Who reads history blogs?

Who reads history blogs?

Digital communications are central to how we communicate, debate, teach and assess understanding of the past. In this post, David Geiringer goes back to one of the earliest, and most resilient, of these formats—the blog—to consider its development, use and relevance for historians. Originally championed for taking the communication of historical research beyond mainstream publishing and the academy, blogs are now integral to higher education assessment and practice. With blogs mainstream, it’s time to consider how much of their original, disruptive capacity—in terms of content, format and readership—still holds; and reflect on the future of the communication format you’re about to read.

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Teaching Soviet History from the Borderlands: A Case Study of Belarus and Ukraine

Teaching Soviet History from the Borderlands: A Case Study of Belarus and Ukraine

How can we ‘decolonise the curriculum’ when it comes to the history of the Soviet Union? How do we decentralise our historical approach to former-Soviet states? In this post Natalya Chernyshova discusses the importance of these questions for modern historians of this region. Natalya highlights missing links in research on former-Soviet states, and the ways in which this topic may be taught in future, with reference to Belarus and Ukraine. Particularly, she identifies the need to translate primary sources and create dedicated modules on this topic – two projects on which she has recently been working.

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History and memory in the 21st century

History and memory in the 21st century

In this post we hear from Lucy Noakes, Rab Butler Professor of Modern History at the University of Essex and—from January 2024—President-Elect of the Royal Historical Society. A specialist in the history of modern Britain, Lucy researches the experience and memory of those who have lived through conflict. How history is remembered and retold is central to identity and to how—as individuals, communities and nations—we respond to societal change or topics of public debate. Here, Lucy considers her longstanding interest in the relationship between past and present, and the role of the Society in promoting and communicating this relationship. Lucy will take on the Presidency of the Royal Historical Society from November 2024.

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Preparing for REF 2029

Preparing for REF 2029

Historians working in UK Higher Education will be very familiar with the ‘REF’ or Research Excellence Framework. Work is now underway for ‘REF 2029’, led by a team reporting to the four UK Higher Education funding bodies. With it come a number of changes to the means and structure of assessment. As a result, the next REF will differ in important ways from that held in 2021. In this post Barbara Bombi and Jonathan Morris – current and former chairs of the Society’s Research Policy Committee – outline those areas of REF 2029 design currently open to review, and summarise the RHS response to a major consultation of REF design which closed in October.

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WEB ACCESS TO BRITISH LIBRARY DATABASES: WORKAROUNDS for historians

WEB ACCESS TO BRITISH LIBRARY DATABASES: WORKAROUNDS for historians

On 28 October 2023, the British Library was subject to a major cyberattack, entailing a near complete shutdown of the Library’s web-based services. Staff at the British Library are continuing to work extremely hard to restore services. As this continues, a number of organisations are offering guidance on short-term alternatives and workarounds while BL databases remain unavailable for research or teaching across the UK and overseas. This post provides a summary of these alternatives and a selection of guides now available, with a special focus on those working historically. We also invite further proposals for alternative resources to add to this listing.

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Beyond the ‘good’/’bad’ migrant dichotomy: ways forward for early modern and contemporary history

Beyond the ‘good’/’bad’ migrant dichotomy: ways forward for early modern and contemporary history

RHS Workshop Grants support meetings of historians to undertake a wide range of projects, from research, to debate, programme planning and networking. The first round of RHS Workshops took place in 2023. They include a day event recently hosted by the Early Modern Migration Reading Group on the subject of ‘Beyond the “Good”/”Bad” Migrant Dichotomy: Ways Forward for Early Modern and Contemporary History’. In this post, the organisers of this Workshop — Kathleen Commons, Dan Rafiqi, Juliet Atkinson, and Samantha Sint Nicolaas — reflect on their project.

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Waiting to die? Old age in the late Imperial Russian village

Waiting to die? Old age in the late Imperial Russian village

What was daily life like for old people in Russian villages at the turn of the twentieth century? In this post, Sarah Badcock (University of Nottingham) considers the lives of non-able elderly people in late Imperial Russia; drawing on accounts of real lives and representations of old age in art and literature. This post introduces and accompanies Sarah’s research article, ‘Waiting to Die? Old Age in the Late Imperial Russian Village’, which was recently published Open Access on FirstView for ‘Transactions of the Royal Historical Society’.

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STATUES, SURREALISM AND PUBLIC SPACE

STATUES, SURREALISM AND PUBLIC SPACE

The purpose of statues in public spaces has recently become a matter of controversy. In this post, Pippa Catterall considers how and when a statue may be read as appropriately situated in public space, and when and how it is not. Appropriateness is primarily determined by the ways in which public authorities authorise the use of public space. Yet understanding of the fit between a statue and public space varies over time, and may be deliberately subverted. This placing of statues in ‘a state of surrealism’ also goes beyond relocation.

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Student numbers for History A-Levels and Scottish Highers, 2023

Student numbers for History A-Levels and Scottish Highers, 2023

The 2023 A-Level results, for students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, were released on 17 August 2023. They follow the 2023 results for Scottish Highers, published on 8 August. Both sets of data allow for observations on the uptake and relative popularity of History, and of arts and humanities subjects more generally, in 2022-23. This post draws on figures published in August by the Joint Council for Qualifications (for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, JCQ) and the Scottish Qualifications Authority SQA).

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Gendering Violence in the Past

Gendering Violence in the Past

In her new article, now published in ‘Transactions of the Royal Historical Society’, Dr Victoria Leonard analyses the letters of St Augustine of Hippo, and demonstrates how their ‘silences’ convey the erasure of gendered violence and queer sexuality in antiquity. Here, Victoria draws on her research to demonstrate how an absence of primary source evidence can be just as informative as an abundance; and how historians can use these silences to gain deeper insight into the past. Victoria’s Open Access article, ‘Gendered Violence, Victim Credibility and Adjudicating Justice in Augustine’s Letters’, is now available – Open Access – via the FirstView section of the journal’s website.

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The Impulse of the Present

The Impulse of the Present

In this third and final post in our ‘History and Human Flourishing’ series, David Armitage considers longstanding debates, and new writing, on the value of presentist thinking for historical debate. For many – past and present – presentism serves to deflect and distort from the historian’s true purpose and the distinctiveness of the discipline. Here David draws on recent work by historians of science, as well as by psychologists and philosophers, to advocate for the advantages of presentist thinking. Far from distortion or deflection, history informed by presentism offers greater possibilities for dialogue with multiple publics and greater humility on the part of practitioners and readers.

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Flourishing with Herodotus

Flourishing with Herodotus

In this second post of the ‘History and Human Flourishing’ series, Suzanne Marchand explores the contemporary value and relevance of Herodotus in historical teaching and methodology. Though often overlooked in favour of a ‘scientific’ approach advocated by nineteenth-century acolytes of Thucydides, Herodotus and his Histories remain a rich — and much needed — guide to history as the story and study of human behaviours. In this post, Suzanne considers Herodotus’ appeal and lessons for historians today. This post is the second essay in the Society’s 3-part ‘History & Human Flourishing’ blog series. The first, by Darrin M. McMahon, explores the often-neglected study of the history of human happiness. 

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