Event Details

Archival research is an important method for both historians and sociologists, but what is an archive and how does it actually work? When archives preserve materials from the past, how can we use them to learn new things?

Speakers from the Sociology and History Departments will discuss their experience of learning from archives, touching upon themes such as digital archives, colonialism, public inquiries, and social inequalities.

Speakers:

Deborah Sutton is a Senior Lecturer in Modern South Asian History and is both an aficionado and critic of the colonial archive. She has worked in state archives in the UK, India, Mauritius and Kenya. More recently, she has become interested in the potential of digitisation to transform the colonial archive.

Michael Lambert is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Social Inequalities in the Sociology Department and has used archives to explore aspects of the welfare state and society in twentieth century Britain. He has accessed material in over one hundred different national and local archives. These experiences have led him to serve as a consultant and submit evidence to several government inquiries on the issue of archives and public accountability.

Eleri Cousins is a Lecturer in Roman History. She works on the archaeology of Roman Britain, and confronts questions to do with site archives as well archival research into 18th and 19th century antiquarianism in Britain.

What makes a memorable conversation? The ‘In conversation’ webinar series will explore how memorable conversations might emerge from putting together different kinds of voices – such as staff, students and teachers from different disciplines and backgrounds. We hope that the variety of themes will engage you in interesting conversations of your own. This webinar series is produced by the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, which is home to degrees in Sociology, Media and Cultural Studies and Social Work, in association with other colleagues at Lancaster University.