Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editors:
Fay Marsden, Editor-in-Chief (President)
Studies: History, 4th Year
Fay is a fourth-year history student who generally studies Medieval and Early Modern European history. Her historical interests include the history of gender and sexuality, particularly female power in Renaissance Italy; the history of emotion; and the connection between the body, health and material culture. Her dissertation will revolve around the connection between the female body, disease and beauty in Renaissance Italy. She worked as a copy-editor for Retrospect last year and is very excited to lead the team this year and help to foster a creative and diverse environment within Retrospect.
Lewis Twiby, Deputy Editor (Secretary)
Studies: History, 4th Year
Lewis is a fourth-year history student who specialises in social and political history of nineteenth and twentieth century Latin America and Africa. His dissertation revolves around paternalism and how non-Christian religion was understood in colonial Tanganyika (the mainland of present-day Tanzania). Lewis fell in love with Africa and its history after volunteering in a school in Butiama, Tanzania which is also the birthplace of Tanzania’s first president, and University of Edinburgh history alumnus, Julius Nyerere. Last year Lewis was a copy-editor for Retrospect and is excited to contribute more as one of the Deputy Editors.
Candice Maharaj, Deputy Editor (Treasurer)
Studies: Law, 4th Year
Candice is a fourth-year Law student who also happens to love history. Her historical interests are numerous and varied but she currently draws inspiration from her law courses. Having focused on international law and public law in her final two years, she is mainly interested in exploring historical issues related to human rights, war, and multilateral organisations like the UN and EU. Candice was a copy-editor last year and is very excited to contribute to the journal as Deputy Editor and Treasurer this year.
Social Secretary and Fundraising Officer:
Max Leslie
Studies: Economics, 3rd year
Max is in this third year of studying Economics. He has a particular interest in the history of markets and broader economic history. When he’s not procrastinating from academic work by cooking or boxing, he also helps to present the Retrospect Podcast.
Columnists:
Scarlett Butler
Studies: History, 4th Year
Scarlett is fascinated by the history of gender, sexuality and art. Outside of university she enjoys exploring the weirder corners of popular culture. Her dissertation focuses on depictions of lower status women (domestic servants, slaves and prostitutes) in the artwork of female Renaissance artists.
This year she wants to write a column that presents revisionist art history, and new or unusual routes into a variety of locations, cultures and historical contexts. She plans to go on to write, curate and generally ramble on about such things forever. Would be interested in interviewing anyone visited by a historical ghost.
Carissa Chew
Studies: English Literature and History, 4th Year
Carissa is a fourth year English Literature & History student broadly interested in colonial history and post-colonial theory; subaltern studies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America; discourses of ‘Othering’; and ethnic/race relations within the non-Western world. She enjoyed exploring these interests as a columnist for Retrospect last year. Her final year dissertation is on East African rumours about ‘white vampires’ and Asian ‘blood-suckers’ in the twentieth century, and she hopes to go on to explore Indian-East African race relations more broadly at a postgraduate level.
Lisa Doyle
Studies: MSc Classics
Lisa is studying an MSc Classics, and her interests focus on Greek values in antiquity. She completed her undergraduate degree in Irish and Classical Civilisations at Trinity College Dublin, and her undergraduate dissertation focused on sophrosyne in Euripidean tragedy. This year, she hopes to pursue her research in values and gender roles in late antique society, focusing on the ancient Greek novel, and is excited to contribute her work to Retrospect in the process.
Toby Gay
Studies: English Literature and Spanish, 1st Year
Having been born in Berlin, Toby is primarily interested in German history, from unification through the World Wars and division, to reunification and the modern day. More generally speaking, he likes to focus on the effects of literature as well as the influence of extraordinary individuals on the worlds around them. With regards to Archaeology and the Classics, he would like to explore further the effects of the Roman culture and language on the Catholic Church, or the surprising revelations which ancient South American cultures held, and undoubtedly still hold, for the modern world.
Laila Ghaffar
Studies: Persian and Middle Eastern Studies, 1st Year
Laila is a first year studying Persian and Middle Eastern studies. Her historical interests range from cross-cultural interactions and the construction of historical myths. Outside of history, she enjoys books, films and art.
Luke Neill
Studies: History, 2nd Year
Luke is a second year History student with a particular interest in Early Modern, Medieval and intellectual history. As a columnist at Retrospect this year he hopes to explore the relationship between philosophy, literature and history. When not writing for Retrospect or dismantling the historical orthodoxy, Luke can be found in the Meadows making daisy chains.
Josh Newmark
Studies: MSc History
Josh is studying an MSc History, and is interested in anything relating to identities and ideologies, or the reproduction and contestation of political and social inequalities, in the modern and contemporary era. He did his undergraduate dissertation at Durham University, where he focused on early 18th century Tory populism in England. He studied History and Politics and ran The Bubble online magazine while at Durham. His Master’s dissertation will examine anarcho-syndicalism in Spain in the early-twentieth century.
Martha Stutchbury
Studies: History and Politics, 1st Year
Martha is a first year History & Politics student, interested in the study of twentieth century Communist states including the Soviet Union and Maoist China.
Martha is also fascinated by the history of Western political thought, and enjoys examining the ways in which liberalism has informed the historiography of previously occupied or colonised regions – such as the Middle East. This year, she hopes to write a column that explores events in modern political history and their relevance to trends in the present day.
Copy Editors:
Travis Aaroe
Studies: History, 4th year
Travis is a fourth year history student. His main focus is early-modern Europe and Asia, with a particular interest in domestic ‘high politics’ and political philosophy. His undergraduate dissertation will examine the British East India Company during the Seven Years War. Travis greatly enjoyed his time as a columnist for Retrospect last year, and has now assumed a new role as a copy editor.
Josh Minister
Studies: History, 4th Year
Josh is a fourth year history student who focuses on the history of the Americas and the Italian Renaissance. He specialises in Atlantic slavery, the Civil Rights Movement and gender in Renaissance Italy. His dissertation revolves around the struggles that African-American women faced during the Civil Rights Movement and how this impacted their morale. This is Josh’s first time working for Retrospect and is one of our copy editors. He is excited to gain valuable experience working for the journal as he wishes to pursue a career in journalism.
Anna Nicol
Studies: History, 4th Year
Anna is a fourth year History student whose interests lie in modern Latin American and Japanese history. She is hoping to explore how theatre was used to resist the oppression of the Argentine military ‘junta’ during the 1970s in her dissertation. Last year she wrote on India, Argentina and China for Retrospect and can’t wait to read about other people’s interests this year. If you can’t find her working in the HCA library, then she’s probably in the common room with a cup of tea in hand.
Podcast:
Alfie Garland, Podcast Team Leader
Studies: Ancient Mediterranean Civilisation, 2nd Year
Back for his second year at Retrospect, Alfie is now heading up the Podcast team. If he’s not making terrible jokes on air, he’s probably enthusing about ancient stories or finding new ways to mess up his hair.
Tom Latham, Podcast Editor
Studies: History, 2nd year.
Tom is a proud Cumbrian who likes to get out in the hills whenever he can, and also enjoys climbing and trampolining. He’s yet to find a way to combine these hobbies with his role in making the Retrospect podcast but he’s working on it…. a podcast recorded on a trampoline? Watch this space!
