Teaching in a Time of Crisis
University of Warwick, 29 May 2025.
In a world of global pandemics, political unrest, environmental collapse, the cost of living crisis, and the financial devastation of Higher Education, educators and students are navigating a shared sense of precarity. We are tasked with understanding a relentlessly changing present through the lens of the past, all the while remaining profoundly uncertain about our economic, institutional, and personal futures.
How do we equip students to connect the dots between history and climate collapse? How do we talk about historical injustice and inequality in ways that strengthen ongoing struggles for justice? These questions are not just about curriculum change—they’re about pedagogical transformation. They’re about how we teach history when the world feels like it’s falling apart, and how we prepare our students to navigate all this chaos. As educators, we must adapt our methods, rethink our pedagogies, and explore innovative ways to engage students while addressing the complexities of the present moment.
A unique collaboration between HistoryLab+, HistoryLab, and History UK, ‘Teaching in a Time of Crisis’ will bring together educators, historians, researchers, and practitioners to explore how history education can navigate and respond to contemporary crises.
In-person event University of Warwick
Thursday 29th May (9:30-17:30)
• Harnessing Unique Teacher Identities in Times of Crisis
• Teaching History in Practice: Innovative Approaches and Assessments
• Playing the Past: The Power of Games in Historical Education
• American History in the Age of Donald Trump
• Teaching amid Tensions: Critical Approaches to Britain’s Contested Histories
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Historians on Screen: Turning Research into Broadcast Ideas
24 January 2025 10am to 1pm
23 May 2025, 10am to 1pm
A training workshop organised by Ian Miller, Mark Benson, Rebecca Watterson, Hannah Brown
(Schools of History, Communication/Media and Psychology, Ulster University)
Funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC – IAA).
History is everywhere on screen. The past is visualised in historical documentaries, period dramas, films, genealogy shows and horrible histories. Historians provide expert commentary as talking heads, while working behind the scenes as TV and film consultants, contributing their expert knowledge in myriad ways. More recently, historians have started to feature on video podcasts, TikTok videos, and many other visual formats.
However, researchers often feel uncertain about how to engage with the media, or how they might apply their underpinning research to create, develop and pitch ideas. Too often, they lack a roadmap for media engagement and lack training on performing effectively on screen.
Historians on Screen is an online workshop series intended to train historians (and researchers in related disciplines) in working with screen. Across three online workshops, participants will learn how to use historical research to create, develop and pitch screen-based ideas. Talks will be given by industry experts and experienced historians. The event is aimed at participants from postgraduate (MA and PhD) level and early career researchers.
Workshop 1: Turning Research into Broadcast Ideas.
Date: 24 January 2025. 10am-1pm
Historians often ask themselves: How could I turn my research into broadcast ideas? This workshop explores the processes of creating ideas and transforming historical research into viable screen production projects. Speakers include media professionals working in various historical genres, and researchers of history who have engaged in television productions. The workshop will also reflect upon how historical periods are represented on television.
Schedule:
10-11.30: Representatives from three major television production companies will discuss screenwriting and drama, the production process surrounding factual television programmes and the development of ideas with a view to pitching to broadcasters or funders.
11.45-13.00: Dr Kate Byrne (Ulster University) and Dr Frank Ferguson (Ulster University) will discuss their research into television writing and production, and their practical experience in using historical research for television consultancy work
Workshop 2: Pathways to Media Work for Historians
Date: 23 May 2025, 10am-1pm
Historians are regularly approached by media researchers, usually to consult on TV and film productions. Thorough historical research is integral to accurate and convincing screen productions, and trained historians can play an invaluable role in helping the media. This workshop sheds light on how historians might search for and secure research-related employment in the media industries.
Schedule:
10-11.30 Employability, Research and the Media
Session one is led by Jackie Smyth and Donna Caldwell from Ulster University’s Employability and Careers service who will offer insight into how to become a researcher in media, including freelance work, while providing guidance on how to be an effective consultant when approached by media researchers.
11.45-13.00 Pitching Session
Workshop One attendees will be invited to develop a one-page pitch document for a television show, with opportunities to receive advice and mentoring in-between the two workshops. In this session, historian and television producer, Dr Mark Benson (Ulster University) will run a feedback session on pre-prepared pitches.
Please note: Spaces are limited. Pre-registration is essential using this questionnaire link:
A link to join will be sent to successful applicants via email.
Academic Book Publishing 101 with Palgrave Macmillan
Where and when? Online, 28 January 2025 at 10am (GMT)
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now to secure your spot!
HistoryLab+ have re-partnered with Palgrave Macmillan to arrange a virtual ‘Academic Book Publishing 101’ webinar for early-career researchers, with the option to sign up for a one-on-one with a commissioning editor about your own research and book idea (however tentative it might be!) later that day.
