Independent Study - Archival Research in London

Undergraduate / Graduate

The meaning of democracy has been contested in London over hundreds of years. Home to the Palace of Westminster, where parliament has assembled since the thirteenth century, it has also been a site of protest, petitions and revolutionary action for democratic change. The center of political power in the British Empire, London was a focal point of struggles for national self-determination. It was also a site of exile for revolutionaries, radicals and democrats who found sanctuary and spaces to organize underground networks of resistance to the regimes they fled. This dynamic history has left a rich archival treasure trove, from the official transcripts of Parliament's famous orators, to the seventeenth century pamphleteers of the English Revolution who imagined a 'world turned upside down', the secret diaries and letters written by hunger-striking suffragette prisoners, and much else besides. Exploring these archives will inspire and inform students as they choose a historical topic related to democracy that they would like to explore. The instructor will guide the students on techniques of archival research, which they will use first-hand in their independent study.