GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

sponsoring a PhD student to look at aspects of our history, perhaps some

aspects which have not been brought to light previously, so please welcome

Edda Nicholson from the University of Wolverhampton.

GFTU HISTORY AND RELATED PROJECTS

EDDA NICHOLSON: Edda Nicholson, University of Wolverhampton. I am delighted

to be here today and talk to you all about my work. I think it speaks volumes

that all our educational representatives here at conference talk in some way

about how trade union education changes an individual, but also their

community. I would like to offer myself as an example of that. It was not until I

was sat in Keith Gildart’s lectures on working class history that I really

appreciated just how much I wanted to learn more about the history of our

struggles. In particular, the events of the 1926 General Strike absolutely

fascinated me and I went on to research how photographic propaganda was

used in 1926 to win the war against the trade unionists and I will give you a hint

– Winston Churchill was in charge!

I have had pushbacks along the way about going to university with two small

children, but thankfully not from my department at Wolverhampton. I am proud

that my children are growing up knowing that mummy goes to university and for

children perception is everything. It was not long ago when my little boy said,

and I think he was about four at the time, “Are boys allowed to go to university

too?”

I have known for a long time that I wanted to be a historian, so I was thrilled to

be selected on to what I already knew would be a very unique PhD programme

sponsored by the GFTU. Although I love historical research, I have never

really wanted to write the kind of book that sits on a dusty shelf somewhere, so

having sponsorship from the GFTU has changed my world by allowing me the

opportunity to bring my research to a wider audience. Most notably, I am

curating an exhibition at Northern College with the help of Paul Gibson about

the start of the GFTU education programmes. I have also had the chance to

go the Union Building Conference and to see the work being done to bringing

together education programmes and to work with trade unionists.

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