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Getting students thinking again
An interesting post by John Taylor on the Guardian teacher network this week on the need to stop ‘teaching to the test’ and focus on developing pupils’ critical thinking skills. As a philosophy...
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Does a great piece of history writing have to address itself to one...
I just wanted to reblog a interesting piece on the Guardian Higher Education Network that takes on the academic/public history divide. John Gallagher argues that history can be both popular and...
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New IHR Public History Seminar: opening lecture 13th September 2012
Along with Anna Maerker (King’s College London), John Tosh (Roehampton University), Judy Faraday (John Lewis Partnership) and Tim Boon (Science Museum), I’m convening a new seminar series on Public...
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The ‘endless rustle of the in-tray’: finding time for historical thinking
Rohan Butler served as the Foreign Secretary’s historical adviser from 1963-82 and was one of the leading figures in the civil service’s post-war experiment in incorporating historical perspective into...
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IHR Public History Seminar: cultural heritage research, 7th November
Following a very positive and promising start to the new Public History Seminar with Rebecca Conard’s talk on civic engagement last month, we’re delighted to have Professor Alison Wylie of the...
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‘Science’ and ‘arts’: should we play in each other’s fields a bit more?
I find science and maths a real draw. I often listen to The Life Scientific, Material World and More or Less podcasts ahead of more predictable favourites Making History, The Long View and History...
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Useful evidence for policymaking: broadening the base?
A colleague just forwarded to me an invitation to an event run by the Alliance for Useful Evidence on the topic of ‘Broadening the evidence base: science and social science in social policy’....
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IHR Public History Seminar: Business archives, 19th December
This week we’re talking business under the title ‘Selective History – The absence of business archives in the retelling of the past’. Seminar convenor Judy Faraday, Partnership Archivist for the John...
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IHR Public History Seminar: History, newspapers and the blogosphere 6th February
The next IHR Public History seminar brings Glen O’Hara, former journalist now Reader in the History of Public Policy at Oxford Brookes (whose many blogging activities include his own Public Policy and...
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(Teaching) history in the news
I had an interesting exchange with Robert Gordon VC, prolific Tweeter and blogger, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, over a post he put up about students’ apparent lack of awareness of a major news...
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The PhD thesis: the five things that made a difference to me
I’ve just submitted my PhD thesis (I can’t actually believe it). This doesn’t really entitle me to start dispensing advice, but here are five things that, right now, I think made a difference. 1. Be...
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Q: How many historians does it take to change a light bulb?
Reblogged from The Dispersal of Darwin: A: There is a great deal of debate on this issue. Up until the mid-20th century, the accepted answer was ‘one’: and this Whiggish narrative underpinned a number...
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Public history at the periphery? An integrative agenda for ‘public’ and...
My first experience of an NCPH conference, held in Ottawa last week, was excellent. Being surrounded for the first time by over a hundred public historians of very different types was energising, and...
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Exploring why vs. defining what: public history at the 2015 ICHS Congress
Together with former AHA Executive Director, Arnita Jones, I’m convening a roundtable on public history at the 2015 Congress in Jinan, China. Initially we were asked to tackle the topic of ‘what is...
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The stories we tell: (national) archives and myth-making
The focal point of the National Archives Experience – and the reason (most) people stood in long lines to be there in the first place – is the rotunda in which the three ‘Charters of Freedom’ are...
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Public history, entertainment and empathy in the cyber age
After Hannah Smith killed herself after experiencing some truly vicious trolling on askfm, the issue of cyberbullying – and how to keep children safe online – has been the subject of political and...
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Connecting research and teaching
One of the academic stereotypes often bandied around is that we only have eyes for our own research – teaching is an irritating and burdensome responsibility. While there may be some out there with...
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Self-herding, discrimination, pride and defiance: thinking about badges
One of my teammates in the university football team had a wooden sign on her door: ‘Mathematics Department’. She was training as a teacher after her maths degree and had been given the sign after a...
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Last Jews of the Delta: public history and communities in decline
A moving travelog from Johnny Diamond on BBC Radio 4 – Broadcasting House, 29/12/2013 explored the dwindling but active Jewish communities of the Mississippi Delta. Once numbering in the hundreds,...
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Heritage and Business in Partnership: the power of the anniversary
John Lewis’ 150th anniversary is in full swing. Products with designs inspired by and recovered from the amazing archives now held at the Heritage Centre in Odney are everywhere. I was lucky enough...
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