Author Archives: Alison Fox

UCL Press is pleased to share that Dr Jovana Diković, author of The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia, has been honoured by the Ethnographic Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The award recognises Dr Diković’s outstanding contribution to ethnological and anthropological research. Presented once every four years, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious honours within the Serbian anthropological community.

Published by UCL Press in 2025, The Laissez-Faire Peasant offers a timely and original examination of post-socialist rural transformation in Serbia. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book explores how evolving political and economic structures have shaped everyday life, agricultural practices and rural identities.

We warmly congratulate Dr Diković on this outstanding achievement.

UCL Press is proud to announce the publication of two significant new open access books to celebrate UCL’s 200th anniversary. Together, they offer fresh insights into the people, places and stories that have shaped the university since 1826.

Student London: A New History of Higher Education in the Capital

Student London is a 200‑year history of student life in London, exploring diverse experiences, culture and activism through rich archival sources.

Students have formed a significant part of London’s population since the foundation of its first university in 1826, and Student London centres their experiences in the city’s history. The book draws on an unusually rich set of sources that include institutional records, college magazines, court reports, secret service files, memoirs and oral histories. Together, these accounts capture life at the original London University, known as UCL since 1836, as well as many other institutions that later became part of it.
The authors explore a wide range of higher education experiences across medical schools, teacher training colleges and specialist institutes. They consider everyday life, funding and student welfare, and follow students into recreation, sports and leisure. The book also reflects on shifting attitudes to class, race, gender, sex and sexuality, and offers a deeper engagement with London’s imperial history than earlier studies of higher education.

Read and download it free from https://uclpress.co.uk/book/student-london/

University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus

University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus is first comprehensive account of UCL’s architectural history and the evolution of its iconic London Bloomsbury campus over the past 200 years, and the first of the iconic Survey of London series to be published in open access by UCL Press.

Since the construction of its iconic neoclassical building in Gower Street, UCL has been an increasingly influential presence in the capital’s Bloomsbury district, shaping the character of its built environment and acting as a magnet for other academic institutions. Over two hundred years UCL has expanded to form an extensive campus, its sprawling footprint and varied building stock reflecting growth in student numbers and advances in education, technology and culture.

Survey of London is a renowned series of volumes running from the 1890s to document the buildings of London. Having been part of UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture since 2013, it is uniquely placed to offer the first comprehensive account of the university’s buildings and the evolution of its historic Bloomsbury campus.

This Survey of London monograph provides a new understanding of this significant estate in central London, bringing to light a complex and engaging architectural story with many facets that have been previously overlooked or neglected.

Read and download it free: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/university-college-london/

Together, the books provide new perspectives on UCL’s past and form a key part of the university’s Bicentenary programme.

UCL Press is delighted to announce the publication of the first Survey of London volume to be released in open access: University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus.

Formerly published by Yale University Press, the Survey of London is a renowned series of architectural and topographical studies documenting the evolving built environment of London’s neighbourhoods. Known for its meticulous research and richly illustrated volumes, the series is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the history and architecture of the capital.

The new volume offers an in‑depth account of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus, tracing its architectural development, historical importance, and the role its buildings have played in shaping the university’s identity. It is the first volume in the series to be published by UCL Press, and the first to be made freely available as an open access PDF.

Its publication marks the start of UCL’s 200‑year celebrations, reflecting the university’s longstanding commitment to sharing knowledge widely and supporting global access to scholarship. Making the Survey of London openly accessible underscores UCL’s dedication to public engagement and the dissemination of high-quality research.

Commissioning editor Dr Chris Penfold said: ‘We are very pleased to welcome the Survey of London series to UCL Press. The series has a long and distinguished history. The combination of new research, detailed building-by-building analysis and extensive illustrative material makes the series an indispensable tool for architectural historians. We look forward to working with the team on forthcoming volumes.’

Colin Thom, Director of the Survey of London, said: ‘The move to UCL Press opens up an exciting new chapter in the Survey of London’s long and distinguished history. The UCL Press open-access model – the first established by a UK university press – is very much in keeping with the Survey’s founding ethos and public-service traditions, and promises a full range of publishing formats that will achieve far wider outreach and impact for us, while maintaining the continuity and posterity of the series. We are also delighted that the first benefit of this new relationship should be a monograph volume shedding new light on 200 years of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus’.

