Our work outside the university aims to inspire the next generation of historians, provide support for teachers, and engage with the wider community. This is at a local, national and international level.
Our long-standing commitment to outreach activities for school pupils in Hampshire and beyond includes the development of online materials to support their education.
Our historians’ expertise has shaped the presentation of the past in museums, galleries, and historical sites in Southampton and around the world. We share our historical knowledge and perspectives on TV, radio, and in the press.
Our researchers also engage with policy makers by sharing expertise with parliamentarians and government departments. Additionally, we offer consultancy work with institutions in the private sector seeking to respond to contemporary challenges. Read on for our work involving education, heritage, media and engaging with policy makers.
Our researchers work in partnership with professional associations, and secondary school and college teachers to develop teaching resources. These reflect the latest in scholarly approaches to the study of the past. Our partnership with the Royal Geographical Society, for example, will create an extensive range of videos, podcasts, teaching plans and PowerPoints for the teaching of imperial and environmental histories and geographies at Key Stages 3-5.
Engaging directly with school pupils, we host regular in-person study days on topics related to GCSE, A-level, and IB study. These are fun, informal, and informative interactive events. Students get experience of university-style lectures and seminars, meet current students, and learn about life at university more generally. These events have included talks on everything from the Ancient World through to the Atomic Age.
We encourage teachers to contact us directly to suggest themes and topics of interest, as we can create bespoke sessions. We can also help A-level students manage large research projects such as EPQs, from picking titles, to managing time, conducting primary source research, and writing up their findings.
We work with teachers in schools and colleges by offering workshops and activities to help with continuing professional development. We arrange visits for teachers to work with members of our department to develop teaching resources. We can provide access to the university’s significant holdings of primary and secondary sources to assist with this. School and college staff are also welcome to visit our campus to sit in our core lectures, or to make special arrangements to attend specific classes taught by members of the Department.
Get touch with us by emailing HistOut@soton.ac.uk.
Our staff have an impact on how the past is understood at local, national, and international level. Here are some select examples:
We deliver projects that connect with communities in Southampton. Examples include:
The expertise of one of our researchers in the history of science, medicine and African collections lies behind the exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London on the Kola nut, a small bitter-tasting fruit found growing on Kola trees across tropical Western Africa. The kola nut was one of two core ingredients in the first Coca-Cola recipe during the 1880s, but had already been used for centuries among West Africans for a myriad of purposes.
The development of the National Socialist Rally grounds in Nuremberg, Germany, is being shaped by a member of Southampton staff with extensive research expertise in the Third Reich. The Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish and Non-Jewish Relations is a vibrant hub of activity for Holocaust education more generally.
Our staff frequently share their knowledge and understanding of the past in British and overseas media. Several colleagues have appeared on TV programmes such as 'Who do you think you are?', as well as local, national, and international radio. Our historians are interviewed as experts in the press. They also contribute articles to popular outlets such as BBC History Magazine, Prospect, The Washington Post and The Conversation.
We have shared our research in innovative ways. One such example is through theatrical collaborations. These include:
We are committed to making a difference in the world. This is evident in our engagement with national policy-makers, the British parliament, and international organizations, whether through invited talks, as expert advisers, or by hosting research events that bring together policy-makers and elected officials with other professionals and practitioners.
We welcome further opportunities to work with governments, NGOs, and private enterprise to provide historical understanding to pressing concerns in the present.