Selden’s Sister attend the British Legal History Conference 2024

Last week, the team at Selden’s Sister attended the 2024 British Legal History Conference (BLHC). The conference was organised by our very own Professor Gwen Seabourne and Dr Joanna McGunn at the University of Bristol. The theme ‘Insiders and Outsiders in the History of Law’ generated a range of excellent papers, including a number on the status of women within law and legal institutions.

We were delighted to have the opportunity during one of the Plenary sessions to announce the launch of our website, upcoming book: Celebrating Women in Legal History: Making and Shaping a Discipline (Hart) and to share details of some of the events we have planned between now and Christmas. This includes a WikiEdits Session focused on improving Wikipedia’s women in legal history pages, the launch of our mentoring program for early careers researchers and PhD students, and the announcement that our first inaugural lecture will be delivered by Baroness Hale in October 2024. 

We are also delighted to say that one of our team members, Rhiannon Ogden-Jones (Oxford), received the Sir Anthony Hart Doctoral Paper Prize by the Irish Legal History Society for best paper by a PhD student. Her paper titled ‘Insiders and Outsiders in creating national parks: the evolution of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949’ was delivered like a pro, and the prize committee commended her for combining a variety of sourcework in an outstanding manner.

We’ll be posting full details for our events on this website, so watch this space. You can also sign up to our mailing list on the homepage, or get in touch about our mentoring programme via email. Those who have already signed up to the mentoring scheme will be getting an email soon helping us match you – after we’ve had a break to recover from all the excitement! 

#BLHC2024