The presentation in the morning will be given by Emily Russell, Publisher and Subject Head for History at Palgrave, and Lucy Kidwell, Senior Editor for History at Palgrave, and both Emily and Lucy will be available that afternoon for you to pencil in a chat with.
To sign-up for an afternoon slot with Emily and Lucy in advance, email historylabplus.ihr@gmail.com – you can sign-up for remaining available slots on the day.
Don’t miss out! Register here now to secure your spot.
Christmas Connections @ Bristol
Where? Bristol city centre
When? 12:00-20:00, 19 December 2024
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now to secure your spot!
Join the HistoryLab+ committee for hot drinks and comestibles at Playground Coffee, a trip to a local heritage site, and dinner and drinks at the Llandoger Trow!
We invite all West Country early career historians to our annual end-of-year networking meet up! This December we will be travelling to the hilly, wacky, beautiful city of Bristol: home to Clifton Suspension Bridge, (probably) Banksy, the statue of Edward Colston, Wallace and Gromit, and the leaning tower of Temple Church.
An informal event centred on building connections with other ECRs in the region. Members from further afield also welcome.
Annual General Meeting
Where? Online
When? 4 December 2024
Free to attend for all members? Yes!
Come and meet the HistoryLab+ committee, learn more about what we have been working on this year and have lined up for our members in 2025, and how you can become more involved in the network!
Want to shape HistoryLab+’s future? The AGM is also an opportunity for us to listen to you, for you to tell us (gently!) what we could be doing more of or better…
History Open Mic Night @ The Portico
Where? The Portico Library, Manchester
When? 7 November 2024, 18:00-20:00
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now!
Calling all history and heritage professionals and enthusiasts, all archivists and librarians, and all other willing volunteers to take to the stage. Share your knowledge and research by way of readings, performances, personal anecdotes, show and tells, anything!
Join HistoryLab+ for a night of spooks and sparkles on 7 November at Manchester’s beautiful Portico Library! Our theme? Think Halloween, think Bonfire Night…
All are welcome!
IHR History Day 2024
Where? Senate House, London
When? 5 November 2024
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now!
Come meet the HistoryLab+ team at the IHR’s annual History Day fair, a fantastic opportunity to meet with representatives from networks and associations relevant to History and related disciplines and from special collections in libraries, archives, and museums in the UK and beyond.
See the History Day webpage or #HistDay24 for further information.
Place-Based Histories: An Interdisciplinary Workshop for Early Career Researchers
Where? Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University
When? 5 September (Thursday), 10:00-15:45
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now to secure your spot!
Are you a historian who wants to engage in place-based research? Are you interested in interdisciplinarity? Are you exploring contemporary place-based issues and think historical methods could contribute to your research? This workshop might be of interest to you!
HistoryLab+ and the Institute of Historical Research’s Centre for the History of People, Place, and Community (CHPPC) are pleased to invite you to a one-day in-person workshop focusing on place-based research, interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and community engagement. It will provide case-studies from ECRs engaged in research projects that have integrated historical research within interdisciplinary place-based studies. It will also include a hands-on training session, supporting participants to consider the practicalities of engaging with heritage organisations and community groups.
The workshop is open to all early career researchers of any discipline.
Programme
10:00: Tea and coffee reception
10:30: Welcome
10:45: Session 1 | Panel discussion, ‘Histories, Communities, and Interdisciplinary Research‘
15-minute presentations from ECRs working on interdisciplinary place-based research projects. Followed by Q&A and discussion.
Speakers from:
Risky Cities (University of Hull)
Street Life (University of York)
JUST HEAT (Sheffield Hallam University)
12:00: Lunch
13:00: Session 2 | Workshop, ‘Place-Based Research and Applied Public History‘
Practical session engaging participants in integrating place-based research within their research area. This will include support with the practicalities of developing partnerships with communities and heritage organisations.
Speakers:
Dr Ruth Slatter (CHPPC)
Dr Rachel Delman (Oxford Heritage Partnerships)
14:00: Refreshment break
14:30: Roundtable discussion, ‘Where Next for Place-Based History?’
Speakers:
Michael Howcroft (AHRC Place Programme)
15:45: Closing remarks
Bursaries
A limited number of travel bursaries – up to the cost of £20 – are available to support attendance at this event. These will be awarded via random ballot to those who have applied on 29th July 2024. To apply, email K.Davies1@shu.ac.uk with your name and email address.
Register using this form today!
HistoryLab+ Conference 2024
Where? Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (University of Hull) and online
When? 25-26 July 2024
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now to secure your spot!
