Birmingham Stories: from communities of interpretation to communities of understanding

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Summary: Birmingham StoriesThe living stories found in local archives hold an important key to understanding urgent social issues surrounding identity, citizenship and belonging. By using archives and library resources, we can make discoveries about ourselves that allow us to become better informed and empowered in our understanding of history. In this context, 'Birmingham Stories' is intended to extend an awareness of the diverse histories of the city, in its many voices and cultures, by making research on archive collections available to a wider public audience. Birmingham Stories will organise an informative series of presentations and workshops in local community libraries based on research at Birmingham University. These sessions will be aimed at those who would like to know more about the history of Birmingham and its many communities. The workshops will also make available a number of useful resource guides that will provide information as well as practical advice. Both the workshops and the resource guides will be based on a wide range of socially significant archive collections held by Birmingham Libraries and Archives Service. The workshops and resource guides will cover the ten following themes and areas of research:Travelling Communities: Voices from the Margins Urban Childhoods: Contexts, Cultures, Images Visualising Birmingham: Reframing the Photographic Collections of Birmingham.Radical Religions: Exploring Birmingham's Faith Diversity through the Archives Researching Race History in Birmingham. Refugee Movements: From the Eighteenth Century To Today. Migration Stories: the Making of Modern Birmingham. Slavery and Abolition: A Guide To Birmingham's Resources.Women's Rights: Tracing the Struggle in Birmingham. The Civic Gospel: Networks for Social Change.At the same time, Birmingham Stories will also hold workshops for heritage practitioners who would like to become better informed about research into the collections that Birmingham holds and their true historical and community potential. Raising awareness among users and heritage practitioners in this way will result in wider promotion of archives and dissemination of research ideas that are central to our understanding of ourselves, issues around identity and social justice in a culturally diverse society. Finally, in order to underline the importance of Birmingham Stories in national and international debates about identity, the project will culminate in a one day conference on the subject of public history.