Malcolm Noble: BA (Leicester), MA (Leicester), PhD (Edinburgh)

Dr Malcolm Noble, History Tutor

BA History (Leicester)
MA Urban History (Leicester)
PhD Economic and Social History (Edinburgh)
Fellow Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Fellow Higher Education Academy

Responsibilities

  • Transition Manager for the College, responsible for managing our move towards offering accredited programmes.
  • History tutor, previously offering courses on the history of the book, and recently the English country house.

Teaching Areas

I teach British, European and Imperial history after 1700, and very open-minded about what forms this might take. I have a particular interest in teaching book history and analytical bibliography.

I have taught at the Universities of Leicester and Edinburgh. Most, but not all, of my teaching experience has been with adult learners, for whom co-production and co-design of learning is an obvious choice.

Research Areas

My principal historical research interest is in the finance of urban government and the bounding of the state at local levels. I am working on a monograph based on my thesis with a working title of: ‘Bankrupt! Urban government under pressure, Edinburgh 1820-70’. Questions about the limits of the state, the public and the private have underpinned much of my work, including the history of Morrison Construction. In part, I draw on this in work I am finishing on the establishment of the Edinburgh International Festival after World War Two.

I am interested in the English country house as public history, in questions around the way they are used and visited today, in how their pasts are presented, and the political implications of this. In particular, I am interested in the development and meaning of country house opera.

The critical use of print material sits at the heart of my approach to historical research. I have worked on and with a broad range of historical print. I am interested to disruptions to and expansions of traditional bibliographical enquiry, especially around queer zines and ways to approach them; I relate this too to my educational practice and research.

My work on co-operatives focuses largely on education: pedagogies for classroom, the character of co-operative higher education and co-operative education more generally, as well as alternative ways of researching. Recently, I helped established a radical education zine Recast by an informal press Unpress (www.unpress.co.uk).

