{"id":2069,"date":"2020-11-20T11:22:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T11:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=2069"},"modified":"2020-11-20T11:28:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T11:28:59","slug":"historians-across-boundaries-changing-how-we-research-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=2069","title":{"rendered":"Historians across boundaries: changing how we research the past"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this blog post, Senior Lecturer in History Mike Esbester introduces an important new seminar series he\u2019s involved in leading: \u2018Historians across boundaries.\u2019 It\u2019s based at the Institute of Historical Research, the London-based body that has promoted and championed historical research for nearly 100 years. This important new seminar series will help bring people together in their research into the past.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Changing the way we do research\u2019 is certainly a bold claim \u2013 but it\u2019s one we hope we can live up to! Earlier this year the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) called for applications to run seminar series in the new \u2018Partnership Seminar\u2019 programme. I knew just the crowd who would be interested in this \u2013 colleagues with whom I\u2019d been working for some time, passionate about collaboration in historical research. We come from different backgrounds \u2013 academics, archivists, family historians, genealogists, local historians and more \u2013 but what we all share is the belief that our research into the past is improved when we work together.<\/p>\n

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The challenge has been how to break down perceived barriers which prevent us from collaborating \u2013 something \u2018Historians across boundaries\u2019 is designed to do!<\/p>\n

Even the name of the IHR\u2019s Partnership Seminar programme was a perfect fit with work I\u2019ve been doing over recent years. In the \u2018Railway Work, Life & Death\u2019 project (RWLD), which I co-lead, we\u2019ve been trying to involve all sorts of people as equals in researching accidents to British and Irish railway workers before 1939. This has led me into closer collaboration with family historians, local historians and many more \u2013 hence wanting to get the \u2018Historians across boundaries\u2019 series off the ground!<\/p>\n

RWLD has opened my eyes to the exciting possibilities of community and collaborative research, placing this approach at the heart of what I now do. It’s why I\u2019m really pleased that the IHR has recognised the ‘Historians across boundaries’ seminar series as one of the ones it wants to champion. This is a great way of showing how important history is to so many people, and it’ll help us all work together better in the future.<\/p>\n

During 2021 we\u2019ll be putting on a series of events \u2013 I\u2019m reluctant to call them seminars, as in this context it suggests a rather traditional format, with a speaker holding forth on the results of their research. Nothing could be further from what we want to do. Instead we\u2019re going to be finding ways to encourage discussion and sharing of best practice, wherever it is found, as well as collaboratively setting an agenda. Sessions will be as informal and friendly as possible, recognising the value of different experience and expertise wherever it is found.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Historians across boundaries\u2019 series draws on the efforts of the \u2018Historians Collaborate\u2019 movement, an informal group of people working to those same aims of bringing together different types of historical researcher. A really good flavour of our work can be found on Twitter, with the #HistoriansCollaborate.<\/p>\n

My co-convenors for the series are:<\/p>\n

Nick Barratt (Open University, Community Archives and Heritage Group, and Family History Federation)<\/p>\n

Else Churchill (Society of Genealogists)<\/p>\n

Jackie Depelle (Chair of the Yorkshire Group of Family History Societies, Family History tutor, speaker & event organiser)<\/p>\n

Tanya Evans (Macquarie University)<\/p>\n

Laura King (University of Leeds)<\/p>\n

Julia Laite (Birkbeck, University of London)<\/p>\n

Natalie Pithers (Genealogy Stories)<\/p>\n

Mary Stewart (British Library Oral History; Oral History Society)<\/p>\n

We\u2019re keen to involve others in the series organisation, particularly people from groups either not yet represented amongst the organisers \u2013 including Black, Indigenous and People of Colour \u2013 and\/or who haven\u2019t traditionally engaged in researching the past. It\u2019s important that we do what we can to have an inclusive conversation, recognising that history is for everyone.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s even better about the IHR\u2019s Partnership Seminar programme is that one of my friends in the Portsmouth History team, Mel Bassett, is on the convening team for another series that\u2019s been selected: the \u2018Coastal Connections\u2019 series. This has grown out of the Coastal History Network Mel and others at Portsmouth have been so instrumental in setting up. You can read more about their series here. So \u2013 double success for Portsmouth\u2019s History team!<\/p>\n

\u2018Historians across boundaries\u2019 will be starting in early 2021 \u2013 we\u2019re currently putting together our programme of events at the moment, and will announce more soon, so watch this space!<\/p>\n

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In this blog post, Senior Lecturer in History Mike Esbester introduces an important new seminar series he\u2019s involved in leading: \u2018Historians across boundaries.\u2019 It\u2019s based at the Institute of Historical Research, the London-based body that has promoted and championed historical research for nearly 100 years. This important new seminar series will help bring people together in their research into the past. \u2018Changing the way we do research\u2019 is certainly a bold claim \u2013 but it\u2019s one we hope we can live up to! Earlier this year the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) called for applications to run seminar series in the new \u2018Partnership Seminar\u2019 programme. I knew just the crowd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[53,494,604,22,11],"class_list":["post-2069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-in-focus","tag-accidents","tag-collaboration","tag-institute-of-historical-research","tag-maritime","tag-slider"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/history.port.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Mike-word-cloud.png?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p91PlX-xn","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2071,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions\/2071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}