Masterclass by dr. Nigel Hamilton (University of Massachusetts)

On September 19, 2018, dr. Nigel Hamilton, author of award-winning biographies of Fieldmarshall Montgomery, Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, will host a masterclass on his best practices as a biographer. This masterclass will take place during the conference Different Lives. Global Perspectives on Biography in Public Cultures and Societies (September 19-21, 2018). It will give Researchmaster- and PhD-students the opportunity to discuss the way biographical research can correct existing historiography. How can ‘agency’ be used as a hermeneutic device to compare the way different individuals acted during a certain time and place? By reading different samples from dr. Hamiltons biographies, students will investigate the structural incoherence between the agency of an individual, and the mentality of the time in which he or she was living. What makes historical practice comprehendible, if it is not related to some larger structure or development? Students will delve into the debate on what did biographers do to contribute to methodology of Microhistory, in which developments on a small scale can be an analytical framework for a more complex historical phenomenon. Applications for this masterclass, including a short CV, must be sent to bioconferencegroningen@rug.nl before April 30, 2018.

Date: 19 september
Time: 12.30-15.00
Venue: Doopsgezinde kerk, Groningen
Open to: Researchmaster- and PhD-students
Fee (non-members): €50
Credits: 1 ECTS (available upon request)
Coordination:
Registration: Maximum participants in this event: 15
Register before: April 30, 2018
Register here: bioconferencegroningen@rug.nl