On Friday 14 March 2025, a one-day conference, Lived Experiences of Westminster Parliament in History: People, Sociability, Communities, & Space, will be held at the University of Warwick.
Organised by Brendan Tam and Chloe Challender and supported by the History of Parliament Trust and the University of Warwick’s Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre, the conference will examine the evolving dynamics between individuals and the Westminster Parliament throughout history.
The conference will explore the complex historic interplay between people and the Westminster Parliament, shedding light on how changing social mores, institutional interactions and the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion have developed and changed over time. While numerous accounts of the Westminster Parliament have been written over the centuries, the focus has primarily been on its democratic and constitutional function as an agent of national legislature and accountability, rather than its identity as an institution whose inner life is both shaped by and shapes its public role. By considering interdisciplinary perspectives and critical inquiry, this conference aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the private dynamics of one of the world’s oldest public representative institutions.
Through nine papers and a keynote address, the conference will explore how Parliament has developed over time in relation to individual behaviours and private experiences, considering the influence of factors such as gender, race, and class. Broad conceptual questions that will be considered include: what are the hidden rather than displayed parliamentary rules, conventions, and expectations that have developed over this period, in terms of culture, approach, language, and behaviour of Parliament, and how are they determined by private experience and individual agency?
The keynote address, titled Idem sentire de republica: friendship, community and party in the House of Commons from Bolingbroke to Badenoch will be delivered by Dr. Paul Seaward, Emeritus director of the History of Parliament. His address will align with the conference’s theme of interrogating the dynamics of individual interactions in the Westminster Parliament. This will be followed by three panels, featuring papers ranging from medieval Westminster to the present day that include a range of methodological approaches and historical actors, from elected MPs to parliamentary staff, employees and the public audience. The panel themes are as follows:
1. Gender, Agency, and the Institutional Regime: Women’s Experiences of the Westminster Parliament in the 20th and 21st Century
2. 19th Century to the Present Day: Westminster Parliament as a Home and as a Stage
3. Feeling, Individual Encounter and Lived Experience in the Pre-1800 Westminster Parliamen
For more information, and to view the conference schedule, please visit: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ecc/eventsnew/cultureofparliament/
To register for the conference (attendance is free), please email Brendan Tam (brendan.tam@warwick.ac.uk) and Chloe Challender (chloe.challender@warwick.ac.uk by Friday 28th February.
