Starting September 1st, Miriam Bibby will take up her new post as Vice President of the EHC and take over from Carolyn Willekes. Carolyn will automatically go into her new role as President.
Miriam began her academic career studying British Prehistory at the University of Nottingham, being awarded a joint honours degree in archaeology and geography. She subsequently engaged (or rather re-engaged, as it had been a childhood interest) with Egyptology at the University of Manchester. Here she gained the Certificate in Egyptology before continuing to study at post-graduate level, gaining her MPhil on the topic of the Horse in Ancient Egypt in 2000. Miriam was also tutor and course developer for the University of Manchester Distance Learning Course in Egyptology. In 2022, she was awarded a PhD on the Galloway horse, one of her long-term interests. Miriam has edited equestrian and archaeology magazines as well as books, and is currently co-editor-in-chief of Cheiron, the International Journal for Equine and Equestrian History. Her work has been published in numerous journals and magazines, and she has presented papers at many conferences and seminars. She has kept horses for over forty years and currently has two ponies. In the 1980s, she was Chair of the Cheshire-Derbyshire Group of the Endurance Horse and Pony Society, and organised and participated in many long distance rides.
Miriam’s visions for the EHC:
As Vice President I would support the President in building on the strong achievements of the EHC and expanding its work. I consider the following themes to be particularly important: firstly, continuing to establish and promote the EHC as the pre-eminent international organisation for researchers in equine history and related areas. I’d like to assist in broadening the EHC base, working as an international group of scholars to build our knowledge of the human-horse relationship, past, present, and future. The EHC’s diversity is one of its great strengths and I know that expanding this is one of VP Carolyn Willekes’ aims.
Secondly, like EHC secretary Lonneke Delpeut, I would like to proactively seek out scholars in new areas and recruit them, thereby creating the opportunity to reach a wider audience for their research through publication and presentation at conferences. This leads naturally into the third point, publishing, which is very close to my heart, of course. I think there is a whole discourse to be developed concerning “what constitutes publishing in 2022?” now that we have so many different options. However, one of the gold standards of academic research remains; that is, that research is not complete without publication. I’d like to encourage more publishing, of EHC conference papers for example. Fourthly, recognition of the work of scholars! Perhaps awards to be given at the EHC conference.
Fifthly, building on the fact it’s a collective, and that it has international reach and the potential to network. I summarise this as “having EHC presence”. Perhaps there could be simultaneous events in various locations, and closer involvement with existing events such as Leeds IMC and Kalamazoo. It would also be good to link to events organised by Attelage, The Carriage Foundation, HEMA groups, the American Carriage Association, etc. We could promote their events and have presence at them, use the events to recruit, and also to be mutually supportive. Also, to encourage other organisations to make use of the Cheiron diary and Cheiron newsletter, an initiative of Anastasija Ropa’s which is now edited and circulated by Neleigh Olson. “Having presence” leads naturally into the sixth point, creating strong links with other organisations active in the field: academic institutions, dedicated museums, and so on. We could offer organisational membership. This would have the dual purpose of assisting scholars to find appropriate archives, archivists, and curators for their research. This then leads naturally into discussions about the potential for academic courses of MOOC type, which is one of my areas of experience. I’d like to help develop those too.