Publications

  1. with Cilla Ross, ‘The Co-operative Identity Statement and Higher Education Co-operatives’, Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management [accepted, in press, 2021 special issue on Co-operative Identity].  
  2. OEC Bibliography of Edinburgh History, which can be accessed here (Edinburgh: Old Edinburgh Club, 2021).
  3. ”Finding Edinburgh’s Past: introducing The OEC Bibliography of Edinburgh History‘, Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, 16 (2020), pp.103-7.
  4. with Ann Stones, Learning Together: The LAT Community Explorers Project (Leicester: Leicester Vaughan College, 2020), 42pp. Online here.
  5. with Cilla Ross, ‘Bundling Co-operative Higher Education: towards a theory of co-operative learning’, Journal of Co-operative Studies (2020), 53, 3. Online here.
  6. with Cilla Ross, ‘Co-operative Higher Education and the post-pandemic university’, Post-pandemic University (2020). Online here.
  7. ‘From one sheet: a lesson in queer bibliography’, Queer Zine Library: Year 1 (London: Queer Zine Library, 2020).
  8. With Tom Woodin, ‘Review of Periodical Literature on the History of Education published in 2018’, History of Education Researcher, 105 (2020), pp.32-59
  9. Review of ‘Michael Anderson, ‘Scotland’s Populations from the 1850s to Today’’, Economic History Review 73, 1 (2020), pp.331-2, https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12948.
  10. Collection edited with Cilla Ross, Reclaiming the University for the Public Good: Futures in Co-operative Higher Education (Critical University Studies, Palgrave, 2019) https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030216245; paperback 2021.
  11. with Cilla Ross, ‘Now is the Time for Co-operative Higher Education’, in Reclaiming the University for the Public Good. https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030216245
  12. with Cilla Ross, ‘Seeking a co-operative university: reconstructing adult education and reclaiming HE as a public good’, in Reclaiming the University for the Public Good. https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030216245
  13. Risk, Reward and Reputation: the story of Morrison construction (Crucible books, 2019). https://www.carnegiepublishing.co.uk/product/morrison-story-1948-2019/
  14. with Susannah Lisbet Wright, ‘Review of Periodic Literature 2017’, History of Education Researcher, 103 (2019), pp.48-72.
  15. ‘Co-operative Higher Education is the Answer: how to save adult education for the last time’, Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 21, 1 (2019), pp.139-44. https://doi.org/10.5456/WPLL.21.1.139
  16. Review of ‘Jeffrey Abt, ‘Valuing Detroit’s Art Museum: a history of fiscal abandonment and rescue’’, Urban History, 45, 4 (2018), pp.736-7, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926818000512.
  17. with Richard Hall: ‘The Practicalities and pedagogies of adult learning co-operatives: Vaughan resurgam’, SCUTREA Proceedings (SCUTREA, 2018), pp.197-205, open online access http://www.scutrea.ac.uk/p/scutrea.html.
  18. ‘The Problems and Possibility of Common Good Accounts: Edinburgh, c.1820-56’, Scottish Archives, 21 (2017), pp.44-58, https://www.scottishrecordsassociation.org/2282.Scottish%20Archives%20-21.5%20Noble.web.2017-02-02.pdf.
  19. ‘The Common Good and Borough Reform: Leicester c.1820-50’, Midland History, 41, 1 (2016), pp.37-56, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0047729X.2016.1159853.
  20. ‘To obliterate forever Hunnish names’, Context, 137 (2014), pp.12-13, open online access at: http://ihbconline.co.uk/context/137/#14/z.
  21. ‘Bibliography of urban history 2010’, Urban History, 37, 3 (2010), pp.499-551, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926810000593.
  22. Review of ‘The Feminine Public Sphere: Middle-Class Women in Civic Life in Scotland c.1870–1914’, Reviews in History, 999 (2010), online at http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/999.
  23. Review of ‘Phillada Ballard (ed.), Birmingham’s Victorian and Edwardian Architects’’, Urban History, 37, 2 (2010), pp.341-2. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926810000441.
  24. ‘Bibliography of urban history 2009’, Urban History, 36, 3 (2009), pp.519-77, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926809990216.
  25. Review of ‘David G. Barrie, Police in the Age of Improvement: Police Development and the Civic Tradition in Scotland, 1775–1865’, Urban History, 36, 2 (2009), pp.346-7, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926809006336.
  26. ‘Thomas Burbidge: Last Town Clerk to the Corporation of Leicester’, Leicestershire Historian, 45 (2009), pp.44-7.
  27. Reviews in Leicestershire Historian (2009-present).
  28. ‘Bibliography of urban history 2008’, Urban History, 35, 3 (2008), pp.524-73, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926808005889.

Please do not hesitate to email malcolm.noble@vaughan.coop for access, as in many cases I can provide a PDF

Scholarships and awards

  • William T. Buice III Scholarship, Rare Books School (2021).
  • Richard Aldrich Fellow, History of Education Society (2019).
  • Richard Aldrich Fellow, History of Education Society (2018).
  • James Davis Scholarship, Rare Books School (2017).
  • John Nichols Prize for English Local History (2009).

Service

  • Co-operative College University Working Group, 2016-2018.
  • Member of Interim Academic Board, Co-operative University Project, Co-operative College, 2019.
  • Co-operative University Federation Steering Group 2020-present.
  • Founder Member, Leicester Vaughan College Limited, 2017-present; Director and Secretary, 2017-19.
  • Membership of CERN (Co-operative Early Researchers Network) 2019- present.
  • Conference Committee Urban History Group.
  • Vodcasting Urban History (New Teaching Initiatives Fund, University of Leicester) 2009-2010. Samples at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luTTGD6U4Yg

