Dr Peter Claus
Access Fellow, Senior Research Fellow in History, Director of OxNet & CredOx
Pembroke College
I am chiefly responsible as Access Fellow at Pembroke College for a professional network of universities, schools and third-sector organisations in London, the North West and the North East that encourage pupils from challenging socio-economic circumstances to enter Oxford and other competitive universities. The ‘Hub’ model for widening access was launched in 2008 and is a cross-collegiate and multi-university initiative that offers intensive preparatory academic courses under the banner of OxNet. It is a regional and community-based approach designed to attract potential candidates from the lowest social quintiles to apply for the least popular subjects (and others) in Oxford, Cambridge, and other research-intensive institutions.
Research Interests
As a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke, I am currently writing a book on the “East End Underworld” in the twentieth century and the third edition of a textbook on historiography co-authored with John Marriott, both for Routledge. The combination of these Access activities and historical research has developed a historical interest in the metropolis and a commitment to research on outreach, public engagement, and the democratisation of the archive.
As Director of Credox, I am interested in collaborative research projects centred broadly on aspects of educational inequality over time. I am currently working on projects with Stanford University and soon with a JCR in Education: Data Science and Statistical Methods.
History An Introduction to Theory, Method and Practice
Demystifying the subject with clarity and verve, History: An Introduction to Theory, Method and Practice familiarizes the reader with the varied spectrum of historical approaches in a balanced, comprehensive and engaging manner. Global in scope, and covering a wide range of topics from the ancient and medieval worlds to the twenty-first century, it explores historical perspectives not only from historiography itself, but from related areas such as literature, sociology, geography and anthropology.
DPhil Students
I would like to hear from students interested in:
- nineteenth-century City of London
- historiography
- East End social history
- educational inequality over time
In the Media
2017: University media training (by invitation) with BBC journalist Julian Worriker
2014: The Cambridge Union: Spoke in opposition to a motion that " Oxbridge has failed Britain"
2012-2013: Interviews and reports, broadcast, and print (Times Higher Supplement, Times Education Supplement, Time Magazine, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Hackney Gazette, The Independent, Oxford Mail, Evening Standard, Manchester Evening News)
2006: BBC: interviewed by Michael Portillo for Things we Forgot to Remember series on BBC Radio 4
2005: BBC: written contributor to Things we Forgot to Remember series on BBC Radio 4; moderator of online History forum
2004: BBC: joint contributor on Mapping the Towns - a Radio Four programme about the historical development of Spitalfields in East London
2002: BBC: a critical reader for Simon Schama’s, History of Britain