History Student Community

Be part of a vibrant and active community of historians

Being a history student at the University of Plymouth is about more than the lectures and seminars you will attend or the essays you will write. It’s about being part of a vibrant and active community of historians. It’s about taking part in a range of activities ranging from our student run History Society to events organised by your fellow classmates, such as a Japanese cultural evening or a film showing or an oral history masterclass. Being a history student at the University of Plymouth is also about engaging with the wider local community through events such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Digital History Collection Day we held in 2019.

Lest We Forget

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Digital Collection Day

In February 2019 12 history students took part in the CWGC Digital Collection Day in the Roland Levinsky Building. People from the Plymouth area brought in artefacts from World War I which our students helped to digitise alongside the family stories that accompanied them. The objects ranged from collections of medals, documents and photos, to uniform caps and trench art.

KanZeOn

In February 2019 two final year students, Weng Vooi and Samantha Southern, organised a public viewing of KanZeOn, with guests including BBC radio 3's Nick Luscombe, film director Neil Cantwell and Buddhist priest Tatsumi Akinobu to introduce their fellow students and the wider Plymouth community to a different aspect of Japanese heritage.

As well as the film showing there was a live DJ set performed by Tatsumi Akinobu. The event was a great success and attracted a large audience of students and interested people from the wider community. Samantha and Weng have taken their interest in Japanese history and culture to the next level and they have both been accepted on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) programme.

Jack and Joe Podcast - Transnational Oral History Masterclass

On the 30th October 2017 the University of Plymouth engaged in a transnational Oral History Masterclass with the Centre for Oral History and Tradition at the University of Lethbridge in Canada.

Via a video link academics from both sides were able to share their own current work whilst letting students be part of the debate. Two students from the University of Plymouth, Jack Reeves and Joseph Dyer, have developed a podcast discussing student engagement achieved by the masterclass through the eyes of participating students, the thoughts of the academics involved, the importance of opportunities for future students in the world of oral history and the continuation of these opportunities at the University of Plymouth.

History Filmmakers

Every autumn, our second year history students undertake training in the skills and theories of making historical documentaries. In small groups they then make a historical documentary on a topic that interests them.

These topics range from local histories such as the Blitz in Plymouth, the Mayflower in 1620 and Plymouth Gin to wider historical concerns such as the NHS, the assassination of JFK and the suffrage movement.

Watch the videos produced by our students in 2018

History Society

University of Plymouth history students run a vibrant history society. The society organises a range of social and academic events for history students and those with an interest in history. These include staff-student table quizzes, bowling and a popular Christmas dinner as well as history talks, film screenings and field trips.

Find out more about the History Society