Durham historians explore a vast range of past human experience across the world, from Late Antiquity to the twenty-first century. We engage in collaborations across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences to develop innovative research methods and techniques. And we make critical interventions to inform policy and public debate, whether to draw lessons from the past or challenge the use and abuse of history in the present.

Research Clusters

Our History Department research clusters develop the Transformative Humanities framework of the Arts and Humanities Faculty. We have a special thematic focus on:

• Economic and Social History; 
• Environmental History and Urban History; 
• History on the Margins; 
• Late Antiquity
• Museums, Archives, and Heritage
• North American Connections
• North-East History
• Political Cultures;
• Science, Technology, and Medicine; and
• Thinking East Asia.

We also work closely with colleagues across the university, including via the Institute for Medical Humanities and the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, as well as the Centre for African History, the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, and the Centre for Visual Arts and Cultures.

History Department Research Seminars

Wednesday 22 October, Lindisfarne Centre, St. Aidan’s College, 2–4pm

Nicole Phillip-Dowe (University of the West Indies): ‘is freedom we makin’: Lessons from the Grenadian Revolution 1979–1983 (Black History Month Keynote Lecture)

Wednesday 5 November, Elvet Riverside Room 142, 3.30–5pm

Kristin Hussey (Newcastle): Rhythmic History: New Directions in the History of Health and Environment

Wednesday 19 November, Elvet Riverside Room 142, 3.30–5pm

Alexandra Sapoznik (King’s College London): Title TBC

 Wednesday 3 December, Elvet Riverside Room 142, 3.30–5pm

Anna Ross (Sheffield): International Zones: Impasse and Waiting in a World of State-Making, 1919–1956

Please contact tom.b.hamilton@durham.ac.uk with any questions.