Recent Conferences and Workshops

  • ‘Ways and zines: towards a queer bibliography’, Gender and the Book Trades, USTC conference, U. St Andrews/online, 16-19 June 2021.
  • with Daniel Cox, Lata Narayanaswamy and Cilla Ross, ‘Making Knowledge Together Through Radical Learning’, Learning LIVE! Co-operative College/online, 30 September 2020.
  • with Lucas Ihlein, Cath Muller, and Joss Winn ‘Re-imagining the University as a Co-op’, panel discussion, U-topias, University of Wollongong/online, 18 July 2020.
  • Roundtable seminar, Active Citizenship in the crisis of Democracy, Toynbee Hall, November 2019. Invited.
  • ‘Co-operative research and age-friendly cities: lessons from the Community Explorers project at Leicester Vaughan College’, with Ann Stones, The way ahead: linking new research on co-operatives and the social economy with new practical initiatives, CERN (Co-operative Early Researcher Network) and UCLAN, Preston, November 2019.
  • ‘For what might come: recasting co-operative education’, with Cilla Ross, The way ahead: linking new research on co-operatives and the social economy with new practical initiatives, CERN (Co-operative Early Researcher Network) and UCLAN, Preston, November 2019.
  • The way ahead: linking new research on co-operatives and the social economy with new practical initiatives, CERN (Co-operative Early Researcher Network) and UCLAN, Preston, November 2019.
  • ‘Who owns our past? (re)claiming an institutional history through public engagement: Vaughan College 1862-2019’, History of Education Society Annual Conference, November 2019.
  • ‘Small group learning in a teach out: a practice-based research exercise’, with Miriam Gill, ‘Lifelong Learning and the Pedagogy of Hope’, SCUTREA, University of Sheffield, July 2019.
  • ‘Leicester Vaughan College’ Co-operative Education, Past and Future, Co-ops East Midlands, July 2019.
  • Self-governing communities of scholars? Securing a future for adult education through co-operation, Canadian Association for University Continuing Education, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, May 2019.
  • ‘Vaughan Centre for Lifelong Learning Learning (Very) Small Groups project: exploring a practice-based tool-kit’, with Miriam Gill, UALL, University of Wolverhampton, Telford Campus, April 2019.
  • ‘Developing co-operative Higher Education materials: an interactive activity’, Co-operative University Information Day, Manchester, Co-operative college, March 2019. Invited.
  • ‘Responses to the Great Fires of Edinburgh, 1824’, Fires and Communities in the Early-Modern and Modern Periods, Maison Française d’Oxford, February 2019. Invited.
  • ‘The Practicalities and pedagogies of adult learning co-operatives: Vaughan resurgam’ with Richard Hall, SCUTREA, University of Sheffield, July 2018.
  • ‘Good things coming in very small packages: an interim report on toolkits for very small group teaching’, with Miriam Gill, Discovering Teaching Excellence, University of Leicester, July 2018.
  • ‘Sense and sensitivity: the ethical implications of oral history interviews for business histories’, Oral History Society, QUB, June 2018.
  • ‘Square pegs and round holes: the governance of co-operative higher education under the Office for Students, Co-operative Education Conference, Manchester, May 2018.
  • ‘The political economy of municipal boundaries: rates, responsibilities and rivalries, Edinburgh and Leith 1830-1860’, Economic History Society, Keele University, April 2018.
  • ‘Haunted by the past, dismantling the future: nostalgia as public history’, Imagined Futures: Unsettling Scientific Stories, University of York, March 2018.
  • ‘Co-operation is the answer: how to save adult education for the last time’, University Association for Lifelong Learning’, Dowling College, Cambridge, March 2018.
  • ‘Leicester Vaughan College: a new kind of higher education institution in an established tradition’, with Miriam Gill, Making the co-operative university: new places, spaces and models for learning, Co-operative College, Manchester, November 2017.
  • ‘Rudolf Bing and the establishment of the Edinburgh International Festival in civic, national and international perspective’, Opéra sans frontières: Musicians and migration in a globalised world, OBERTO conference, Oxford Brookes, September 2017.
  • ‘The challenges of building co-operative HEIs’, with Fenella Porter, RED Learning Co-operative, UK Co-operative Studies Conference, Northumbria Business School, September 2017.
  • ‘Co-operative by design: co-operative pedagogies for higher education’, with Mike Neary, University of Lincoln, UK Co-operative Studies Conference, Northumbria Business School, September 2017.
  • ‘From bad TV to good history: facing colonialism through media representations to resolve a barrier to learning’, Discovering Teaching Excellence, University of Leicester, July 2017.
  • ‘Teaching very small groups: developing alternative classroom activities’ with Miriam Gill, Discovering Teaching Excellence, University of Leicester, July 2017.
  • ‘Beyond franchise reform: the challenges of reforming local government in Edinburgh, 1833-56’, Revolution, Reformation and Re-formation, Institute of Historical Research, June 2017.