including introducing one of the first distance-learning MBAs. She became a renowned authority on this kind of education, publishing her article on Distance Learning MBAs: Issues and Opportunities in 1988. Dr Lee was an important member of the Business School senior leadership team.

Gloria had a rich and rewarding family life and many Aston colleagues during her time here benefitted from her hospitality, including on the family narrowboat.

Ian Martin

Dr. Ian Martin, Emeritus Professor, Aston University, Birmingham, U.K. died in Cambridge on September 11, 2024. He was 80 years old.

It is conventional to start an obituary of a significant scientific figure, such as Ian, with an outline of his career and his achievements. This obituary does of course cover this. However, as friends of Ian, we have chosen to begin with an anecdote which we think captures much of the spirit and genius of the man.

It was 1990, the coffee room in the MRC Molecular Neurobiology Unit in Cambridge. With a colleague, now an FRS, one of us (DRP) was looking blankly at data on the iron-binding affinities for a series of ligands. Ian walked in and greeted us with a smile; "Haven't you boys sorted that trivial little problem yet?". The trivial problem had stymied us for several weeks. Ian listened to us, looked at the data, drew heavily on his pipe and then queried "Isn't it obvious?". He gently explained to us what a stability constant was, drawing on his training as a chemist, and described what it implied for our work. Our eyes were opened; the data now made sense and a paper eventually resulted. We asked Ian if he wanted to be an author. Of course he declined; it was reward enough for him that he had been able to help us. This incident could be multiplied many fold over Ian's working life. A distinguished scientist in his own right, he helped and mentored all those who worked around him with his kindness, wisdom and gentle support.

Ian was born and raised in Stockport, England. After obtaining his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Bristol, he worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 3 years with Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent. He joined the MRC Neuropharmacology Unit at the University of Birmingham in 1969 and while there completed his PhD. In 1980, he joined the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit (later named the MRC Molecular Neurobiology Unit) in Cambridge as an MRC Scientist and was subsequently promoted to MRC Senior Scientist. In 1992, Ian moved to the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada as Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology. After serving 5 years in that position, he moved back to England, taking up a position as Professor and Head of Pharmacology in the Pharmacy School, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Aston University in Birmingham. He became an Emeritus Professor upon his retirement from Aston in 2009 and moved to Wicken, Cambridgeshire. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society in 2010 for his contributions to the discipline.

Ian was well known internationally for his elegant research on the structure and function of receptors involved in anxiety disorders, particularly for his work on benzodiazepines and the GABA-A receptor. This expanded latterly to cover a range of ligand-gated ion channels. Due to his expertise and enthusiasm, he established productive collaborations with scientists not only in the United Kingdom but in several other countries. His papers drew variously on classical pharmacology, electrophysiology, behavioural models, protein chemistry and molecular, structural and computational biology. A talented educator and administrator, he was respected widely by trainees and peers alike for his common sense, approachable manner and great sense of humour. He took a deep interest in the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and many of them became his lifelong friends. His favourite sayings (for example, "The data do not lie" and "Two things float to the top and only one of them is cream") remain cherished by those who heard them. His care for his colleagues was exemplary; he would fight for all he was worth to defend their interests when that was necessary. For those in pressing need, he and Alison would offer themselves unstintingly to give them space to recover.

A funeral service for Ian was held in Cambridge on October 3, 2024 and was attended by family and many former friends and colleagues in person or online. Ian is survived by Alison, his loving wife of 58 years, and by his daughter Anna (James Kirkup), son Andrew (Andrea) and grandchildren William, Annika and Henry.
Glen Baker (University of Alberta) and David Poyner (Aston University).

Jim Shields

It is with great sadness that colleagues learned in 2023 of the death of Jim Shields, formerly Professor of French Politics and Modern History (2010-2018) at Aston University (Birmingham, UK). He served as Head of French in the Department of Languages and Translation Studies in what was then the School of Languages and Social Sciences. Jim had a long relationship with Aston, having been first appointed Lecturer in French in 1984. It was during that early period that he set aside the literary interests that had led him to write his doctoral thesis on the French novelist Stendhal and turn to the study of the French National Front party, which had its own breakthrough moment in the European elections of 1984.

Jim's career path then took him to University of Warwick in April 1990 where he held posts as Senior Lecturer and Reader. His genial courses on French politics, political parties, elections, and psephology (a word Jim loved) were enthusiastically attended by several generations of Warwick undergraduates. Jim was a gifted teacher and a warm supporter of junior researchers (such as myself when our paths first crossed in 2003). His commitment to pastoral matters is illustrated by his long service as Warden of Tocil Residence while at Warwick. Tributes from former students poured in following his death.

