On May 17th 2021 the AQR (Association for Qualitative Research) hosted a webinar for its members on the Making of History at which Professor Claire Langhamer (University of Sussex) discussed Modern British History with Phyllis Macfarlane and Peter Bartram of AMSR, exploring the importance of qualitative research in understanding the history of real people and society today.
As AMSR our objectives were to explain to AQR members how our recent work with Modern British Historians has highlighted the real importance of qualitative research in the archive, how the Archive could be of value to them personally, and ask them to think of contributing projects to the Archive
Claire described what she did as a Modern British Historian and how historians see our research from a different point of view. How valuable qual research is – how each project tells you what clients and users were actually thinking at the time. She values the authenticity of real research done at a specific point in time.
You can view the full video of the webinar on our video gallery page. Use the ‘Category’ function to select ‘5: AQR Webinar May 17th 2021’.
If you don’t have time to view the full 44 minute video, we recommend the following sections:
5.54-9.35:
What A Modern British Historian does and why the archive is useful
21.04-23.53:
Is there anything that shouldn’t be in the Collection?
26.50-29.35:
How sources are used creatively by Historians
30.12-32.13:
How Modern history is a growing field – we need modern digital content to be collected – we don’t know what future historians’ questions are going to be
37.54-38.58:
Archivists shape the future of history – by giving historians the resources
38.39-40.41:
Who is the future historian? History is being democratised. ‘Horrible Histories’ example. Benefit of free-to-access-digital archive – appeal to a broader audience
We also covered what AQR members can do if they are interested in contributing their research to the archive or getting involved with AMSR. They can contribute materials – old research, modern research, or research for the specialist collections (Covid DI&E, BREXIT), conference papers and articles. Anything that relates to research and the research process.
We’re also working with marketing and business academics – who are interested in marketing and brand issues and how they were addressed historically. We are especially keen to continue to build the archive for the future.
Louella Miles, who was chairing the Webinar, commented on how clients are more and more ‘curating’ their own research portfolio – is that an opportunity? Indeed it is, and we’re working with the Business Archives Council (BAC) to get Client Archivists on Board. The important thing is to preserve the work.
Since the webinar we’ve had several very useful contributions to the Archive from qualitative researchers – thank you to AQR for giving us the opportunity!
Date posted: 12th August 2021