As part of the on-going Research Seminar series, Dr Lorraine Sitzia from the University of Sussex, Stella Cardus and Professor Dorothy Sheridan from QueenSpark Books have been invited to talk about the “History-making, funding, technologies of QueenSpark Books

QueenSpark Books (QSB) was established in 1972 as a community action group and went on to become part of a movement that challenged ideas about whose history was told and by whom. Central to QSB was a commitment to co-operative and democratic working practices, with process and participation often seen as important as the final product, and where ‘history’ offered a key means of ‘re/making’ a community and creating a sense of belonging. However, QSB 40 years later is very different to that of the 1970s.  In order to survive in a rapidly changing political and social climate, it has had to adapt at the same time as trying to hold on to its original beliefs. This seminar will explore the internal and external factors that have shaped the development of QSB over the past 40 years, particularly the impact of funding and technology on the histories told.

Dr Lorraine Sitzia (Centre for Life History and Life Writing, University of Sussex) is a community and oral historian, and was a volunteer and paid worker at QSB throughout the 1990s. She is author, with Arthur Thickett, of Seeking the Enemy, London: Working Press 2002. She gained her DPhil, Telling People’s Histories: an exploration of community history making from 1970-2000 from the University of Sussex in 2010.

Stella Cardus is a Director of QSB and has been Company Secretary for over eight years. She is the Director of her own IT company, Desktop Display, and responsible for QSB’s new web site (www.queensparkbooks.org.uk) and the recent photographic project website (www.photosbrightonandhove.org.uk). Dorothy Sheridan (Honoury Professor, Sussex; Visiting Professor, Brighton) is a Patron of QSB and a former Director and volunteer.