Scheduled maintenance affecting UCL Press systems will take place from 17:00 GMT on Friday 23rd January 2026 and continue throughout the weekend. We anticipate that the work will be completed by 14:00 GMT on Monday 26th January

During this time, some services on the UCL Press website may be unavailable, and downloads may not be accessible via the UCL Press platform.

UCL Press books will, however, remain available via external platforms, including:

• JSTOR
• OAPEN
• Google Books

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience while this essential work is carried out.

UCL Press is delighted to announce the publication of Thomas Cranmer’s Register: A Record of Archiepiscopal Administration in Diocese and Province, edited by Dr Paul Ayris and with a Foreword by Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch.

This significant new edition provides access to text from Thomas Cranmer’s register, one of the most important sources for understanding the early Tudor church. Covering the years 1533 to 1553, the register captures a period of intense religious and political transformation, including the break with Rome, the growth of royal authority in church affairs, and the early shaping of a Protestant state.

To date, the register has presented many problems for researchers, with 16^th-century handwriting hard for many to decipher and the manuscript’s location in London’s Lambeth Palace out of reach for many. Dr Ayris’s edition offers complete transcription of the difficult text and summaries of Latin passages. The register text is supported by editorial introductions that guide readers through the register’s structure and key themes, shedding new light on how Cranmer managed ecclesiastical business across both the diocese and province of Canterbury. Publication in open access will make the register text immediately available to all researchers worldwide.

The edition brings several major discoveries to public attention. Newly identified records from the diocese of Norwich in 1550 show that Cranmer, not Bishop Nicholas Ridley, initiated the instruction to remove stone altars from English churches. Dr Ayris also proposes a new explanation for the changing references to English Bible reading in the 1536 Royal Injunctions, offering fresh insight into the decision‑making of the period. Additional material from the Court of First Fruits and Tenths, together with detailed evidence of clerical appointments, provides the most complete overview to date of church promotions between 1533 and 1553.

Dr Ayris completed the edition shortly before his death in December 2025, drawing on more than 45 years of research. Published in association with the Canterbury and York Society, the volume stands as a major new resource for scholars of the Tudor period and the English Reformation.

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Abut the Author

Paul Ayris (April 1957- December 2025) was Pro-Vice-Provost, Libraries, Culture, Collections and Open Science, at UCL. He previously published on aspects of Cranmer’s register and its significance. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, formerly President of LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) and chaired the Open Science Ambassadors group in LERU (League of European Research Universities).

With great sadness, we announce the death of Dr Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost (LCCOS: Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science) and CEO of UCL Press.

Paul dedicated the majority of his career to UCL, joining in 1997 as Deputy Librarian and quickly becoming Director of UCL Library Services. Under his leadership, Library Services went from strength to strength, developing the focus on openness and outreach that was his hallmark and implementing a major programme of investment in services that went on to include the creation of the UCL Student Centre in Bloomsbury and the UCL East Library. In 2018 he became Pro-Vice-Provost with an expanded portfolio, and his championing of Open Science in particular has been instrumental in changing approaches across the sector. It is in large part thanks to him that UCL Press is leading the way in open access publishing.

Paul was not only CEO and a champion of UCL Press, but also an author of one of its forthcoming publications. He was dedicated to the study of the English reformation church, having written his doctoral thesis on the work of the reformation archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and was looking forward to the publication of his book, Thomas Cranmer’s Register, in January.

He pursued his academic work in parallel to his role at UCL, the high standard of which was reflected in his election as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2019.

Paul also volunteered his time to a range of organisations across the sector in service of his vision of an open, accessible and publicly engaged higher education ecosystem, including as President of LIBER, the Association of European Research Libraries, and as Chair of League of European Research Universities’ Working Groups on Roadmaps for Open Access, Research Data and Open Science. He was latterly proud to serve as Chair of the LERU Group for Open Science Ambassadors.

He led a huge portfolio bringing together UCL’s libraries, museums and collections, public engagement and open science activities with great energy and enthusiasm and will be enormously missed by colleagues at UCL and globally.

To mark International Migrants Day, we’ve put together a reading list of essential open access books about migration.

