Naomi Lloyd-Jones
This post has kindly been written for us for Naomi Lloyd-Jones, History Lab’s Co-Methods Workshop Convenor.
Interested in getting to know your fellow postgraduate history students? Want to get advice on how to do your PhD, meet some of the biggest names in our discipline, or present at a seminar or conference alongside your peers? Then History Lab is for you!
We’re a student-run network of postgraduate historians, based here at the IHR, but with hubs throughout the country. Chaired by Royal Holloway’s Claire Trenery, History Lab holds a series of academic events during the academic year, culminating in an annual conference. We also team up with academics to put on special events, like the upcoming Public Speaking for PhD Historians.
By joining History Lab, you’ll be at the heart of a vibrant, supportive community of students. Our committee and our members hail from a variety of backgrounds and sub-disciplines – you’re just as likely to bump into a medievalist as you are a modernist, a digital humanist as you are an archive-based high-political historian. You’ll also be able to link up early career researchers via our sister organisation, History Lab Plus.
It’s not all work, however! History Lab also organises social events. You might find yourself chatting with your new colleagues at a museum late night, or on a historical pub crawl. And with exchange programmes with the likes of North Western University, you’ll have the chance to mingle with your counterparts from the USA and show them the gems historical London has to offer.
History Lab membership is free – all you need to do is complete a form on our website, or email us at ihrhistorylab@googlemail.com, and you’re done. You will receive updates on our exciting programme of events, including the bi-weekly History Lab seminar, Meet the Historians sessions, Methods Workshops and our conference, which this year is on ‘innovations’.
You can follow us on Twitter, @IHRHistoryLab, and we live tweet from many of our events. Any #twitterstorians unable to make it in person can follow our #phdchat through threads including #HistMethods and #MeetHistorians, and catch up with the Storify version later. And check out #HistLabSocials for information on our social events.
We will be using this space on the IHR website to blog about the fantastic things History Lab has on offer, and to post advice based on the discussions generated at our events. So keep your eyes peeled!