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Durham History Department
Student walking outside the Department of History

Sample Lectures

Here, you can view a range of sample or taster lectures by colleagues to get a sense of the breadth and depth of topics that might be studied at Durham. Often shorter than a full lecture, they provide an introduction into a range of topics, some perhaps more familiar than others.

Medieval Recipes

Watch this taster lecture by Professor Giles Gasper
People look at medieval recipes with food on the table

Victorian Pet Keeping

Watch this taster lecture by Professor Julie-Marie Strange
A young couple with a Jack Russell puppy

Nixon, Kissinger and US Foreign Policy

Watch this taster lecture by Professor Barbara Keys
US flag

Black Death

Watch this sample lecture by Dr Alex Brown
young female archaeologist analyzing human skull in ancient DNA laboratory

Crime and Culture in Early Modern Europe

Watch this sample lecture by Dr Tom Hamilton
Carvings on an archway of the UK Supreme Court

Violence in Colonial Kenya

Watch this sample lecture by Professor Justin Willis
A map showing Kenya

History of Science and Technology

Watch this sample lecture by Dr Joe Martin
Lab vial fluids

Who Killed Kirov?

Watch this taster lecture by Dr Lara Green
Frozen canal in St Petersburg, Russia

Kongo

Watch this sample lecture by Dr Anne Heffernan
Students walk past African art exhibit

Sample Sources

Here, you will find some examples of short sources on particular topics and the kinds of questions we might ask of them. Some may relate to the above lectures, but others can be read without any pre-existing knowledge of the topic. You may also find some suggestions for further reading on the topic.

Black Death sources

 

Podcast

To hear more from our historians, you can also listen to our podcast series.