ESHHS 2024: Essex

ESHHS Conference 2024

We are happy to announce that the 43rd ESHHS conference will be held from 25 to 28 June 2024. The conference will be hosted by the University of Essex, at its Colchester campus in the UK, and will be held in person only.

Contents

Program

Our preliminary program is now online and can be found here. Please be aware that there might be some additional changes in the next few weeks.

Registration

The University of Essex
For registration and payment, please follow this link.

Fees

  • £120 Early Bird (until the 31 May) / £150 (After 1 June)
  • £80 Students

Conference dinner

  • £50 Conference Dinner – 27 June (regular)
  • £10 Conference Dinner – 27 June (student)
  • £15 Colchester Castle Tour – 28 June

Location

The University of Essex

Founded in 1964, The University of Essex is a public research university with 17,800 students from 140+ countries. The main campus is located in Wivenhoe Park, a striking landscape of more than 220 acres and home to a range of plants and wildlife including some extraordinary and historic trees. The park was immortalised by John Constable in his 1816 painting which hangs in Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art. Much of the landscape is older still, from medieval oaks to the grand Wivenhoe House of 1758. Wivenhoe Park has been voted one of the top ten green spaces in the UK, in the People’s Choice Award – the only university to receive this award over the last 4 years consecutively. Its architecture is typical of England’s 1960s universities and was heavily influenced by the international Brutalist architecture movement. Our Colchester Campus is easily reached from London and Stansted Airport in under one hour.

Colchester

The campus is a 20-minute bus ride from Colchester, a relatively large city with a population of 130,000. It is England’s oldest recorded development and the former capital of Roman Britain with a rich history dating back over 2000 years. At the heart of Colchester, encircled by the historic Roman Wall, lies the city centre, a place which has been the focal point of the city’s activities for thousands of years, and today is still a busy, thriving hub with lots to see and do.

The campus is also a 10-minute bus ride to Wivenhoe, a charming riverside village with a history of fishing and boat building. Wivenhoe’s small High Street has a collection of independent businesses and eateries, whilst a number of attractive pubs are dotted throughout the town.

Essex

For those planning to spend more days before or after the conference, the county of Essex offers a wide variety of options for places to visit: natural parks, coastal walks, historical landmarks, and picturesque market towns. Some guides can be found here, here, and here.

Transportation

Colchester

Colchester is served by a large network of local buses and train services. Timetables and maps can be found in FirstBus, and a live service is available with their app. Alternatively, for taxi services, we recommend the local companies Roman Cars (+44 1206 521521) and Five Sevens (+44 1206 577777).

London

Direct trains run regularly (every 20-30mins) from London Liverpool Street station to Colchester. The journey takes circa 50 minutes. There are also trains running hourly from the stations Liverpool Street, Stratford, and Shenfield to Colchester Town, Wivenhoe, and Hythe stations (1-hour journey). Train times and tickets can be found via the app/website Trainline.

Eurostar trains from Europe arrive at London St. Pancras Station. From there, it is only 3 stops in the underground (Circle, Hammersmith & City, or Metropolitan lines) to Liverpool Street.

Airports

London Stansted Airport (STN)

Stansted is the nearest airport to the university. It serves over 160 destinations across Europe, Asia and Africa. Stansted is a base for a number of European low-cost carriers, including Ryanair and Easyjet. There is a regular bus service from Stanstead to Colchester (X20 bus) for £2.

Heathrow Airport (LHR)

Heathrow is the main international airport serving London, and the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others being Gatwick, City, Luton, Stansted and Southend). It is also the airport with the world’s most international connections as of 2023.

There are 8 National Express coaches a day running directly from T2 and T3 to Colchester town centre. The journey takes between 2:30-3hrs. An alternative option from LHR is to take the recently inaugurated Elizabeth line to Liverpool St., Stratford or Shenfield stations, where you will find direct trains to Colchester, Wivenhoe, and Hythe.

Ferry

For those looking to minimise their carbon footprint, there is also a ferry service running twice a day between Hook of Holland and Harwich. The journey from Harwich to Colchester takes 30-40 minutes by train (with a change of trains), 30 minutes by car, or 90 minutes cycling.

Housing

On-Campus Accommodation

There are two options for on-campus accommodation:

  • South Courts: Single en-suite bedrooms within self-contained flats with shared kitchens. Pictures of the rooms can be found here. Rates: £45 Room-only per night, £51 Bed & Breakfast per night.
    • For room booking either call: +441206 872005 or email crobind@essex.ac.uk. Please quote ESHHS for discount with the rates above.
  • Wivenhoe House, a four-star hotel, based in an eighteenth-century Grade II listed house. Wivenhoe House is also home to the Edge Hotel School, the first school of its kind in the UK and since October 2018 a department of the University of Essex.

Off-Campus Accommodation

For those who prefer to stay off-campus, there is a range of good hotel options in Colchester such as The Rose & Crown and The George.

Conference Location

All conference programming will be held on-site at the Essex Business School building. All meeting rooms are accessible by elevator and feature built-in audiovisual resources.

Campus Amenities

Parking

Free parking will be available to delegates upon vehicle registration.

Sports Centre

Delegates have access to the sports centre for a daily fee of £7.

Dining

On-campus

We will be offering hot and cold refreshments during the breaks. For lunch and dinner, there are a range of options on campus. You can find a full list of venues here.

Off-campus Dining Options

Colchester and Wivenhoe have some fantastic local eats. A guide to local dining options will be made available soon. 

Conference Events

We are planning a range of exciting events, including a keynote talk by Prof. Andreas Killen (CUNY), a guided tour of Colchester Castle, a workshop on oral history with Prof. Sally Alexander and Prof. Michael Roper, and “meet-the-editors” sessions with some of the leading journals in the field. The conference dinner will take place on the evening of the 27th (Thursday) at The Old Siege, a picturesque seventeenth-century inn in Colchester, for an added charge of £50 (£10 for students), which includes a 3-course meal, wine, and tea or coffee. The full schedule of conference events will be announced once the 2024 programme is available.

Questions?

If you have questions concerning the conference, please reach out to Leonardo Niro at l.niro@essex.ac.uk and/or Shaul Bar-Haim at sbarhaim@essex.ac.uk.