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.
Autumn Semester 2022
Wednesday 5 October (14.00-15.30): ‘Midlands and Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century and Today’ with Jo-Ann Curtis (Birmingham Museums Trust), Jane Gallagher (Ironbridge Gorge Museums), Duncan Frankis (Newman University) and Manu Sehgal (University of Birmingham). Organised in collaboration with the Birmingham Eighteenth-Century Centre (BECC).
Wednesday 12 October (14.00-16.00): ‘Who is Public Space For? A Roundtable Discussion.’ Taking up an urgent question in light of the relationship between cars and other modes of mobility, this event will put historians and other experts in urbanism in conversation with auto-industry marketing expert Tom Flood. Organised in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of North America (CSNA).
Wednesday 19 October (14.00-15.30): ‘Imagined Ecologies and the Sounds of Extinction, 1900-1949’ with Alexandra Hui, Mississippi State University, and commentary from David Gange, Birmingham.
Wednesday 26 October (15.15-16.45): Fage Lecture ‘Transatlantic Lives: Narratives of Slavery, Freedom, and Diaspora in West Africa and Brazil’ with Kristin Mann, Professor Emerita, Department of History, Emory University. Organised in collaboration with the Department of African Studies and Anthropology (DASA).
Wednesday 9 November (16.00-17.30): Archaeology, History, and the Videogame industry - This workshop will bring together historians and archaeologists, who have worked as consultants to video games developers, alongside industry professionals in videogame development, to talk about their own experiences and the challenges and possibilities of future collaboration.
Wednesday 16 November (14.00-15.30): ‘Cold War Frontier? British Military Communities in Germany, 1945-2020’ with Grace Huxford, Bristol. Organised in collaboration with the Centre for War Studies (CWS).
Wednesday 23 November (14.00-15.30): ‘Collaborative Public History: A Roundtable with Academics and Partners’ chaired by Karen Harvey (Birmingham) and including Tanya Evans (Macquarie), Jerome de Groot (Manchester), and Anne Coote (professional historian), Laura King (Leeds) and Ellie Harrison (Artistic Director, The Grief Series), Josie McLellan (Bristol) and Jude Hutchen (Wellspring Settlement), Saima Nasar (Bristol), Gavin Schaffer (Birmingham) and Maureen Slattery-Marsh (Chair of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Spirituality, therapist at icap).
Wednesday 30 November (14.00-15.30): ‘The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Story of Two Translators Between Qing China and the British Empire’ with Henrietta Harrison, Oxford and commentary from Shirley Ye, Birmingham. POSTPONED DUE TO INDUSTRIAL ACTION.
Wednesday 7 December (14.00-15.30): ‘Rethinking Populism in Europe: An Interdisciplinary Roundtable on Populist Movements in History and Today’ with Marcus Funck (History, Technical University Berlin), Aleksandra Maatsch (Political Science, University of Wrocław), Klaus Richter (History, University of Birmingham) and Marco Solinas (Political Philosophy, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies Pisa). Organised in collaboration with the Institute for German and European Studies (IGES).
Spring Semester 2023
Wednesday 8 February (14.00-15.30): ‘How do we now write histories of the exclusion of South Asians from Uganda and their diaspora?’ with Saima Nasar (Bristol) and Becky Taylor (UEA). Organised in collaboration with the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History (MCH).
Wednesday 8 February (17.30-19.00, on Edgbaston campus, room tba): ‘Conservative Birmingham’ talk by Richard Vinen, KCL. Organised in collaboration with the Centre for West Midlands History and Centre for Modern British Studies.
POSTPONED DUE TO INDUSTRIAL ACTION:
Wednesday 15 February (14.30-16.00): Title tbc – with Kristina Richardson, University of Virginia. Organised in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages (CeSMA).
POSTPONED DUE TO INDUSTRIAL ACTION:
Wednesday 22 February (16.00-17.30): ‘Classics in the Classroom’ with Alice Case (Classics for All North), Arlene Holmes-Henderson (KCL, Advocating Classics Education; Oxford, Classics in Communities), Alice König (St Andrews), and Polly Stoker (Winchester). Organised in collaboration with the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology.
POSTPONED DUE TO INDUSTRIAL ACTION:
Wednesday 22 March (14.00-15.30): ‘‘Women Palavers’’: Marriage, and Gender Struggles in Colonial Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria’ with Morenikeji Asaaju, Birmingham. Organised in collaboration with the Department of African Studies and Anthropology’s Africa Talks Series (DASA).
Wednesday 19 April (14.00-15.30): ‘New Directions in West Midlands History’ with Mark Eccleston (Cadbury Research Library), Sara Downs (Shropshire Archives), Teresa Jones (The Hive, Worcester) and Naomi Johnson (Archdiocese of Birmingham Archives). Organised in collaboration with the Centre for West Midlands History (CWMH).
NEW DATE:
Thursday 20 April (15.00-16.30): ‘Decolonization and Development: New Directions in the Historiography’ with Megan Brown (Swarthmore College) and Alessandro Iandolo (UCL). Organised in collaboration with the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History (M&CH).
Wednesday 26 April (14.00-15.30): ‘Practices of Judgment in Early Modern Europe’ with Noah Millstone (Birmingham), Simon Smith (Birmingham), Hannah Marcus (Harvard) and Alexander Wragge-Morley (Lancaster). Organised in collaboration with the Centre for Reformation and Early Modern Studies (CREMS).
Wednesday 3 May (14.00-15.30) [Rearranged from 30 November]: ‘The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Story of Two Translators Between Qing China and the British Empire’ with Henrietta Harrison, Oxford and commentary from Shirley Ye, Birmingham.
Wednesday 17 May (14.00-16.00): What kind of access does the digital provide?: Our panel for this event includes Suse Anderson (Assistant Professor in Museum Studies, Concoran School of Art & Design, George Washington University, USA), Carlos Bayod (Project Director, Factum Foundation, Spain), Natalie Kane (Curator of Digital Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, UK), Keir Winesmith (Head of Digital, National Gallery of Australia, Australia). Organised in collaboration with the Centre for Material Cultures and Materialities (CMCM).
RESCHEDULED FROM MARCH:
Wednesday 7 June (14.00-15.30): ‘How Global Was the Age of Revolutions?’ with Sujit Sivasundaram (Cambridge), Joanna Innes (Oxford) and Peter Hill (Northumbria). Organised in collaboration with the Birmingham Eighteenth Century Centre (BECC).