Modern European History at Cambridge

The Seminar will meet at 5pm in @Kings_College's Keynes Hall. @CamHistory @cambridge_cpt @CamGradPTIH @CamEcSocHist

On Monday, the Political Thought and Intellectual History Seminar hosts @CNRS's @SamuelHayat speaking on 'Conceptualisations of Labour and the Making of the French Working Class, 1830-1848' with comments from Julia Nicholls (@KingsEuropean & @KingsFrench).

Twitter gives new voices in increasing numbers a space to distribute history, in what is ultimately a democratising platform.

‘Historians are using Twitter about how we can collectively work to strengthen the field.’ Politics and Academia are intertwined, and we can help shape debates about how fields develop and how institutions structure the field.

History as a discipline, especially amongst the generation in graduate school at the moment, is moving more and more to Twitter as a platform for participating in academia, from sharing research, organising conferences, advertising events, networking, etc.

#DHPLocal - Local and Community History, 1 and 20 May, 12-2pm, Twitter chat!

As historians, we can proactively share our research without engaging in online arguments. @CamHistory’s History for Schools is a prime example of how we can engage in other ways. @camideasfest is another important platform for us in Cambridge.

2) Proactive Engagement - @dhiptweets has a regular schedule to distribute history and is free from commercial pressures. It’s our responsibility to make sure accurate history is available for when people look for it.

‘What can bloggers do to combat fake history?’ 1) React - speed of news poses challenges on the admin and scholarly front. To avoid Twitter battles, it’s sometimes healthier to tackle the big topics that are overlooked.

3) Historians can use Twitter to destabilise the public sphere, in the sense that history stresses the contingent and can shape the public debates that challenges assumptions.

‘Historians must be myth busters, and Twitter gives us that immediate impact with a wide audience.’

2) We can defend against myths of the past used to legitimise present policies. 1) and 2) go hand in hand. Myths mobilise the masses, which stresses the importance of the historians’ task of writing good history.

What does history bring to public understanding of politics? 1) We have a political class without knowledge of history, and who think that doesn’t matter. We can help form an understanding of why political decisions were taken in the past, e.g. the 1975 referendum on Europe.

Major congratulations to @MEHcambridge's James Morris (@ArchivalDaze) of @EmmaCambridge for passing his PhD viva without corrections! Hats off to you, Dr Morris! Well done!

On Friday, @CamHistory's Intelligence Seminar hosts Bodo Hechelhammer (@BoHammer25), the Chief Historian of the Bundesnachrichtendienst. '”Travelling Broadens the Mind”: Why the CIA invited German Intelligence to Visit the USA in the Fifties’ 5:30pm, @CorpusCambridge