Supported by the Economic History Society.
A successful conference was held at the University of Glasgow. Click here to see photographs of the event.
Click here to see the full programme.
The scope of
the conference theme was wide in order to bring together postgraduates working
in a range of historical studies. In particular, the theme lent itself to
discussion of a common set of historical and historiographical questions faced
by all postgraduates in their research:
Whose voices are heard in specific sets of source material, and whose voices are
absent?
· How do we read the gaps and silences in our sources?
· What are the benefits and potential pitfalls of ‘reading silences’?
· Where are the silences in historiographical debates on specific economic and
social historical themes?
· How have qualitative and quantitative evidence been integrated to elide some
of the gaps in the sources?
· What do statistics and statistical sources tell us and hide from us?
· How have specific methodologies, such as oral history and critical analysis
of visual images, helped to fill the silences created by other source material?
In relation to this last question, the conference included two skills-based workshops directed by Glasgow and Strathclyde University staff. The first, on the philosophy and practice of oral history, was run by Dr Arthur McIvor from Strathclyde University and the Scottish Oral History Centre, and the second, on critical use of visual images, by Dr David Hopkin from the University of Glasgow.
The aim throughout the conference was to bring new economic, social, political and cultural historians together to articulate a critical awareness of how we as historians identify gaps and silences in the primary and secondary sources in the first place, and awareness of how we integrate certain historical methodologies in our attempts to fill the gaps and silences. Together the paper presentations and workshops provided an informal space through which research students in History may air their current work and explore a range of historical methodologies. The same principles underpin the Historical Perspectives Work in Progress seminar group.
In May 2004 Historical Perspectives held the first of its annual conferences, at the University of Strathclyde, entitled 'Conflict and Change: Shifting Views in History'. The programme can be viewed by clicking here.