Biographical Methodologies Research Cluster

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Biographical accounts have always been very popular with broad audiences, but the status of biographical research within academia has changed over time. Recently historians have come to regard it as a fundamental and adaptable tool with which to explore broader social and intellectual processes.

The aim of this recently established research cluster—started by researchers in the former HSTM Department and in the Faculty of Health and Social Care—is to facilitate the dialogue between colleagues who routinely employ biographical sources and have made them the focus of specific reflection.

Within the History Department, researchers engage with a wide range of questions: biographies and autobiographies as a resource for research and as a genre; collective biographies; the relations between biographies and prosopography; biography and identity. Research topics are equally broad both chronologically—from biographical accounts of medieval queens to those of early 20th-century chemists—and geographically—from Britain to continental Europe and South East Asia.

The first workshop of the cluster took place on 4th December 2007 with two invited speakers and six papers from researchers in the History Department and in the Faculty of Health and Social Care. Follow this link for details of the programme. The workshop has stimulated interest across the Arts Faculty; further expressions of interest are very welcome and should be addressed to Dr Gerrylynn K Roberts, convenor of the cluster. A second meeting took place on 8 October 2008. Follow this link for more information.

While the cross fertilization between different methodological approaches is an important stimulus, within the general theme seminars on more specific topics and questions are envisaged to allow informal discussion on research in progress.