HistoryLab+, the UK’s national network for early career historians, invites you to the University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation on 25-26 July 2024 for our annual conference: a space to share cutting edge research, to develop research collaborations, and to find a community.
This event will showcase the wide ranging research being done by early career historians that develops our knowledge of how, historically, humans have exploited other humans—by forcing them to work against their will and/or by opposing fair working conditions—for personal or commercial gain, and these actions’ aftereffects.
It will include a workshop about how to engage the public with challenging colonial histories in the heritage and arts sectors, featuring the leaders behind Theatre in the Mill’s ‘Bussing Out’ exhibition, the Uncomfortable York Walking Tours, the eCommemoration programme by the Körber Foundation, and Leeds Museums and Galleries’ ‘Devolving Restitution’ and ‘Shifting Perspectives’ projects.
We are also proud to bring together the following keynote speakers:
Profs Burnard and Stirrup and Drs John and Terrazas Williams will reflect on the (psychological, institutional, disciplinary, sectoral, cultural, national, any) contexts in which researching and sharing histories of exploitative colonial practices and their legacies now happens, and the role of the early career historian in this picture.
We aim, also, to provide a supportive, informal forum—at a time when academic labour in the Humanities is under threat, particularly in higher education institutions—for early career historians to share experiences and opportunities.
Please see our dedicated conference webpages for further details, including the full programme, registration form, and how to apply for a travel and accommodation bursary.
This is a free event and you can participate in person or remotely.
Historians working in any discipline more than welcome!
The Trade Publishing Historian: Writing Non-Fiction
Where? Online
When? 18:00-20:30, 25 June 2024
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now to secure your spot!
So you want to write historical non-fiction for a public audience? But you’re just starting your research career? You’ve come to the right place.
Join a panel of early career historians, some in the process of publishing their first trade book, others with between two and fifteen trade books under their belt, as they share their personal experiences of
- developing an idea
- choosing which agent to approach
- writing a proposal
- working with an agent and publisher as they write
- book production and marketing
See here to find out more about our amazing speakers…
Register using this form today!
Teaching and Public Engagement with Special Collections: An Early Career Workshop
Where? John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
When? 2 May 2024
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now to secure your spot!
Join Dr Janette Martin, (Research and Learning Manager and Modern History Curator) and Dr Aya Van Renterghem (Teaching and learning Co-ordinator) at the John Rylands Library, Manchester on 2 May 2024, to learn more about teaching and engaging the public with collections.
During this hands-on session we will look at the philosophies behind object-based learning and engagement, and consider the needs of different audiences and the mechanics of facilitating sessions. There will be an opportunity to observe a public collection encounter on LGBTQ+ voices and work with objects from our modern history collections to determine teaching potential.
After the event, attendees are invited to join the organisers / speakers at Bundobust Brewery on Oxford Road, Manchester.
Register using this form today!
History Open Mic Night with HistoryLab+
Where? The Portico Library, Manchester
When? 2 May 2024
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now to secure your spot!
Historians and heritage enthusiasts, archivists, librarians, and all other willing volunteers are invited to take the stage for a History Open Mic night. Spotlight an exhibition or an area of research. Tell a short story or personal anecdote. Perform a song or give a reading. Take the opportunity to share your history-related knowledge, talents, work, and passions. All speakers / performers and spectators are welcome!
Compered by historian and The Portico Library’s Creative Producer Dr Debbie Challis.
Register through The Portico Library website here today!
Life After the PhD 2024
Where? Wolfson NB01, Institute of Historical Research, London and online
When? 13 April 2024 (Saturday), 11:00-16:00
Free to attend? Yes! Register here now to secure your spot!
HistoryLab+ and HistoryLab are pleased to invite you to Life after the PhD in Wolfson NB01 at the Institute of Historical Research on Saturday 13 April.
The event will spotlight personal experiences – the joys and challenges – of postdoc life, the diversity of pathways available, and ways to understand the UK’s Higher-Education landscape, for PhD students looking forward and early-career historians finding their way post-viva.
The morning session will comprise of presentations from recent History PhD graduates on their ‘Post-PhD Pathways’, followed by a panel discussion. The afternoon session is a debate on ‘Higher Education Today’ with three key stakeholders in the Higher-Education sector, chaired by Prof. Claire Langhamer, Director of the Institute of Historical Research.
Programme
11:00-11:20: Registration
11:20-11:30: Opening remarks
11:30-13:00: Session 1 | Post-PhD Pathways
Short talks by recent PhD graduates in History or related disciplines who have had a range of experiences within and beyond the university. Followed by a Q&A and discussion.
