An immersive, cross disciplinary, approach to undergraduate legal history – ‘A Public Spectacle’: Murder and the Law in Nineteenth Century Newcastle

This chapter outlines the development and delivery of a unique undergraduate teaching project, ‘A Public Spectacle’: Murder and the Law in Nineteenth Century Newcastle, taught at Northumbria University. It was born out of a conversation between the authors about the many ways legal scholars and historians can inform and inspire each other’s research, and a desire to show our undergraduate communities how this interdisciplinary collaboration can both shape their own studies and open new opportunities for future careers.

Our approach is dynamic, interdisciplinary and cross-sector. We focus our pedagogical passion for experiential learning to inform the project which enables undergraduate students, academic historians and legal scholars, and professional archivists at The National Archives, Kew (TNA), and Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) to co-create academic and public-facing work in legal history. Our teaching uses one murder trial from the Newcastle upon Tyne assizes, chosen from TNA. Students work with each other and with TNA and TWAM to produce projects, blogs, posters, and a final re-enactment performance of the trial. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of teaching across departments, disciplines, and sectors, each with different learning and project outcomes.

We discuss the potential for this teaching and learning approach to be adapted for other areas of legal history, such as matrimonial hearings and bankruptcy cases, and our ideas which could expand the project to include other academic disciplines such as fashion and fine art in the future.