CGIS workshops move online

CGIS has met fortnightly for lunchtime talks throughout 2019-20. This has created a wonderful community of early career researchers, graduate students, undergraduates, and established researchers who normally come together over sandwiches to talk about the work we do relating to gender, identity, and subjectivity.

Due to COVID-19, the History Faculty building has been closed since March and the planned speakers for Trinity 2020 were no longer able to talk about their research. So, we have instead organised a series of work-in-progress workshops online, via Microsoft Teams. Current graduates or early career researchers at Oxford share some questions that they are grappling with in their research this term, followed by Q&A and lots of discussion of how we approach these issues in our own work.

Isolation has made many of us realise how much we miss the informal and unexpected conversations with historians that we normally take for granted - in the Bodleian, at History Faculty seminars, in coffee shops, or on the High Street. One of the seminar participants in May noted that 'it really has been a while since we've been able to chat in an intimate setting, even if online', while another commented that 'it was a real boost to talk to people in such a welcoming setting'.

These workshops have also raised important questions about how we can make future seminars more inclusive through the option of online access. The ability to listen to a seminar while keeping an eye on a child or while not able to leave the house have been appreciated by many within the CGIS community. Another seminar participant explained that 'I really value that they are open to people who otherwise normally wouldn't be able to come'.

You can see details of upcoming workshops on the CGIS website. We will schedule further work-in-progress events if there is demand from within the CGIS community of graduate students or early career researchers. Get in touch if you have thoughts or suggestions - cgis@history.ox.ac.uk.