Almost a decade ago, in May, 2014, I was able to go to Trinity Hall in the University of Cambridge to hear John Walter of the University of Essex reflect on the development of his career from his time as an undergraduate in Cambridge, his period at the University of Pennsylvania and, subsequently, as an academic historian on the University of Essex’s campus in Wivenhoe. It was a privilege to be there and to hear him discuss the work of historians who had influenced him as well as the intellectual trajectory of his own studies. One thing, however, did strike me very forcibly on that occasion, namely, that no measures had been taken to record what he had said. That was a misfortune and a loss to future historians.
Since then, largely as a result of the deeply regrettable
impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, many universities have adopted the practice
of allowing their seminars to be accessible via the internet. I can sit in my
small study overlooking the wood and river to the south of my house and watch a
large number of historians delivering papers on their research and work to live
audiences and to larger groups of postgraduates and historians online. This has
made it possible for me to listen to and see major figures in my own field of
early modern history, people like Nicholas Tyacke, John Morrill, Blair Worden,
Keith Thomas, Alan Macfarlane, Richard Cust, Peter Lake and many others. I have
also been able to sit in on papers given by younger historians, many of whom
are likely to become significant players in the discipline in the years ahead.
Nonetheless, most of the seminars I have witnessed online
have taken place in the United Kingdom at the Universities of Oxford and
Reading or at the Institute of Historical Research in the University of London.
It has been much more difficult to find such seminars in countries like Canada
and the United States of America, in Australia or New Zealand or on the
European continent. I have certainly become aware of a great deal of
interesting research and writing being done in those places but seeing and hearing
their work being discussed is much more of a problem. Perhaps, there may be
those historians who can help on this issue out there.
Christopher Thompson
