Registration is open

You can now download the booking form:

Word document

or

PDF file

Note: if you have a friend or colleague going along as well, the two of you can book the 2-person per night hotel option and save some money; just ensure that you make clear on your booking form (or in a covering letter) that that’s what you want to do. The deadline for getting the discount rate at the two hotels listed in the form is Friday 31 May (although payment is not required until you’re at the hotel), but it’s recommended that you book as soon as possible.

The conference programme is here!

Download: conference programme (pdf file). (Subject to minor changes and revisions.)

Registration information will follow shortly.

Conference poster

You can now download a conference poster (pdf) to display on your office door or department noticeboard, etc.

A preview

Here is an outline of the draft programme (subject to change) for the conference:

Thursday 10 July (afternoon only)

*Teaching from the Old Bailey Online

*Digitising history

Friday 11 July

*Plenary session

*Female killers

*Material life in the metropolis

*Sexual crime

*Courts and the legal profession in the 19th century

*Aspects of the trial (1)

*Publishing crime (1)

*Plenary session

Saturday 12 July (morning only)

*Long-term homicide patterns

*Publishing crime (2)

*Punishment

*Aspects of the trial (2)

*Criminal gangs

If you think it looks tasty, registration will be opening shortly!

CCC database

To our small but growing band of RSS and email subscribers - welcome!

The good news is that the CCC 1834-1913 database is now available for those who have had papers accepted for the conference to consult while working on them. It’s a very basic test run with a limited set of search options, but the database is complete and finished (apart from the inevitable minor corrections).

You will need to email Sharon Howard (or one of the project directors) for the URL and the passwords to access the database. Please do not pass the information on to anyone else at this stage - the server capacity of this test run is limited and use should be restricted to what’s absolutely necessary, to avoid overloading it and incurring the wrath of our technicians.

For all other uses, the material will be publicly available with a full range of searching options by the end of March, so please be patient just a little longer.

If you do use the test run in the next month or so, any feedback on the experience will be greatly appreciated.

The Metropolis on Trial

An International Conference at the Open University, Milton Keynes
10-12 July 2008

This conference heralds and celebrates the completion of the Old Bailey online project. From the early summer of 2008 it will be possible to consult at www.oldbaileyonline.org not only the Proceedings of the Old Bailey from 1674 to 1834 but also those of its successor, the Central Criminal Court, from 1834 to 1913. Papers at the conference will draw upon these proceedings, or those of similar courts in other metropolitan centres, to explore aspects of cultural, social or political life from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

Clive Emsley, Open University
Tim Hitchcock, University of Hertfordshire
Bob Shoemaker, University of Sheffield

Proposals for papers, not more than 200 words please, should be sent by Friday 7 December 2007, to Sue Watkins, Dept of History, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, United Kingdom. Email: S.Watkins@open.ac.uk