Your HA Virtual Branch
Keep learning with our online programme of talks
Your branch from home
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Did you know? As well as accessing session recordings, members can attend talks held by HA local branches for free, plus exclusive members' webinars and short courses, and a variety of other benefits. The HA is an independent charity and relies on membership and donations to fund our work. Virtual Branch webinars are free to everyone, but if you'd like to support our work you can join as a member or donate to the HA. As well as bringing you fantastic history content and events each month, joining as a member helps our work in supporting quality history education at all levels. |
The HA Virtual Branch is a great way to keep your history up-to-date, whether you are working or relaxing, all from the comfort of your home.
The Virtual Branch is free and open to everybody, and recordings of the talks are made available online after the event for HA members.
Upcoming talks
Heiresses: Britain's Female Enslavers
Miranda Kaufmann | September 22 September, 7.30-8.30pm
Book now
What really paid for the ballgowns, portraits and country estates of Georgian Britain? Historian Miranda Kaufmann peels back the polished veneer of Britain’s heiresses to reveal fortunes forged in Caribbean slavery. Beneath the elegance of marriage markets and inheritance battles lies a darker story of exploitation, empire and human resilience. Through the lives of powerful women, and the enslaved people whose labour underpinned their wealth, Kaufmann uncovers a tangled web of scandal, ambition and survival stretching from sugar plantations to stately homes. A gripping, necessary exploration of Britain’s imperial past and its enduring legacy.
Dr. Miranda Kaufmann is the author of the Wolfson History Prize and Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize-shortlisted book Black Tudors: The Untold Story (2017). She read History at Christ Church, Oxford and is now an Honorary Fellow of the University of Liverpool, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, where she co-convened the 'What's Happening in Black British History?' workshop series from 2014 to 2022. She served as Lead Historian for the Colonial Countryside project collaborating with National Trust houses from 2019 to 2021; and has taken her work into schools with her Teaching Black Tudors project and to the world with her Black Tudors: The Untold Story course with FutureLearn. Her second book, Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery (2025), tells the stories of nine British women who inherited people and plantations in the Caribbean.
1776 / 2026: The American War of Independence – the First Great Media War – how newspapers destroyed British rule and then saved Washington and the American Cause
George Goodwin | Wednesday 7 October, 7.30–8.30pm
The political power of the press was one of the great new revolutionary forces of the 18th century. In his illustrated talk peppered with insightful examples based on detailed research and leavened with anecdote, George Goodwin, author of Propaganda Wars of the American Revolution, brings to the foreground the often shadowy but crucial role of the media in the Anglo-American dispute between 1763 and 1783 – from inciting violent opposition to the Stamp Act, destroying the reputations of successive colonial Governors, winning the support of informed British opinion at the outbreak of War, to establishing and safeguarding General Washington’s authority at times of seemingly inevitable defeat. Read more
The Bonds of Freedom: Liberated Africans and the End of the Slave Trade
Jake Subryan Richards | Wednesday 25 November, 7.30–8.30pm
Book now
Jake Subryan Richards is Assistant Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research lies at the intersection of legal history, the history of the African diaspora, and the history of empires. Join him this September where he will be discussing his first book, The Bonds of Freedom: Liberated Africans and the End of the Slave Trade, which was named a Book of the Year for 2025 by The Times Literary Supplement. Read more
Past lecture recordings
If you've missed any of our previous Virtual Branch talks, HA members can access recordings below. Not already a member? Join today
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Speaker |
Title & link |
Date recorded |
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Kevin Passmore |
The Maginot Line: a military, social and political defence project |
June 2026 |
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Sally Coulthard |
May 2026 |
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Professor Magdalena Sánchez |
April 2026 |
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Dr Eleanor Barraclough |
March 2026 |
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Jane Rogoyska |
Feb 2026 |
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Professor David Woodman |
The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom |
Jan 2026 |
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Steve Tibble |
Dec 2025 |
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Sudhir Hazareesingh |
Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World |
Oct 2025 |
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Tabitha Stanmore |
Oct 2025 |
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David Carpenter |
Sept 2025 |
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Tim Franks |
The Lines We Draw - an accidental history and an argument about identity |
July 2025 |
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Michael J. Warren |
June 2025 |
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Professor Andrew Jotischky |
Feeding Body and Soul: Food and Drink in the Medieval Monastery |
May 2025 |
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Professor Merry Wiesner-Hanks |
April 2025 |
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Dr Hetta Howes |
March 2025 |
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Dr Dean Irwin, Natasha Jenman, Luka Liu, and Josh Outhwaite |
February 2025 |
Local HA Branches
The HA has over 45 local branches around the country. Some of these have been able to return to their venues for their monthly talks. Others have decided to make their branch programmes online via Zoom – this provides a wonderful opportunity for you to see some of the great lectures that occur across the country as part of the HA. Check our branch calendar for full listings.
If you're a teacher don't forget that we also run our regular calendar of CPD events - view the secondary webinar calendar here and the primary calendar here.
Other events coming up
View out full Historian events calendar