First name/s: Denise
Last name: Pakeman
Known names / nicknames:
Date of birth:
Year of birth: 1961
Life before Ruskin
Date and place of birth: Northumberland
Family: Mother – businesswoman and teacher of adults with learning difficulties; father – cabinet maker; brother – self-employed home maintenance business; husband – logistics, son – student.
Work: various full and part-time posts around family including legal secretary, office manager for historic buildings architects, ward clerk at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and ran bed and breakfast with husband.
Politics/Trade union activity: N/A
Trade Union membership (at time of entry to Ruskin)
Life at Ruskin
Dates at Ruskin: 2007-2011
Source of funding: Part self-funding and part student-loan. Working part-time whilst studying as Ruskin student ambassador and data entry clerk around cardiac rehab/research.
Campaigns/political activity: Stop the Cuts demonstrations and trying to stop sale of Walton Street site of Ruskin College
Subjects studied at Ruskin: Short Courses – Changing Directions and Changing Women’s Lives with tutor Penny Halliday, Social Psychology and Anthropology for Beginners with tutor Jen Nixon, Suffragettes and Women’s History with tutor Hilda Kean, Mapping your life story with tutor Jo Stanley, Assertiveness Training with tutor Ann Perry and Study Skills with tutor Emma Carney.
Cert HE History Oct 2007- June 2009 with tutors Hilda Kean, Paul Martin and John Walker
Dip HE History with Social Science Oct 2009 – June 2010:Campaigning on Gender Race and Class with Hilda Kean; Historical Development of Trade Unions with Jim Moher, Historical Controversies Now – Whose Past whose present? with Steve Mills, Europe in a Changing World with Wolfgang Deicke, Western European Left since 1890 with John Walker.
BA History with Social Science Oct 2010-06 2011: Approaches to Navigating the Past with Paul Martin, Trade Unions and Sustainable Economic Development with Michael Liggins, Animals and Humans – whose history? with Hilda Kean, Radical Political Economies with Pete Dwyer.
Dissertation:
Cert HE 2009- “Ethel Williams: doctor, suffragist and humanitarian – an exploration of her life and how she is remembered” supervisor Hilda Kean.
Dip HE 2010 Independent Research Project: “Class and Gender Roles – a study of Boatwomen on the Oxford Canal” supervisor Steve Mills.
BA Dissertation 2011: “My mother’s black box collection – what contribution can personal memory and objects make to history?” supervisor Steve Mills.
Work Experience connection made by Ruskin tutors Jen Nixon and Hilda Kean: with fellow history students Caroline and Jill, carrying out research at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford for the digitization of the Body Arts Project. We chose areas of the project of particular interest to ourselves to research and write about. I chose objects from the collections associated with Maori tattoos and woodcarving and was lucky enough to work with Maori Performance Artists who gave me a different perspective on objects in the collections from source communities. Our work and that of subsequent history and social science students can be see on the Pitt Rivers website http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ follow research and links to Ruskin College.
Prizes awarded for the research projects listed above: 2009, 2010 and 2011 Mark Young Prize Winner awarded for work in labour studies. [N.B. Chris Wilkes, Head of Finance and General Secretary at Ruskin College (currently Acting Principal) told me that Mark Young was a General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) who died in the early 1990s. BALPA and British Airways established this prize in his name.]
Qualification: BA (Hons) 1st Class in History with Social Sciences awarded July 2011
Life after Ruskin
Education: MA with Distinction Interpretation Representation and Heritage with the School of Museum Studies at Leicester University via distance learning awarded January 2014
Work: Voluntary work with Bishopsgate Library, London, doing research for an on-line exhibition around social and cultural change in Fournier Street, Spitalfields, London.
Voluntary work (on-going) with Oxfordshire Deaf Children’s Society.
Whilst studying working casually with Banbury Museum, Oxfordshire, delivering school workshops on Victorian Toys and Oxford Canal giving talks, and leading craft activities and games sessions around the Museum; also seasonal work with Boots the Chemist in operations and customer services.
Politics/trade union activity: N/A
Family: As above
Place & date of death: N/A
Date of death:
Year of death: 0
Achievements / Publications
Virtual Articles:
Exploring culture and identity through moko tattoos and wooden carvings http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ruskin.html
Thoughts and Questions of a Ruskin Graduate on the College Archives http://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/thoughts-questions-of-a-ruskin-graduate
On-line Exhibition with Bishopsgate Library:
Fournier Street in Spitalfields http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/library-Displays/Ruskin-Placements
Journal Article:
Fact and Fiction: Reinterpreting Animals in a National Museum
Society & Animals 21 (2013) pp.591-593
Material in archives or already published articles
Image
Notes on Image/s
Comment of contributor/s and sources
Author/s
Denise Pakeman