Liverpool is famous for its musical associations, and at the HA we can’t resist a good quiz. So, as we take you through some of the highlights of our upcoming annual conference in Liverpool, we’ve hidden 16 lyrics or song titles from artists associated with the city in this article – can you identify them all?

At the HA we like breadth and depth combined, which is why our annual conference brings you two days of quality talks, workshops and visits suitable both for those with specialist and general interests. While there will be subjects specifically addressed to our historic city location, we have also sought out top academics from the region who will be speaking on their latest research.

So let me take you down… to the Hilton, Liverpool.

Friday 9 May – heirlooms, closets, dinner and a quiz

HA conference is a mix of workshops and lectures, with multiple strands running simultaneously to ensure that there is something for everyone. There are also set parts of the programme that bring everyone together, and those are the keynote lectures.

The formal conference starts on the Friday morning with the Presidential keynote. Last year Cambridge University historian Professor Alexandra Walsham’s talk had such an impact that some people are booking for this year just to hear her speak again. Which leads me to ask of her 2025 talk – ‘What’s it all about Alex’?

Heirlooms: family, ancestry and memory in early modern England will explore books of hours, bibles and prayer books that were passed down through the generations as treasured family possessions, and which carried family history, memory and emotion. The lecture brings the histories of the book and material culture into conversation and opens up questions about the role of the family in the making of modern archives.

Following the keynote, delegates can go off and listen and participate in the many different strands, workshops and lectures on offer – 12 options across each time slot.

For the second keynote, at the end of Friday afternoon, it has become a tradition of the HA to tap into contemporary issues relevant to current historical debate. This year we explore LGBTQ+ history with one of the leading academics researching and writing in the field: Professor Matt Cook, the Jonathan Cooper Professor of the History of Sexuality at Oxford University. His talk

Portable closets: secrets and lives in queer Britain since gay liberation will examine why some gay men and women still chose to remain hidden even after legislation had changed. He will address the issue of why you’ve gotta find time to pick the right time to make a change when there is still prejudice in society.

After the keynote there is the wine reception, followed by another opportunity for conference delegates to meet and chat– the Friday night dinner. As you may know we were due to be in Liverpool in 2023, but had to relocate due to an international music contest. To commemorate that we thought that this year we should organise our own Eurovision event at the Cavern Club… but then we thought ‘Relax, don’t do it’ – there are other ways to have fun. So, we're sticking to an evening meal, followed perhaps by some Dancing Horses, and certainly by a quiz created by the HA team.

Saturday 10 May – sex, gods and AI

Saturday morning also begins with a keynote – this year it will be given by another Wolfson History Prize winner, the academic and broadcast historian Diarmaid MacCulloch who is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church and Fellow of St Cross College at the University of Oxford.

His talk, Unsettling many settled facts: pleasures and responsibilities for the historian of Christian views on sex, will cover the enjoyable complexities of surveying two millennia of Christian discussion on sex and marriage. Professor MacCulloch considers the complex relationship between past, present and future in the thinking of the world's most numerous religious grouping. We suppose the lecture might even ask the audience to imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky; imagine all the people, living for today... and possibly some of the positive and negative outcomes of thinking that way.

We then launch straight into a second full day of a rich and varied programme. In the ideal world we'd be free to choose what to do, and thankfully the HA conference is pretty ideal because there are so many choices for workshops, lectures and visits.

In fact, on occasion at HA conference, when choosing what to do next I need a moment for reflection. Well, sometimes I go out by myself, and I look across the water... but I won’t be doing that this year as I don’t want to miss any opportunities for listening and learning. Instead, if there really is a need for some time out I might sign up to one of the trips and visits on offer. So, if you see me walking down the street staring at the sky, it’s probably because the guide is pointing something out and not because I'm lost. Don’t worry if you get seasick though, as there will be no need to take a ferry across the Mersey. 

Sometimes our conference lectures and workshops can make you question previous thinking and historical approaches. You might even find yourself wondering how can heaven hold a place for me if I cannot relate to my own sense of time and place? If that is the case you might want to listen to Andrew Redden on Gods, spirits, people: historical research, analysis and representation of non-human/human interactions. Alternatively, Natasha Hodgson of Nottingham Trent University and Debbie Bogard of the British Library might reflect on ‘if Joan of Arc had a heart, would she give it as a gift?’ Developing resources with libraries and archives: teaching medieval women at the British Library.

If you are looking to explore interesting conundrums for pedagogy there is a workshop on Artificial intelligence (AI) in primary history – take CARE! with Simon Lea and Ailsa Fidler. Just think, if AI was doing all the work it would mean that for a week every day I write a book!

Rounding things up on the Saturday, our final keynote is gathering a lot of excitement. This year’s Dawson lecture will be given by Michael Riley, but it won’t be the autobiographical tale of a history educator – so not the Life of Riley. Instead, it will be on History around us: why teaching about the historic environment matters more than ever.

Michael Riley is an HA Honorary Fellow and now works at UCL’s Institute of Education, but he is well known to many as a resource creator and leading UK educator. His talk has some real contemporary urgency and will be a fascinating way to finish the conference.

Before we sign off on this whistlestop conference tour, don’t forget that as always there will be an exhibition to look round, with organisations from the area and national bodies with an interest in history, heritage and education all present to talk about the exciting work they do. There is in fact, so much to do that even if you spin me right round baby, right round, there might not be time to fit it all in.

Say, say, say what you want about HA conference, but I can guarantee that you won’t be bored. So, join us for two days of history, community, learning and possibly a few more Liverpool music references (do follow our social media over the two days). See you at the Hilton in May!