The Perils and Pitfalls of Using Official Documents

This online event will include a brief presentation on the advantages and disadvantages, the pitfalls and perils of using official government sources for postgraduate research. While the focus will be on records from both the United Kingdom and the United States, the material covered could equally relate to other countries’ official records. Equally, although documents focusing on imperial and international history will provide the focus, the session will also be relevant to anyone using official records from national archives for their research.

The second half of the session will provide an opportunity to discuss issues centring on the different types of archival sources that can be used for postgraduate research, with particular emphasis on the merits and demerits of using official records.

Outcomes

This session will include:

• Reflections on archival/primary sources and how to use them most effectively in postgraduate research;
• An opportunity to ask expert researchers questions relevant to their own fieldwork.

Contributors

Simon C. Smith is Professor of International International History in the School of Humanities at the University of Hull. He is an expert on British imperialism and decolonisation in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, as well as post-war Anglo-American relations. His current research focuses on slavery and the slave trade in the Arab world, and he is completing a monograph entitled ‘Slavery and the Slave Trade in Arabia and the Gulf, 1924-1971’ for the Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern History series.