History department seminar

Meet the History Department

Say hello to some of the people you'll meet in your first year!

Lancaster's History Department is a thriving and friendly centre of historical teaching and research at the heart of the university campus.

We pride ourselves on the strong sense of community in our friendly Department. Studying with us, you will have the flexibility to select modules that fascinate you and tailor your degree to your own individual interests. Our active student society organises a fun and exciting variety of social and course-related activities throughout the year.

Below, we introduce some of the people you may meet in your first year.

Anne-Marie Mumford
Anne-Marie Mumford

First-year Co-ordinator: Anne-Marie Mumford

I am the Part I Co-ordinator for History and I will be your first point of contact in the department during your first year.

If you have any questions or problems, you can get in touch by email or phone but generally the best thing is to come to see me in my office.

If you need to talk through course options or about your seminars and lectures, I can usually help, or I can make appointments for our students to talk to Nick Radburn, First-Year Pastoral Advisor. I will also point you in the right direction if it’s someone else in the university you need to see. I often contact first-year students directly and so recommend to that they check their Lancaster inbox regularly (every day!).

Director of Studies: Nick Radburn

I am the Director of Studies for first-year History students.

You are likely to see me quite regularly during your degree. I am a member of the forum in which our student reps can raise issues and discuss general questions.

Students are a vital part of the History community and are involved throughout their degree. Each year elects a number of representatives and they help me understand the degree programme from a student’s perspective.

My research focuses on Atlantic history, particularly the trans-Atlantic slave trade and plantation slavery in North America and the Caribbean.

My current project studies slave trading merchants in Britain, Africa, and the Americas, and explores how their profit-motivated decisions shaped the lives of the people who they bought as captives and sold as slaves.

I am developing a 3D model of a slave ship in collaboration with an international team of scholars. These digital and textual sources underpin my undergraduate modules at Lancaster, one of which examines the trans-Atlantic slave trade’s long history, and another that examines the intertwined histories of slavery and freedom in colonial America.

Nick Radburn
Dr Nicholas Radburn
Sarah White
Dr Sarah White

Pastoral Tutor: Sarah White

I am the Pastoral Adviser for first-year History students.

I meet with students who have any questions or concerns during the first year of their degree, so I have the pleasure of meeting a wide range of students and hearing about their experiences studying history.

My research looks at the intersection of law and religion. I study this primarily through the works of the canon lawyers of twelfth- and thirteenth-century England and how these writers achieved practical solutions for the problems of their day by using the increasingly specialised legal knowledge.

My forthcoming book argues that court procedure, based on Roman law and tempered by the canonists, became a guiding force and vehicle for argument in dispute resolution.

History Lecturer: Deborah Sutton

I teach a first-year module called ‘Histories of Violence: How Imperialism Made the Modern World’.

We explore the relationship between Britain’s imperial past and the present, from slavery in the late-eighteenth century to the anti-colonial movements in South-East Asia and East Africa in the 1950s and 1960s.

Through lectures and seminar discussions, we think about the social, cultural and economic histories and legacies of Empire. For example, what is the relationship between imperial culture and the illegalisation of homosexuality? What are the legacies of the economic systems and cultures of consumption that developed from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade? How did ideas of ‘race’ and ‘racial difference’ gain scientific and popular credibility among white populations in the nineteenth century?

I also teach a second and third-year optional course on Gandhi’s role in the Indian freedom movement. We look at Gandhi’s biography and political career in South Africa and India. Students have the chance to study Gandhian philosophies of resistance and selfhood and considers how his ideas were put into action, by him and by others, in the Indian struggle for independence.

Deborah Sutton
Dr Deborah Sutton

History at Lancaster

  • Your First Year Studying History

    During your first year, you'll have the chance to explore subjects ranging from ancient to modern history, while choosing from a set of optional modules.

  • Beyond Your First Year

    Our second- and final-year historians choose from within an extensive range of modules, personalising their degree to suit their own interests and passions.

  • Study Abroad

    Choosing History at Lancaster will give you the opportunity to study at one of our partner universities overseas

  • Heritage Work Placements

    At Lancaster, we integrate work experience opportunities into your academic studies.

  • Preparing for History

    Here you'll find recommendations from our lecturers to help you get ready to become an undergraduate historian.

History courses

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