History Taster Sessions (several choices on offer)

Sessions include:

What is History at university?
Challenging conceptions of History through varied source analysis, oral, pictorial, etc., coupled with an introduction to Historical methodology at level four.

The 1930s: The "Devil's Decade" or the dawn of affluence?
Historians continue to argue about how we should interpret the 1930s. Popular imagination conjurers up the deprivation of the soup kitchen and mass unemployment yet the 1930s also witnessed the dawning of the age of the “property-owning democracy". Our challenge is to reconcile these two conflicting experiences and come to a more rounded understanding of the period.

Suffragists and 'Antis': How women opposed Women's Suffrage
The 2018 centenary of the partial enfranchisement of women prompted a lot of publicity about the campaign for votes for women, but did you know that many women joined the campaign against votes for women. This workshop with USW historian Dr Rachel Lock-Lewis shows how studying the 'losers' helps us to understand British Society before the First World War.

The Politics of Poverty: The evolution of attitudes towards the 'deserving and undeserving' poor in 1830-1914
Using the idea of ‘change over time’, the session creates a debate around John Ruskin’s statement; Charity. How often it is difficult to be wisely charitable; to do good without multiplying the sources of evil! To gives alms is nothing unless you give thought also. It is written, not blessed is he that feedeth the poor," but blessed is he that considereth the poor." A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

Talkin Dust Bowl Blues: Ecological disaster and the construction of migrants as cultural 'folk devils'
Investigating the causes and effects of the ‘Great Plough up’ in the American Midwest, through a discussion of contemporary source materiel including the artwork of Grant Wood, the novels of John Steinbeck, photographic images recorded by the Farm Security Administration, oral history recordings and the music of Woody Guthrie.

Would the real Doctor Strangelove please stand up? Origins of the Cold War 1945-1955
Why did wartime allies become peacetime adversaries? How did Confrontation lead to Containment? This lecture offers an introduction to the historiographical debate that has raged for almost seven decades surrounding the origins of the Cold War.

All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others", Animal Farm
The historiography of the Russian Revolution, throws up a myriad of questions. Was the revolution inevitable, or was it a response to the conditions in Tsarist Russia? To what extent did the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 have popular support? Was the October Revolution, a popular revolution or simply an opportunistic coup? Moreover, how successful was the new society created by Lenin and the Bolsheviks? Comrade, our mission is to spark debate on these questions in two hours!

Led from above or drive from below? Perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement 1954-1968
The time frame of the civil rights movement in many ways mirrored the development of social history or ‘history from below’. Social history offered a voice among others to the disenfranchised and the subjugated, so it would surely offer a perfect vehicle for the movement. Why then was the historiographical debate surrounding civil rights for more than a decade after his death still dominated by Martin Luther King and biographical or ‘History from above’?

The Tudor Queens: Power and Gender in the 16th Century
The popular images of the two reigning Tudor queens, Mary and Elizabeth, are long established and quite distinct. This workshop explores the myths, the contrasts, the connections, and the latest research on 'Bloody Mary' and the 'Virgin Queen'.

Witches and Demons: What produced Europe's 'Witch-craze'?
A workshop with USW historian Dr Jonathan Durrant, exploring why fifty thousand people were executed for the imaginary crime of witchcraft across Europe in the Early Modern period.

The Nuclear Age: Media, politics and protest
From Hiroshima to Chernobyl and beyond - what drove popular protest and radical politics in post-war Britain, and how were Europe's divisions reflected here in the television age?

Race, culture and memorisation in Wales
Inspired by the fall of Edward Colston and issues of cultural heritage raised by the Black Lives Matter movement, this session investigates the controversial histories of ‘race’ and empire in Welsh memorials and monuments.

The Study of Cinema
The study of cinema exhibition offers us a fascinating insight into the unique relationship between the moving image and its audiences. This illustrated talk, suitable for students working in a wide range of subjects - including Film and Media, English, History and Sociology - will investigate the way in which our experience of cinema has developed from the very intimate and personal ‘peephole viewing’ of Edison’s kinetoscope to the truly social, immersive experiences we recognise today. We’ll take in the lavish 1,000+ seater auditorium or ‘dream palace’, the ‘drive-in’ popular with American youths, the bespoke movie theatre and the multiplex. And we’ll consider whether the increasingly popular ‘pop up’ cinema, site-specific screenings and the ‘open cinema’ movement (aimed at extending exhibition to excluded communities) is the future of independent cinema exhibition in the UK.

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