Jim released his monograph The Extreme Right in France: From Pétain to Le Pen with Routledge in 2007. He edited two further collections of studies and since 2000 had authored more than twenty articles or book chapters. During a long and distinguished career, he was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts, and his research was funded by the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Nuffield Foundation. During the last year of his professorship at Aston (2017-18), he held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for a project entitled 'How Extremists Govern: Lessons from France'. He had earlier been awarded the distinguished Stanley Hoffmann Prize (2007) by the Political Science Association in recognition of his essay 'Political Representation in France: A Crisis of Democracy?' (2006), judged the best anglophone essay on French politics that year (from a pool of 233 articles). The jury was chaired by Hoffmann himself, and it was a matter of enduring pride to Jim to have had his scholarship recognised by one of the great figures of contemporary French political science. Jim later served on the AHRC Peer Review College and as a consultant for various associations, but he still graciously submitted to the internal review of his own grant applications by junior colleagues.

Like many brilliant scholars, Jim was a complex individual with a rich array of hidden talents (Spanish and Portuguese were among his other languages) and a varied hinterland. He was a sportsman and amateur footballer, enjoying regular Celtic banter with his last doctoral student Dr Chris O'Neill, a fellow Glaswegian and enthusiast for the history of the Vichy Regime and the German occupation (1940-1944). In his rarely varying outfit of cream-coloured linen jacket, Jim would welcome visitors to his office with a warm 'Cher ami' in a deep Scottish brogue. If he was on campus but out of the office, Jim would leave that cream jacket on the back of his chair to let people know he was around and available. Students came often and benefitted greatly from his erudition and kindly tolerance (a quality less available in the face of administrative overreach).

Jim took early retirement in 2018. What he did not disclose to colleagues at the time was that he had already been fighting an aggressive cancer for twenty-five years. He was thus able to spend his final years with his family in Bristol: his wife Dr Britta Shields-Martens (UWE), and son Alex and daughter Lena of whom he was so prodigiously proud. Nevertheless, during that period he kept up for some time his appearances in the media which had become legion during his tenure at Aston and were worth the equivalent of several million pounds in advertising investment. Jim was a regular guest on BBC World, BBC News, France 24 News, TRT World and other news channels where his insightful commentary and easy manner were greatly valued by newscasters.

He was appointed Honorary Professor of French Studies at Warwick in 2018.

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The Aston University Archives house materials related to the history of Aston University (1966-) and its forerunner institutions: the Birmingham Municipal Technical School (1895-1927), Birmingham Central Technical College (1927-1951), the College of Technology Birmingham (1951-1956) and the College of Advanced Technology (1956-1966).

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Celebrating 70 years of the Main Building

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Celebrating 70 years of the Main Building

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For seven decades, Aston University’s Main Building has stood proudly at the heart of our campus – a beacon of education, innovation, and civic purpose. It has been the stage for discovery, the home of generations of scholars and change-makers, and a symbol of our shared ambition to make a real difference in the world.

On 3 November 1955, Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II officially opened this remarkable building. Seventy years later, we come together to celebrate its enduring legacy and the community that has given it life.

On 3 November between 1730 and 2000, we will have a special event that honours our history while looking boldly to the future. It is fully booked, but you can put yourself on the waitlist through the link.

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Celebrate 70 years of Aston University’s Main Building and join us for the launch of the new Aston University Archives Centre

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Aston University to take step back in time with new archive exhibition

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Railway workers at the Birmingham Municipal Technical School

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Railway workers at the Birmingham Municipal Technical School

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From the student records of the Birmingham Municipal Technical School (BMTS) an Aston predecessor, Dr David Turner created this map of the residential locations of railway workers who attended between 1893 and 1899. It shows how the records may be used to understand from where people travelled in from, as well as the distribution of railway workers in the city. The records may also be potentially be cross-referenced with railway company staff records, to reveal how the BMTS shaped the career and life trajectories of attendees.

Green: Great Western Railway

Yellow: London & North Western Railway

Red: Midland Railway

Blue Squares (upper - Birmingham Midland Institute, Lower - BMTS)

Maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland (CC-BY)

Georeferenced Maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland

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Tweets by AstonUnArchives

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Mark McCormack is a Professor of Sociology and Deputy Dean Research and Enterprise. He has previously worked at Durham University, Brunel University and the University of Roehampton, where he held various research leadership roles including Director of the Centre for Equality, Justice and Social Change and Acting Director of the Graduate School. He is passionate about enabling inclusive research cultures that produce high-quality, impactful research.

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Mark McCormack is a Professor of Sociology and Deputy Dean Research and Enterprise. He has previously worked at Durham University, Brunel University and the University of Roehampton, where he held various research leadership roles including Director of the Centre for Equality, Justice and Social Change and Acting Director of the Graduate School. He is passionate about enabling inclusive research cultures that produce high-quality, impactful research.

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Victoria Uren has worked at Aston University since September 2011.  Before joining Aston she worked as a senior researcher on several collaborative projects and as an information scientist in R&D organizations.  Her current research concerns applications of artificial intelligence and social media, and the use of games in management education.

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Dr Rozbicka joined the department in 2015, having previously worked as a post-doc and lecturer at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. Dr Rozbicka's research agenda focuses on two main topics. The main area of research circulates around participation of interest groups in the European and national policy-making and transposition processes; which includes questions like: How influential are interest groups in the politics? Access routes for lobbyists and their effectiveness? And, regulation of interest groups access to policy-makers. The second strand of research focuses on the regulation of the live music industry in the UK and EU.