The seminars are held on the second Saturday of each month between October and March, at Lenton Grove, an early nineteenth century building on the University of Nottingham’s University Park campus, which is the home of the Department of History. They follow from a series run for many years in the Department of Adult Education, and after that disappeared they were transferred to History. The audience consists of, among others, current and past M.A., doctoral and certificate students, many of whom are also members of other local and county history societies. They come from all over the East Midlands. Currently we have more than 100 people on the mailing list, and audiences frequently exceed 60, and once topped 90. Audience members tend to be questioning and willing to engage in discussion with the speaker which (despite the numbers) gives the session more of a seminar than a lecture format. The convenor is Professor John Beckett, who is Professor of English Regional History in the Department of History. He works with a small group of volunteers to plan, organise and run the seminars. Speakers come from all areas of local and regional history, interpreted as widely as we can. They are asked to talk about their own topics of interest, with a particular emphasis on local and regional issues and on sources. The format is as follows:
- 9:00 Doors open and coffee is available to early comers.
- 10:00 Seminar commences. Speaker talks for approximately 45 minutes with 15 minutes for questions. In this session we ask, if possible, for a discussion of recent research they have been undertaking.
- 11:00 Coffee break
- 11:30 Part 2. Speaker talks for approximately 45 minutes and this is followed by 15 minutes of questions. In this session we ask, if possible, for a discussion more focussed on research methods and some of the issues around sources (both location and usage).
- 12:30 Seminar ends.
Speakers are offered a fee of £75 plus reasonable travel expenses. Lenton Grove is fully equipped with data projection facilities. If you are happy to take part on these terms, please send me a title, a synopsis (100 words), and a sentence describing yourself, to help us with publicity.
Professor John Beckett
Department of History
Convenor
John.Beckett@nottingham.ac.uk