This course will run from February to May 2025 and will be delivered entirely online. It will include live lectures with discussion plus two interactive workshop sessions. Each lecture will be led by one of the academics on the course but will be supported by the other academics taking part.

Throughout the course you will have access to a specially selected bank of online resources to support your learning and understanding of the topic. Recordings of the live sessions will be added to the resource unit around a week after they have taken place.

Those who sign up for the course can dip in and out as they wish, attend the live lectures, or catch up on the recordings afterwards; however, we encourage live participation in these lectures and workshops to make the most of the experience. There are no requirements for participants to produce any output or assessment for the course – just to take part and enjoy the opportunity to learn about a fascinating subject from leading academics in the field.

Unless otherwise stated, all sessions will take place between 7.30–9.00pm (45mins lecture, 45mins chat, discussion and Q&A). You need to book for the course to receive the meeting link details and access to the accompanying resource unit.

Sessions include:

• • 25 February – Fascism in flames: Italy at War, 1940-1943 | Dr Alexander Henry

• • 4 March – Imperial defence and relations in the interwar period, c.1930-1939 | Dr Adam Dighton

• • 11 March – The British Empire at war, 1939-1945 | Dr Adam Dighton

• • 17 March – ‘We can’t stand by and do nothing’: the lives and work of Britain’s conscientious objectors during the Second World War | Dr Linsey Robb
• • 25 March – Propaganda in Nazi Germany during the Second World War | Dr Paul Moore

• • 1 April – The aftermath of war: Allied occupation and displaced persons in post-war Europe | Dr Samantha Knapton

• • 15 April – Music as propaganda as used by The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany | Dr Percy Leung, FRAS FRSA
• • W/C 21 April – Moldavian partisans | Professor Mark Sandle

• • 29 April – Black Marketeers | Dr Mark Roodhouse

• • 6 May – Japanese motivations during the Second World War | Dr Satona Suzaki

 
Keep your eyes peeled for further sessions to be announced!

This course is free to all current HA members, subject to booking. You must have a valid membership at the time of booking and attending the course. If you have a corporate membership, the additional staff users on your account can also register for free.

The course is charged at £37 (including VAT) for non-members. Registration is available online only through Cademy, and payment must be made at the point of booking by credit or debit card.

To access the module content, you will either need to have an active HA membership or a free basic account. Become a member or register for a free basic account.

The course is open to everybody but is particularly designed for lifelong learners. It is available to anybody with an interest or curiosity in the topic who wants to learn more while developing their historical knowledge and skills, without the pressure of any form of assessment. It is ideal for those who prefer a flexible pace of learning and who would like the opportunity to interact with the course leaders and participants. You do not need any prior knowledge of the topic to take part.

Dr Alexander Henry is a lecturer at the Department of History at the University of Nottingham, where he also completed his BA, MA, & PhD between 2010 &2018. A historian of modern military history, with particular expertise in the Second World War, his PhD research formed the basis of his first book, War Through Italian Eyes: Fighting for Mussolini, 1940-1943, which was published in 2021. He has also written for the British Journal of Military History, the Journal of British Studies, & Contemporary British History. 

Dr Adam Dighton is a Lecturer in War Studies in the Department of History, Politics, War Studies, University of Wolverhampton whose writings include 'Race, Masculinity and Imperialism: The British Officer and the Egyptian Army', War and Society (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2016), pp. 1-18.

Dr Linsey Robb is a social and cultural historian of warfare at the University of Northumbria. She has worked on the AHRC-funded oral history project ‘Masculinities Challenged?’, a large-scale oral history project examining the lives of men in reserved occupations during the Second World War. She is currently completing a project, previously funded by the AHRC, on the lived experiences of Britain's Second World War conscientious objectors.

Dr Samantha Knapton is an Assistant Professor in History, her work focuses on central and east-central Europe, displacement, and international humanitarianism. Her first monograph, Occupiers, Humanitarian Workers, and Polish Displaced Persons in British-occupied Germany (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023) focused on the interventions of those 'in the middle' between governing authorities and Displaced Persons (DPs) in post-war occupied Germany. She is the co-creator of a global network focusing on the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) alongside Katherine Rossy (Carleton, Ottawa). Together, they have co-edited the first volume on UNRRA, Relief and Rehabilitation for a Postwar World: Humanitarian Intervention and the UNRRA (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023).

Dr Percy Leung is a cultural and music historian of modern Europe. His research interests include Anglo-German comparative music history between 1914 and 1945, investigating why, despite being on opposite sides in the two World Wars, Germany and Britain shared a profound cultural and musical affinity, and how both countries utilised music as part of their cultural diplomacy, supporting their efforts in colonisation, decolonisation and state-building. Dr Leung also focuses on the interrelations between music and politics in twentieth-century authoritarian states, especially in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Francoist Spain and Soviet Russia, studying how music was manipulated by these regimes to serve as a propaganda weapon and how it functioned as a medium for protest and resistance.

Dr Mark Roodhouse is Reader in Modern History. He works on the economic and social history of modern Britain, taking a keen interest in black markets, underground economies and the informal sector. He is currently writing a book about organised crime in mid-twentieth-century London. His first book Black Market Britain: 1939-1955, published by Oxford University Press, was shortlisted and awarded Proxime Accessit for the 2013 Royal Historical Society Whitfield Book Prize.

Dr Satona Suzaki is a senior lecturer in Japanese and Modern Japanese History at SOAS University of London. Her main interests are the rise of modern Japan with an emphasis on imperialism, militarism, ideology and the relationship between politics and religion (Buddhism). 

Booking is now available via this link. The course is free for members or £37.00 for non-members. More information about membership can be found here.

(Registration is via Cademy which opens in a new window. Please read the course terms and conditions before registering)