Strongroom to Seminar: archives and teaching in higher education

Jamie Wood, History UK’s Media Officer, took part in an event on using archives in teaching in HE at the National Archives at the end of February. Jamie, along with other participants in the event, has recently published a post on the TNA blog – follow this link if you’d like to know more.

HUK are hoping to develop further links with the TNA in future – so watch this space…!

Historians on Brexit

Universities face much uncertainty over the coming years because of Brexit. We want your help to spread information about how Brexit is affecting you!

Brexit EU pictureThe aim of this blog is not to take sides in debates about Brexit. Instead, we wish to present this as a platform where historians can exchange information about how Brexit is affecting us personally and professionally, as individuals and within our departments and universities more broadly. Groups like Scientists for EU have very successfully gained wider coverage about scientists’ views on Brexit. This means that much of the coverage and government interest in Brexit and Higher Education has focused on how these issues affect scientists. While we admire their success, we partly wish to provide an alternative voice, to remind politicians and the general public that Britain’s university sector is a diverse community.

This has inspired us at History UK to offer a platform for historians and History programmes throughout the UK to express their views. In order to do this, we need your help. All you have to do is send us a short email or tweet. This can be anecdotal evidence about your experiences or links to relevant research or articles. We want to know about how Brexit is affecting funding, travel, and future plans, both at an institutional level and at a personal level. We will use this blog and our Twitter feed to provide a forum for the exchange of such information (anonymously, if desired).

History UK will also draw on your evidence to inform our activities as we negotiate Brexit, the upcoming REF, the introduction of Teaching Excellence Framework, and a variety of other proposed changes to Higher Education in the UK.

This will help us present History experiences and views to the wider public and policy makers, ensuring these potentially seismic shifts in Higher Education recognise the importance of one of the most popular subjects in the UK.

Rachel Bright
11 April 2017

HEA Innovative Teaching Workshop in UG History

Higher Education Academy Innovative Teaching Workshop in Undergraduate History
Location: Canterburry Christ Church University
Date: Thursday, 27 April, 2017, 13:45
In November 2016, I was delighted to receive the Times Higher Education Most Innovative Teacher of the Year award for my delivery of early modern history courses at Canterbury Christ Church University. On 27 April, I am hosting a free Higher Education Academy fellow-led workshop to share some of the underpinning ideas behind my successful application. Although I am an early modern historian, the workshop is aimed at graduate teaching assistants, early career academics, teaching fellows and lecturers working in History and the Humanities more generally. 
 
Academics working in the UK Higher Educational sector today cannot avoid the national focus on teaching excellence, whether it is in relation to the Teaching Excellence Framework or discussions over the future of the National Student Survey. The afternoon will introduce delegates to some key innovations within my courses where I seek to challenge my students, as well as to address broader concerns surrounding graduate skills and holistic development. I will demonstrate how I have used online assessments; the workshop model to encourage shared learning; role-play and re-enactments to understand key historical events; and embedding of employability skills within assessment. 
 
Delegates attending the event will also hear from Professor Maureen Meikle, Leeds Trinity University, on the benefits of the workshop model for undergraduate history teaching. The afternoon will be interactive with a seminar reconstruction that uses Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library. The day will end with a ‘live’ student assessment, as delegates attend the launch of my second year student exhibition, Sex, Deviance and Death in Early Modern Britain. This event will be accompanied by a wine reception sponsored by Dr. Keith McLay, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
 
This free event is focused on assisting scholars who wish to explore different methods of teaching and assessment away from the traditional lecture model or essay assignment. People applying for Associate Fellowship, Fellowship or Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy may also find this workshop helpful, although seeking HEA fellowship status is not a requirement to attend.
 
If you would like to attend, please note that spaces are limited and booking is via https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/training-events/teaching-innovation-undergraduate-history
Please address any queries to sara.wolfson@canterbury.ac.uk
The exhibition flyer can be downloaded here: Sex, Deviance and Death in Early Modern England

I look forward to seeing you there,
Sara