hello my name is Matt Houlbrook I am Professor of Cultural History and head of the department
of history filming on a very cold December’s day in front of the arts building which is where we're
based department I’m head of the department of history that means that like all of my colleagues
I teach undergraduate students in all three years of their degree from first year to third year I
have personal tutees I’m a historian about 20th century britain particularly british culture in
the 1920s and 1930s but also because I’m head of department that means that I have overall
responsibility for everything that happens into the department in terms of the delivery of your
education teaching and learning with the well-being of our staff and our students
and the research that we do i've been head of department now for two and a half years
and I think during that time had a chance to reflect on the kind of things that we value as
the department the kind of things that we're good at the kind of things that define us and I think
what struck me is that we hear a lot of talk often when there's people talking about
universities or departments they talk about excellence and dynamism and values like that
I think we do pride ourselves on the excellence of our teaching and our research as department but
the things that define us the words that define us are slightly different I think what struck me more
as the years have gone on are these kind of three words community care and choice and those words
I think are the things that that I value as head of department they're the things that I see that
my colleagues academic staff and professional services valuing and I think they're the things
that kind of characterize our work as a department as a whole community in a very real sense that
we're an intellectual community engaged in the collaborative pursuit of knowledge about the past
that's a collaboration that includes people like myself full-time professional academics but it
also includes the way that our undergraduate and postgraduate students work I think rather than see
ourselves as teachers per se we see ourselves as working with you as students working with all of
our students to further our understanding of a range of different historical areas and topics
community also though is something is an intellectual thing but community also is
about how we look after each other and look out for each other I think a university even a very
good one is always going to be an institution but a department department like ours is
has to be should be a and that's where that with that sense of community that sense of breaking
down boundaries is where the second word I always come back to thinking about the department
and that's care this idea of looking out for each other looking after each other supporting
the members of our community as a whole cuts through everything we do it informs the small
group teaching that we do it informs the work that we do like people like myself do with our personal
tutees kind of group of eight to 10 students that we work with or we follow through from their first
year to their third year but that idea of care also has kind of more I guess more sort of formal
places most obviously in just obviously in the work of our dedicated welfare officers who are
there really to provide the kind of necessary support for all of our students with particular
needs who face particular challenges when they join us here in the department so the
final word that comes to mind thinking about the department of things that define us as choice
choice for me is important because it points to the range of our interests as historians and as
teachers that is as scholars we work on a huge range of different themes topics sources in the
study of the past ranging from histories of gender and sexuality through histories of warfare issues
of everyday life through the environment we work on society culture politics economics technology
I think the kind of crucial thing as well alongside of that thematic range is the way
that our teaching and our research covers a huge expanse in terms of time and space from
iceland to britain from the medieval to the ultra contemporary these are things that we work on as
scholars there are also things that we teach and the things that our students have opportunities
to study and to choose from when they join us here at university and what we try to make sure
with the structure of our undergraduate degree is that we give students an opportunity to
experience to encounter a full range of different histories and different approaches to the past
that's particularly the case in our first year when we try and provide you with the kind of
foundation that you need to think about how the different parts of our curriculum fit together
but as the degree continues through second and third year we give creative opportunities for you
to choose to pursue your own research interests to pursue the kind of histories that take your fancy
so that ranges through the kind of options that you might take in your second year
through to the special subject or the dissertation the independent research project that you'll do in
your first year so I think I mean i've been had a department now for long enough to get a sense of
what we're good at i've been had a department long enough to get a sense of what makes us different
what makes us stand out and also what I think we value and for me it's those kind of words those
words that actually seem I don't know it seems ordinary you seem innocuous but I think are really
really integral to others as a department and to the success of everyone who joins our community be
they undergraduate students postgraduate students professional services colleagues or academic staff