Our Research Environment

CHICAM benefits from a strong, supportive research culture that is fostered through multiple networks, including partnerships  with groups and organisations that, in turn benefit from access to our University Library, and our archive centre: Heritage Quay. Highlights include the full records of the Rugby Football League; Huddersfield and Colne Valley Labour Party archives; JH Whitley personal papers; JPW Mallalieu’s records; Wesley Historical Society collection; and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Archive. This rich resource has attracted countless students to write dissertations about various themes within the collections and is further supported by the Huddersfield Local History Society, whose journal is edited by one of our former PhD students, Dr Rob Piggott. Also, with over 146 square metres of exhibition space and 84 square metres of group space, Heritage Quay is the perfect venue for exhibitions and public engagement activities.  Our postgraduate students contribute fully to the life of CHICAM through regular seminars and events that underpin our vibrant ongoing research. 

CHICAM also has close links with the Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre, which is situated on our university campus.  The HELC is supported by the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association which runs a learning programme for school students and regular public engagements, including conferences, events and temporary exhibitions. This unique facility secures the legacy of Holocaust refugees and survivors living in Yorkshire and provides access to its archive of documents, photographs and oral histories in partnership with Heritage Quay.

Our partnerships with external stakeholders and community partners, contribute to our rich research environment, allow our research to attract diverse funding and foster collaborations across a wide community that is both interdisciplinary and international.  Past and current partners include the Leeds Armouries Museum, The National Trust, New Vic Borderlands, Hull History Centre, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, St Bartholomew’s Hospital League of Nurses, Westminster Archives Education Department, La Consociazione Nazionale delle Associazioni Infermiere (Italy), The Smithsonian Institutions, (USA) and the Florence Nightingale Instituut (Netherlands).

A vibrant community of Research Students actively contributes to our ongoing research.  Many postgraduate students promote their research through seminars and contributions to wider networks, such as the Society for the Social History of Medicine, the International Medieval Congress, the UK Association for the History of Nursing and the European Association for the History of Nursing.