Blogging technology has created new opportunities for postgraduate historians to engage with specialist and non-specialist audiences, and to demonstrate the impact of their work by creating and informing new, virtual, public spheres and spaces. While there are a number of for-profit blog training courses in the private sector, there is no training provision in blogging as a method of public engagement for postgraduate historians.

The History Blogging Project aims to fill this gap by developing a set of training resources that will enable postgraduate historians to create, maintain and publicise a blog on their research. The Project tackles issues specific to writing about historical research on a blog, but also includes themes relevant to any postgraduate student in the arts and humanities. Through the development of an online collection of how-to guides, advice and examples taken from current history blogs, the Project aims both to inspire postgraduate historians to blog and to challenge existing bloggers to think about the ways in which they share their research with a range of different audiences.

At the same time, the Project aims to create a forum in which postgraduate historians can network and publicise their blogs.

The Project was launched on Tuesday 18 January 2011 at an event hosted by The History Lab at Senate House in London. The event included a series of short talks on blogging, including ‘Why blog’, ‘Finding time to blog’, and ‘Blogging and public engagement’. The event also included the opportunity for postgraduates to guide the direction of the Project and network with other historians over a glass of wine.

The Project will culminate in a one-day training workshop on Tuesday 19 April at the History Faculty, University of Oxford. This workshop will aim to train postgraduate historians who are new to blogging in the methods and skills needed to maintain a blog aimed at specialist and non-specialist audiences. Feedback from the workshop will be used to finalise a set of online, free-to-access training resources on blogging as a method of public engagement. Further details on the workshop are available on the History Blogging Project Training Workshop page.

If you are interested in contributing to the project, please see the Contribute to the Project page for details of how to get involved.

The History Blogging Project is funded by an AHRC Collaborative Research Training award, and is supported by the University of Oxford, The History Lab, and Roehampton University.