Towards a creative antifascist pedagogy: zine-making in the classroom
In this post, Amy King discusses her innovative teaching methods on far-right political groups, past and present. Amy’s undergraduate modules explore the themes of this topic, the ways in which far-right ideologies are distributed, and limitations in use of social media and the internet. In response, her students are introduced to the medium of zines as a form of political expression. Amy is a recipient of an RHS Jinty Nelson Teaching Fellowship for 2023-24 which supported the development of new teaching practices. Calls for Fellowships for 2024-25 are now open until 2 September 2024.
History Students’ Use of Gen-AI
What do History students think of Gen AI? Over the past academic year, Neville Morley has been working with History and Ancient History students at the University of Exeter to better understand their experience of, and attitude to, GenAI for their studies. In this post, Neville reports on the findings of surveys conducted in 2023 and 2024, charting how students have understood the opportunities, and limitations, of artificial intelligence, and how these may be applied to their reading, writing and research. Based on these surveys, it appears few History students are using GenAI for their coursework, though there is a widespread perception of its usefulness in generating summaries of individual publications and overviews of topics.
‘AI, History and Historians’: watch or listen to our panel discussion, held in July 2024
Video and audio recordings of the Royal Historical Society’s latest event — ‘AI, History and Historians’ — are now available. This discussion (held on 17 July 2024) brought together a panel of experts to consider the opportunities and challenges of new AI technology in the field of History. Topics included the use of AI in university assessments, detecting and mitigating dataset biases, environmental impacts of generative AI, and challenges for historians around using AI as the latest new technology to bring change to research and teaching practices.
Letters Home: the Correspondence of Allen Leeper, 1908-1912
In this post David Hayton introduces his new volume in the Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series, ‘Allen Leeper’s Letters Home, 1908–1912. An Irish-Australian at Edwardian Oxford’. Allen Leeper, Oxford undergraduate and future Foreign Office mandarin, wrote regularly to his family in Australia from 1908 until he left university in 1912. His letters record his experiences at Balliol College, Oxford, among a ‘golden generation’ decimated by the First World War, and on his extensive travels in Europe. They provide a vivid picture of a continent on the eve of profound change, written by someone whose background afforded a degree of objectivity.
Gen AI, History and Historians
In this post Dr Adam Budd, Secretary for Education on the RHS Council, introduces our panel discussion on ‘AI, History and Historians’, which took place on Wednesday 17 July. Adam’s post, written before the event was held, discusses the opportunities this event provides for historians and students of history to learn about the meaning of ‘artificial intelligence’ in our academic community. The recording of ‘AI, History and Historians’ is now available to watch or listen again.
Designed for Play: Children’s playgrounds and the politics of urban space
To coincide with the release of his new book — ‘Designed for Play. Children’s Playgrounds and the Politics of Urban Space, 1840–2010’ — Jon Winder considers the complex and revealing history of the children’s playground and the wider social, political and environmental concerns such spaces were intended to address. Jon’s book, published on 11 July, is the 18th title in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series for early career historians, published by University of London Press. As with all books in the series, ‘Designed for Play’ is available in print and as a free open access download.
Introducing the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP)
Vincent Hiribarren introduces the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP), which seeks to preserve and digitise archives in regions that lack the necessary resources to do so. Vincent discusses the opportunities this program provides for historians and students of history, as well as for local populations looking to preserve their heritage. He also addresses some of the potential challenges. Vincent invites historians to consider the benefits and challenges of this project, but to primarily take part as way to support their own teaching and research.
10 Tips for Getting Your Monograph Published
On Friday 14 June 2024 the Royal Historical Society hosted a training workshop for Post-Graduate and Early Career Historians: ‘Getting Published: A Guide to Monograph Publishing’. The event brought together editors and academics to demystify the process of publishing a monograph, with specific attention on how to move from a completed PhD to book proposal to a published monograph. We recently released the event video which contains numerous tips and insights. Here we pull out a ‘Top 10’ from the panel and discussion: 10 key things for historians to bear in mind when thinking about publishing their monographs.
A Balanced Argument? Communicating the Power of Argument to History Undergraduates
In March 2024, the Royal Historical Society visited historians at the Universities of York and York St John. The Visit included a panel discussion on the subject of communicating History to different audiences. In this post, Dr Elizabeth Goodwin (York St John) develops the themes of her presentation at the Visit. Elizabeth’s subject is how historians as teachers best communicate the potential of their discipline; and how learning to build, articulate and communicate an argument — in which the student is central — is a core purpose of the undergraduate experience. As Elizabeth contends, the need for such skills is pressing. Many students urgently seek the skills to build their confidence, while — more than ever — History as a discipline requires informed and eloquent advocates.
Generative AI, History and Historians, a reading guide
There are few bigger, and more pressing, topics today than the current and future impact of Generative AI. Nowhere is this more evident than in Higher Education. The opportunities and challenges of GenAI are relevant to all those engaged in teaching and research. But each discipline also has distinctive questions and concerns relating to the latest iterations of AI. What, therefore, are the possible implications for the teaching, study, research and communication of history? In this post, we introduce a forthcoming Royal Historical Society event on ‘AI, History and Historians’, and launch a guide to recent commentaries on GenAI, the humanities and history.
Hit songs in seventeenth-century England
What makes for a hit song? In this post Christopher Marsh introduces the ‘100 Ballads’ project, a study of the most successful broadside ballads of seventeenth-century England. ‘100 Ballads’ was released online earlier this year. It brings together historians and players of early modern music to research and perform the most popular songs of the time. As well as a history of popular music, performance and publishing, 100 Ballads offers insight into the concerns of everyday life. The songs bring us stories of romance, comedy and tragedy, of value to historians of early modern politics society and culture. Though varied in their subject matter, successful broadside ballads were an amalgam of lyrics, melody and images that made for a hit.
REF2029 AND OPEN ACCESS: A GUIDE TO THE CURRENT PROPOSALS FOR PUBLICATIONS
Earlier this month, REF2029 announced a consultation relating to its Open Access Policy. The policy sets out the open access requirements for eligible publications. The 2029 policy extends the scope to include ‘longform publications’ in the form of monographs, edited collections, book chapters and scholarly editions. The inclusion of longform publications in REF2029 is a major development, of particular importance for humanities disciplines including history. This post provides a summary of the key points of the REF2029 open access policy and initial concerns and questions which the Society will be developing in its response.