Let's hear what some of your students had to say about this year's History Conference... 

Just before summer, Cristina, Darcy and I began the planning of the inaugural Channing History Conference under the very broad theme of ‘Empire’. It was to take place in what felt like the very distant future, yet these past few months have flown by. This Wednesday was the day we had all been waiting for, and what a success it was. We invited local schools such as St Aloysius, William Ellis, JFS and Parliament Hill to join us in listening to a series of fascinating talks on the topic of ‘Empire’. These included talks on the Roman Empire, the Dutch Empire, the economic effects of the British Empire on Africa and the economic and environmental effects of the British occupation of India.

We were lucky enough to be joined by Professor Bishnupriya Gupta (Warwick University), Dr Benet Salway (UCL) , Professor Leigh Gardner (LSE), Professor Vinita Damodaran (University of Sussex) and Dr Lauren Lauret (Leiden University in the Netherlands) who all offered us a new perspective and greater understanding of their respective empires through their fascinating and thought provoking presentations. We were also later joined on stage by all of the historians, where the audience had the opportunity to ask any questions they had regarding the presentations they had previously attended. The insightful and developed questions truly revealed the positive impact of the historians' presentations on both the Channing and visiting students.

We also had the privilege of hearing Mr Raine question lawyer and author Philippe Sands on the issue of British occupation of the Chagos Islands in Mauritius. This was such an eye opening experience, I amongst many others in the audience had previously not known about the issues surrounding the Chagos Archipelago so I found the talk both appalling and deeply compelling. We would all like to thank the History department for helping to make our plan come to life, it has truly been an experience none of us are likely to forget.

Winnie D, Year 11