A group of A level history students attended a seminar at Durham University on Wednesday, delivered by Dr Skye Montgomery - a historian of American national identity and foreign relations in the nineteenth century.
The session explored the ways in which the north and south weaponised historical memory during the American Civil War and helped answer the question of how Americans arrived at such divergent understandings of their nation’s history.
The seminar was particularly pertinent as students study both the causes of the American Civil War and its impact on race relations in the nation as part of their A level syllabus. The historical documents that students read and the discussions that they had provided much food for thought.
Head of History and Sixth Form, Dr Simon Henderson, said: “This is the sort of extra-curricular enrichment that is so important for our sixth form students. It is crucial that they are given such opportunities to explore teaching and learning at university before they go on to become undergraduates in the future.”