Our Teaching

“Our strengths in modern (post-1750) global history is what makes our teaching so distinctive, as well as our focus on subaltern voices: Radicals and protestors, farmworkers, white-collar workers, Black diaspora, anarchists, sailors, women activists, working-class northern voices. It's not to say that we don't do the history of the rich and powerful, or the big ideas that have shaped the modern world, but we're more likely to approach them from the perspective of ordinary people in the everyday - dare I say, people like us, or our students. In this respect, our teaching works in the tradition of 'history from below'. We're all committed to this as part of widening participation and challenging the enduring view that history is about metropolitan elites, told by elites for the next generation of elites. As such, our teaching is meant to be empowering, and build confidence. It shows our students what ordinary people in the past have achieved, and what they themselves, might achieve.”

Matthew Roberts, Associate Professor in Modern British History