Speakers:
Dr Beth Kitson, Research and Policy Analyst, Pro Bono Economics
Dr Kathy Davies, JustHeat Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Joe Stanley, Senior Education Outreach Officer, University of Leeds
Dr Melissa L. Gustin, Curator of British Art at National Museums Liverpool
13:00-14:15: Lunch
14:15-15:45: Session 2 | Higher Education Today: The Debate
Discipline-leading historians will debate the realities of working in higher-education, the present state of the higher-education sector, and what both do or might mean for early-career historians. Followed by a Q&A and discussion.
Speakers:
Prof. Margot Finn, Professor of Modern British History, University College London
Prof. Matthew Hilton, Professor of Social History, Queen Mary, University of London
Prof. Rohan McWilliam, Professor of Modern British History, Anglia Ruskin University
Chaired by Prof. Claire Langhamer, Director of the Institute of Historical Research
15:45-17:00: Closing remarks
You can download the full programme, which includes details about our fantastic speakers, here.
Register using this form today!
The Consulting Historian
Where? Online
When? 12 and 13 March 2024, 18:00-20:00
Free to attend? Yes!
How exactly DO historical researchers find and apply for paid consultancy opportunities?
What do these roles entail?
HistoryLab+ warmly invites you to The Consulting Historian to explore both questions.
This event will take the form of two sets of online talks between 18:00 and 20:00 on 12 and 13 March:
12 March, 18:00-20:00
- Panel of early-career historians who undertake consultancy work, discussing the routes by which they found these roles, what they entail, personal highlights, and any challenges they encountered. Followed by a Q&A with the audience.
13 March, 18:00-20:00
- Panel of representatives from organisations which draw on the services of external historical consultants, discussing how those organisations find and use historical consultants. Followed by a Q&A with the audience.
- Joanne Machin, overviewing how to become self-employed, HMRC rules for self-employment, and pension and insurance considerations and reflecting on what can be expected, the positives and the challenges.
- Andy Tattersall, overviewing how to increase your visibility and impact online by way of personal websites and social media platforms (including X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky).
- Nigel Hetherington, overviewing how talent agencies can help academics to identify opportunities and advertise their services across the media sector
See here to find out more about our speakers…
HistoryLab+ Conference 2023: Making History
Where? Wolfson NB01 and NB02, Senate House and Institute of Historical Research, London
When? 27-28 July 2023
Free to attend? Yes!
Check out our conference pages for further information about submitting an abstract and registering. Event details will be released there nearer the time.
Spotlight career talk: Isabella Rosner
Where? Online
When? 29 June 2023
Free to attend? Yes!
HistoryLab+ is hosting a spotlight career talk on 29 June 2023 with Isabella Rosner.
Not only does Isabella conduct exciting research in eighteenth century women’s needlework, but she is also an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker, runs a successful podcast, and now works in the heritage sector.
A brilliant talk that’s not to be missed! Register for event here.
Historians/Audiences/Communities
Where? Manchester Central Library
When? 26 June 2023, 10:00-17:00
Free to attend? Yes!
How can early-career historians engage a diverse range of audiences with their research?
How can we collaborate with different communities in the research process and knowledge sharing?
How can we communicate our research widely and effectively within and beyond academia?
Featuring a keynote lecture on ‘Histories, Publics and Power’ by Professor Catherine Fletcher (Director of the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage, Manchester Metropolitan University), Historians/Audiences/Communities will provide the tools and time to look outward, make connections, and think beyond the traditional parameters of academic work.
See the programme below and don’t forget to register!
All welcome – this event is free to attend but booking in advance is required. Click this link to register
Registration for this event will close on 22 June 2023.
HistoryLab+ South hub
Where? Online
When? 26 April 2023, 16:30-18:00
Free to attend? Yes!
Join HistoryLab+ on Wednesday 26 April at 16:30 to meet the South England Regional Ambassadors, make connections with ECHs outside of your own institution, and set the agenda for the events to come. This will be an informal gathering with a focus on getting to know each other and History Lab+. Do bring your own tea, coffee, or something stronger!
HistoryLab+ is a new place for community building between ECHs in History, or History-adjacent fields (Politics/IR, Archaeology, English, Religious Studies, Health, etc). It is welcoming to all those who consider themselves ECHs, whether final year PhD students, post-docs, teaching associates, permanent staff, or those working outside the higher-education sector who are engaged in History post-PhD.
- Why do ECHs need a network?
- What form or platform might this network take?
- What characterises the ECH experience in our regions right now?
- What you’d like to see from HistoryLab+ and our upcoming events for the summer term
Life after the PhD 2023
Where? Online
When? 29-30 March 2023, 09:30-12:30
Free to attend? Yes!
All welcome – this event is free to attend but booking in advance is required. Click this link to register
History Lab Plus 