The BRIHC Seminar Series consists of academic talks, roundtables, and discussions from world-leading researchers. It runs across the academic year and reflects the whole scope of scholarly fields and disciplines represented in the School of History and Cultures at the University of Birmingham.

The Series seeks to encourage inter-disciplinary discussions about cultures past and present and works to champion the value of humanities research in academia and the wider world.

 Most sessions will take place online on Wednesdays 14.00-15.30.

If you are not in the School of History of Cultures or at the University of Birmingham, you are very welcome to attend the events. Registration for each event is available through the Events page.

 SHaC staff and PGR students do not need to register as they will be sent the Zoom link for each session on the morning of the event.

• Wednesday 6 October (14.00-15.30): Psychological ‘treatments’ for homosexuality and gender non-conformity - A roundtable discussion on histories and legacies with Kate Davison (History, Goldsmiths), Tommy Dickinson (Mental Health Nursing, King’s College London), Katherine Hubbard (Sociology, Surrey), and Helen Spandler (Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire).
• Wednesday 13 October (14.00-15.30): Failure of Democracy: Political Threats and Economic Crisis in Interwar Europe - Kurt Weyland (University of Texas at Austin) and Tobias Straumann (University of Zurich).
• Wednesday 20 October (14.00-15.30): Rethinking the Black Death: Can the Ottoman Plague Experience Offer Us Novel Insights? – Nükhet Varlik (History, Rutgers) with response from Hendrik Poinar (Anthropology, McMaster).
• Wednesday 27 October (14.00-15.30): Decolonization and Fossil Developmentalism: Energy, Climate, Extractivism and Empire/Nation in the Twentieth Century – Roundtable discussion with On Barak (Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv), Elizabeth Chatterjee (History, Chicago), and Megan Black (History, MIT).
• Wednesday 10 November (14.00-15.30): Roundtable discussion on Landscape, Nature and Environment with Henry Chapman (Archaeology, Birmingham), Andrew Fox (Classics, Nottingham), Ralph Fyfe (Geography-Archaeology, Plymouth), and Diana Spencer (Classics, Birmingham).
• Wednesday 17 November (14.00-15.30): Hierarchies of Service: Gender in Britain’s Commemorative Landscape - Corinna Peniston-Bird (History, Lancaster).  
• Wednesday 24 November (15.00-16.30): Annual Fage Lecture: The Time of Letters: Epistolarity and Nigerian Newsprint Cultures, 1920s-1960s - Stephanie Newell (English, Yale)

• Wednesday 2 February (17.00-18.30): Who are the Audiences for Early Modern History? – Roundtable discussion with Paula Findlen (History, Stanford), Tara Hamling (History, Birmingham), Laura Sangha (History, Exeter) and Jacob Soll (Philosophy, History and Accounting, USC).
•  Wednesday 9 February (14.00-15.30): Reflections on ‘Forging Ahead’ at the Black Country Living Museum - Simon Briercliffe (Black Country Living Museum/UoB) and Elizabeth Thomson (Black Country Living Museum/UoB).
• Wednesday 23 February (14.00-15.30): Researching Black British Histories – Roundtable discussion with Annabelle Gilmore (UoB), Sue Lemos (History, Warwick), and Montaz Marché (History, Birmingham).
• Wednesday 23 February (16.00-17.30): Roundtable on Classics and ‘the Other’ with Samuel Agbamu (Classics, Royal Holloway London), Susan Deacy (Classics, Roehampton), Deborah Kamen (Classics, University of Washington), Nandini Pandey (Classics, University of Wisconsin-Madison).
• Wednesday 9 March (14.00-15.30): Historical Understandings of Mental Illness – Roundtable discussion with Emily Betz (History, St Andrews), Angus Gowland (History, UCL), Leonard Smith (Applied Health, Birmingham) and Erin Sullivan (Shakespeare Institute, Birmingham).
• Wednesday 16 March (14.00-15.30): Building Dogopolis: Dogs and Humans in Modern London, New York and Paris - Chris Pearson (History, Liverpool).
• Wednesday 23 March (14.00-15.30): Midlands and Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century and Today – Roundtable discussion with Jo-Ann Curtis (Birmingham Museums Trust), Jane Gallagher (Ironbridge Gorge Museums), Duncan Frankis (Newman University) and Manu Sehgal (University of Birmingham).
• Wednesday 30 March (15.00-16.30): Immersive Practices and Experimental Worlds: A Comparative Ethnography - David Berliner (Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains, Université Libre de Bruxelles), with response from Juliet Gilbert (African Studies and Anthropologies, Birmingham)
• Wednesday 27 April (14.00-15.30): Commonwealth Games – Past, Present, Future: Roundtable Discussion with Juanita Cox (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London), Michael Dawson (History, St Thomas University), Kate Nichols (Art History, Birmingham) and Verity Postlethwaite (Sport Business, Hartpury University).