Public History Early Career Workshop

The London Centre for Public History proudly presents an afternoon of talks designed to inspire and offer guidance to those pursuing careers in the history and heritage sectors. A wonderful selection of early career and more established public historians will lead discussion by drawing on their own experiences of forging career paths in historical fiction, archives, exhibitions management and much more. The event will offer attendees a valuable opportunity to meet peers and more established historians working in the field and become part of an active community of early career public historians.

Our Speakers

A full workshop programme will be circulated in due course

Joanna Brown has just completed a Practice-based PhD in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Since graduating in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, she has taught in schools and heritage organisations with a focus on Black British history and literature. Writing for children as J.T. Williams, Joanna is the author of historical fiction series The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries (winner of The Week Junior Book Awards and The Diverse Book Awards) and Bright Stars of Black British History, out in paperback this Autumn. In the public sphere, her work has been showcased on platforms ranging from the British Library’s Discovering Children’s Books to Dan Snow’s History Hit.

Dr Chloe Lee joined The National Archives as a researcher in October 2022, working on the Windrush 75 programme. With an interdisciplinary background in history and theatre, Chloe works across the collection, seeking creative ways to facilitate expansive encounters with historical material. Her main focus is colonial material within the collection. She is most interested in exploring the archive as inherently emotional and embodied, and how this presents possibilities for people and communities, from the local to global. She is also part of TNA’s On the Record podcast team, which she regularly hosts. Chloe also helps deliver the Spaces, Places and Belonging hub for community-led research in the cultural heritage sector (AHRC) and supporting Back on Track at Tilbury (HLF).

Matt Williams is Collections Project Assstant at London Museum, where he leads on the auditing and digitising of the museum's Dress and Textile collection ahead of its relocation to the historic Smithfield Market in 2026. Matt was awarded a BA in History at the University of Warwick in 2017, he was appointed to his first museum job as Visitor Expereince Host at London Museum, before being as seconded as Assistant Curator on a contemporary collecting and community engagement project. He went on to lead a disposals project at Elmbridge Museum, and has since also worked for the House of Commons' Heritage Collections team. His experience lies within museum collections audits, digitisation, disposals and storage, and his expertise is Queer and social history.

Perry Blankson is a Collaborative Doctoral Award student at the School of Advanced Studies and The National Archives. His project, Spycops at the Grassroots: A Living Archive of the British Black Power Movement, examines the British Black Power Movement with an emphasis on its print literature. He is part of the Coordinating Group at the Young Historians Project (YHP), a collective of young people of African and Caribbean heritage who promote the scholarship and popular understanding of Black British history. He has previously written articles for Tribune and has published a chapter in Hakim Adi’s edited collection, Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain (2023).

Lydia Ackrell is Exhibitions and Interpretation Officer at Elmbridge Museum in Esher, Surrey. She is a graduate of the University of Winchester and an alumna of the MA in Public History programme at Royal Holloway, from which she graduated with a distinction in 2022. Her final project ‘Reading’s Little Italy: Stories of Migration and Belonging’ explored the rich history of Reading’s diverse and ever-growing Italian community and was inspired by her family’s past. She has a particular interest in oral history and enjoys collaborating with local groups and working with communities to create displays which unlock historic collections for audiences.

The Workshop has been organised by Amy Swainston (Eton Museum & RHUL) and Edward Madigan (RHUL) and generously sponsored by the Department of History and the School of Humanities, Royal Holloway, University of London.