The perils and pitfalls of using official documents

This training has been organised by the Space, Place, Environment and Liveability (SPEL) Pathway and is open to all ESRC and non-ESRC funded PhD and MA Social Research students within the WRDTP’s seven partner universities. Whilst this workshop is aimed at SPEL students, PGRs from all seven interdisciplinary Pathways are welcome to attend.

This webinar will explore the advantages and disadvantages, the pitfalls and perils, of using official government sources for postgraduate research. The focus will be on records from both the United Kingdom and the United States, but the material covered could equally relate to other countries’ official records. Documents focusing on imperial and international history will be the main concern of the session, although the issues discussed will be relevant to anyone using official records from national archives for their research. The session will also consider the different types of archival sources that can be used for postgraduate research, with particular attention paid to the merits and demerits of using official records.

Students attending the session will:

• Develop knowledge and understanding of the use of archival sources in research
• Have opportunities to ask expert researchers questions relevant to their own research