By Charlotte Hughes

Newman University’s Head of History Dr Ian Cawood has recently received a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (BARSEA) for a conference he is due to hold.
 
Dr Cawood’s conference - From “Old Corruption” to the New Corruption? Public Life and Public Service in Britain, c.1780-1940 - is to be held in collaboration with Oxford Brookes University on 24th and 25th January 2019 in Oxford. 
 
With keynote speakers already confirmed as Professor Graham Brooks (University of West London); Professor Angus Hawkins (University of Oxford) and Dr Kathryn Rix (History of Parliament), and the news that Professor Bo Rothstein, former Blavatnik Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford, is to present a paper, the conference is set to be one which sparks much interest.
 
The conference, sponsored by History and Policy, seeks to revisit the wide-ranging struggles against corruption in Britain during the period c. 1780 to 1940, ranging from the conduct of ministerial office and central administration to parliamentary, electoral and local government reform.

As well as this, Dr Cawood has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has been awarded an Institute of Historical Research Scouloudi research grant. The grant will allow Dr Cawood to carry out research into ecclesiastical corruption in nineteenth century Britain, which he will then present in a paper titled ‘Was the Victorian Church corrupt?’ at the aforementioned conference.

Dr Cawood said: "Recent revelations regarding the use of tax avoidance schemes by high profile British figures and the role of British institutions in laundering stolen money from Russia have focused attention on the growth of corruption in British civic structures.

"The problem also preoccupied the early Victorians and many of their famous reforms in politics, factories and the church were actually designed to prevent the misuse of power.

"We need to re-examine how the Victorians dealt with corruption, in many ways very successfully, if we are to prevent Britain falling victim to a problem which threatens trust in public bodies across the world.”

For those interested in attending the conference next year please contact Dr Cawood: [email protected]

Further details on the conference can be found here

Photo caption: Ian Cawood with students at Newman University