Cameras roll as Dan Snow praises York research institute
Posted on 23 June 2010
In a short film, directed and produced by IPUP’s Professor Helen Weinstein, the broadcaster explains why understanding the past on television and on the Internet matters in contemporary society.
The importance of the past in the present is a crucial issue to tackle. Because if we don't understand the past, we cannot understand who we are.
Dan Snow
The film, which is designed for history students and the wider public, to underscore the importance of IPUP's work can be seen at www.york.ac.uk/ipup/
Dan Snow talks about how history has the best stories, and why television and the Internet are the most important places for our understanding of identity in the UK.
Dan Snow is thrilled about the film and has given it a plug on his Twitter page. Dan says: "The IPUP film looks great. The importance of the past in the present is a crucial issue to tackle. Because if we don't understand the past, we cannot understand who we are. You run such an exciting and innovative programme at IPUP. Brilliant."
Helen Weinstein adds: “I wanted to make this film with Dan to showcase how IPUP’s research agenda is dedicated to understanding all places where the past is used as a means of understanding complex issues."
Professor Weinstein, who is Director of IPUP, made the film, with two assistants from Institute’s media intern programme – third year History undergraduate Sarah Ashley-Cantello and Chris Sparks, a third year History postgraduate.
This summer IPUP is offering a Media Intern programme for History students who are researching the historical contexts for the TV programmes. It will be associated with a new social history series being made for BBC2 on which Helen Weinstein is history consultant.
Notes to editors:
- See Dan Snow’s tweet at twitter.com/thehistoryguy
- More about the University of York’s Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past at www.york.ac.uk/ipup/
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