Highlights include Precarious Motherhood: Navigating relationships and support post-migration in the UK, ‘Am I Less British?’ : Racism, belonging, and the children of refugees and immigrants in North London and Refuge in a Moving World: Tracing refugee and migrant journeys across disciplines. Every title is free to download and read – no matter where you are.

We are delighted to announce that Fabricate 2024: Creating Resourceful Futures has been awarded a commendation in the Technical category at the Architecture Book of the Year Awards in London.

Launched in 2023 by The Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects, the Temple Bar Trust and the World Architecture Festival, the Awards celebrate excellence in architectural publishing.

The judges praised Fabricate 2024 as:

“A very useful and important book for architects and students about physical research and prototype experimentation into new building and material techniques. This is the latest in a series promoted by UCL/Bartlett School. Well-written by a variety of international engineers, architects, technologists and students. The book is beautifully designed and illustrated and it is good at informing readers and especially architectural students about the possible building futures.”

Congratulations to the book’s editors and contributors!

https://uclpress.co.uk/book-series/fabricate/Fabricate and its four preceding volumes are available to read and download free from UCL Press.

Join the authors of the open access book Teaching Slavery: New Approaches to Britain’s Colonial Past for a hybrid book talk hosted by the Institute of Historical Research.

Date: 11th December 2025
Time: 17:30–19:30 GMT
Location: Hybrid | Online-via Zoom & Room 349, Third Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Series: Black British History 

Registration link: https://www.history.ac.uk/news-events/events/book-talk-teaching-slavery-new-approaches-britains-colonial-past

All welcome– this seminar is free to attend but advance registration is required.

This groundbreaking book brings together the latest academic research on Britain’s involvement in transatlantic slavery, with innovative thinking on the teaching of such challenging histories in the classroom. It provides an essential framework for transforming how slavery is conceptualised and taught in British secondary schools by addressing three specific areas of concern: limits of teacher training on historical content and pedagogical approaches; the scarcity of high-quality, appropriate, research-based resources; and the lack of supporting published material to guide teachers on the principles, knowledge and practice for ethical classroom engagement.

Drawing on insights from a long-term partnership between historians and educators Teaching Slavery combines sophisticated historical analysis with practical pedagogical guidance. The early part of the book offers thorough historiographical examination of key themes, including race, the gendering of slavery, resistance and rethinking abolition. These are followed by detailed guidance on overcoming the challenges of teaching these histories, including exemplar enquiries to help teachers establish a classroom where teachers and students can confidently engage in dialogue about key ideas, including the construction of race and racism. Throughout, the authors emphasise the importance of historical specificity and the need to critically engage with Britain’s history of slavery and empire.

UCL Press is pleased to announce that it will be publishing the Survey of London series in open access, beginning with University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus, which is due to publish in Spring 2026.

Previously published by Yale University Press, the Survey of London is a leading series of architectural and topographical studies of the UK’s capital. Renowned for its meticulous research and richly illustrated volumes, the series documents the ever-evolving built environment of London’s neighbourhoods.

The forthcoming volume focuses on UCL’s Bloomsbury campus, offering a detailed account of its architectural development, historical significance, and role in shaping the university’s identity. It will be the first volume in the series to be published by UCL Press and the first to be made freely available as an open access PDF.

This landmark publication forms part of UCL’s 200-year celebrations, marking two centuries of innovation, impact, and public engagement. Making the Survey of London openly accessible reflects UCL’s ongoing commitment to sharing knowledge and scholarship with the widest possible audience.

Commissioning editor, Dr Chris Penfold said: ‘We are very pleased to welcome the Survey of London series to UCL Press. The series has a long and distinguished history. The combination of new research, detailed building-by-building analysis and extensive illustrative material makes the series an indispensable tool for architectural historians. We look forward to working with the team on forthcoming volumes.’

Colin Thom, Director of the Survey of London, said: ‘The move to UCL Press opens up an exciting new chapter in the Survey of London’s long and distinguished history. The UCL Press open-access model – the first established by a UK university press – is very much in keeping with the Survey’s founding ethos and public-service traditions, and promises a full range of publishing formats that will achieve far wider outreach and impact for us, while maintaining the continuity and posterity of the series. We are also delighted that the first benefit of this new relationship should be a monograph volume shedding new light on 200 years of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus’. 

The book will be available to download for free from the UCL Press website, with print copies also available for purchase.