What's The Future Of Studying The Past?

The teaching of history at universities is facing huge challenges: courses are being cut, debates rage about decolonising curricula, and the Covid-19 crisis is only adding to the pressure. Historians Sophie Ambler, Richard Partington, Jason Todd and Anna Whitelock discuss the big issues confronting the academic discipline of history

- Rhiannon Davies

Rhiannon Davies Competition between institutions and courses is increasingly fierce, with funding cuts adding to the pressures. So why should people study history at university?

Anna Whitelock I think it’s a really important question, and a challenging one. The number of applications for degrees in history and history-related subjects has fallen in recent years. But, in my opinion, the need for history and to study it is perhaps greater than ever. History is, of course, about looking backwards and gaining knowledge and understanding, but it’s also a lens through which to engage with the present. In that sense, it’s critical – it’s not simply about being stuck in the past and in the archive.

Sophie Ambler Studying history at university can also teach us empathy – the ability to put ourselves in the shoes, through our sources, of somebody who might have lived on the far side of the world or down our street 100 or 1,000 years ago, and understand what forces shaped their world or how they sought to shape it. And that can sometimes be a very uncomfortable experience – it can sometimes be very challenging – but it’s what we do as historians.

In a world of increasingly polarised debate, the ability to empathise with people who might have a very different situation and world view to us is one of the other reasons why history is so crucial now.