Register for the Port Cities and Maritime Cultures International Conference, University of Portsmouth, 10-11 June 2025

The Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures (PCMC) welcomes delegates to its inaugural international conference, held in collaboration with the Department of History at Hong Kong Baptist University.

This interdisciplinary conference aims to unite scholars and practitioners from around the globe who work at the intersection of urban and maritime studies, humanities, and social science research and impact.

Sessions will focus on a variety of themes, including sailortown, marginalised voices in maritime communities, international horizons and maritime mobilities, maritime museums and the modern waterfront.

The conference is generously sponsored by Lloyd's Register Foundation. This sponsorship is supporting conference fees for students, early career researchers, and independent scholars. To claim a free space, offered on a first come first served basis, please contact pcmc@port.ac.uk .

Professor Brad Beaven and Dr Karl Bell, Co-directors of PCMC, said: "We are delighted to receive this support from Lloyd's Register Foundation for our inaugural international conference. The Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures puts learning from our maritime past at the core of our mission. The sponsorship will enable us to open the conference to a broader range of participants, to continue to encourage emerging and independent scholars, and forge new dialogues with our partners in heritage and public history institutions."

The standard rate for conference attendance is £150.

The conference will be held at the University of Portsmouth's Richmond Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3DE.

The conference programme is below:

Tuesday 10th June

08:30-09:00	Registration
09:00-09:10	Introduction and housekeeping: Dr Guy Collender, Post Doctoral Senior Research Associate, Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures (PCMC), University of Portsmouth Welcome: Professor Paul Smith, Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Portsmouth
9:10-10:30 3 x 20 minute presentations, followed by 20 minutes of questions	Session 1: Navigating life in sailortown Chair: Professor Brad Beaven, Professor of Social and Cultural History, and Co-Director of PCMC, University of Portsmouth Girlhood in a port city: Landscape, interiors and emotions Dr Emily Cuming, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Liverpool John Moores University Navigating maritime-urban boundaries: Sailortowns in nineteenth-century Germany Dr Mathias Seiter, Principal Lecturer in History, and Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth Sailortown Revisited: Women, Children and the Social Life of Port Districts, c.1900 Dr Kristof Loockx, Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Urban History, University of Antwerp
10:30-11:00	Tea/coffee
11:00-12:20 3 x 20 minute presentations, followed by 20 minutes of questions	Session 2: Historical perspectives on major port cities Chair: Dr Mathias Seiter, Principal Lecturer in History, and Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth Malevolent waters: Nineteenth-century journalistic explorations of urban decay on the Thames and Gothenburg Rivers, 1850-1900 Professor Brad Beaven, Professor of Social and Cultural History, and Co-Director, PCMC, University of Portsmouth, and Dr Tomas Nilson, Senior Lecturer in History, School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Halmstad University, and Associate Member of PCMC Company Copenhagen: Architectural, economic and social influences of merchant companies on a European capital, 1602-1950Benjamin Asmussen, Senior Researcher of Maritime History, National Museum of Denmark Navigating empires: Peranakan communities and Singapore’s cultural industry, 1819-1970 Dr Kam Chau Kwok, Lecturer, Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University
12:20-13:20	Lunch
13:20-14:40 3 x 20 minute presentations followed by 20 minutes for questions	Session 3: Recovering marginalised voices in maritime communities Chair: Paola Palma, Research and Innovation Development Manager, Department of Research and Innovation, and Executive Committee Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth SHE_SEES Portsmouth exhibition: Rewriting women into maritime history through creative co-production, enhanced visibility, and historical research Dr Melanie Bassett, Senior Research Fellow in Public Engagement, and Executive Committee Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth, and Sarah Mott, Interpretation Coordinator, Heritage Centre, Lloyd’s Register Foundation Recovering marginalised voices: Unearthing invisible seafaring histories of empire Asif Shakoor, Independent scholar What does the sea mean to me: Connecting isolated communities to local blue spaces Sam Southern, PhD student, School of Society and Culture, University of Plymouth
14:40-15:10	Tea/coffee
15:10-16:30 3 x 20 minute presentations followed by 20 minutes for questions	Session 4: International horizons and maritime mobilities Chair: Dr Karl Bell, Associate Professor of Cultural and Social History, and Co-Director of PCMC, University of Portsmouth Children in transit: Childhood sea voyages to Shanghai, c. 1860-1940s Professor Catherine Ladds, Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University Forging maritime modernity: Early Sino-European naval education and the pioneering Chinese maritime students, 1870-1900 Dr Charlotte Steffen, Affiliate Researcher, Limassol Patticheion Municipal Museum, Historical Archive and Research Centre Working-class lives in the Port of London: Combining hyperlocal solidarity and international horizons, 1880s-1930s Dr Guy Collender, Post Doctoral Senior Research Associate, PCMC, University of Portsmouth
16:30-16:40	Tea/coffee
16:40-17:30 40 minute paper, 10 minute questions	Keynote address: Health Equity and Public Health in Port Cities: Hong Kong and the Beriberi Problem (1890s-1940s) Professor Tim Man Kong Wong, Director, Academy of Chinese, History, Religion and Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Associate Member of PCMC
17:30-18:15	Wine reception

Wednesday 11th June

08:30-09:00	Registration
09:00-10:40 4 x 20 minute papers, followed by 20 minutes for questions	Session 5: Routes to power and resources, and accompanying prejudices Chair: Dr Melanie Bassett, Senior Research Fellow in Public Engagement, and Executive Committee Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth Gatekeeping in the water transport system of early Ming China, Professor Ka Chai Tam, Associate Professor, Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University Fortresses and pirates, rivalries and treaties: A historical snapshot of the Yashwantgad Fort Saanika Patnaik, PhD student, Ashoka University Coastal Cymru: The Welsh coast and transport heritage in the context of transformation Dr Louise Moon, Technical Lead - Heritage, Legacy and Sustainable Impact, Transport for Wales, and Associate Member of PCMC No more booze: The expulsion orders against the Chinese in Venezuela, 1938-1941 Dr Rudolph Ng, Lecturer in Global History, and Executive Committee Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth
10:40-11:00	Tea/coffee
11:00-12:20 3 x 20 minutes papers, followed by 20 minutes for questions	Session 6: Today’s waterfront: Preserving urban-maritime heritage and embracing modernity Chair: Dr Rudolph Ng, Lecturer in Global History, and Executive Committee Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth Preserving maritime New York City: Engaging public history in the Port of New York and New Jersey Stefan Dreisbach-Williams, Archivist, The Seamen’s Church Institute, New York, New York Problems and challenges in the conservation of maritime heritage in the port and city of Callao, Peru Carlos Ausejo, PhD student in History, Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth The waterfront city of the 21st century: The spectacularisation and consumption of the urban-water interface Dr Enrico Tommarchi, Lecturer in Urban Planning, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee
12:20-13:20	Lunch
13:20-14:20 2 x 20 minute presentations followed by 20 minutes for questions	Showcasing maritime museums Chair: Dr Rob James, Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Social History, and Executive Committee Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth Local maritime museums in East Anglia’s port towns and the role of nostalgia in constructing community identities Henry Gayfer, PhD student in Museum Studies, University of Leicester Showing your best side: Photogrammetry and museum collections Will Heppa, Curator of Artefacts, National Museum of the Royal Navy
14:20-14:35	Tea/coffee
14:35-14:55	Reflections and next steps: Dr Mel Bassett, Senior Research Fellow in Public Engagement, and Executive Committee Member of PCMC, University of Portsmouth

Sign up for the inaugural conference organised by the Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures