{"id":1672,"date":"2026-07-27T11:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/?p=1672"},"modified":"2026-07-27T11:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:28:40","slug":"from-classroom-to-community-students-connect-with-baths-global-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/2026\/07\/27\/from-classroom-to-community-students-connect-with-baths-global-history\/","title":{"rendered":"From classroom to community - students connect with Bath's global history"},"content":{"rendered":"

A guest blog from Reyna Dimli, Grace\u00a0Mcmahon, Annabelle Morris \u2013\u00a0Year\u00a01\u00a0students\u00a0in\u00a0Modern\u00a0Languages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Situated on Newbridge Hill, just a couple\u00a0miles\u00a0from Bath\u2019s city centre, stands\u00a0Fairfield House<\/span><\/a>, the historical landmark that\u00a0represents\u00a0its fascinating ties to Ethiopian Independence. This former residence of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie during his exile now functions both as a rich museum full of original artifacts, personal\u00a0anecdotes\u00a0and photographs, as well as a multi-cultural community centre valued by locals of all demographics.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a group of first and second-year Modern Languages students, we had the chance to experience one of Fairfield House\u2019s guided tours\u00a0as part\u00a0of an extracurricular activity organised by our lecturer Dr Galadriel\u00a0Ravelli.\u00a0The visit served not only as an opportunity to\u00a0consolidate\u00a0our study of European history, but\u00a0also\u00a0as\u00a0a physical reminder of the legacy of\u00a0Ethiopia\u2019s\u00a0struggle for independence against the Fascist Italian invasion between 1935 and 1941. Fairfield House is not an attraction many would associate with Bath, yet its vibrant legacy is kept alive through its weekly tours and teachings of Emperor Haile Selassie's political fight whilst seeking refuge in the city.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a stark contrast to the\u00a0perhaps more\u00a0broadly publicised tourist attractions in Bath, this site\u00a0represents\u00a0a page of history that, for\u00a0various reasons, is often overlooked.\u00a0<\/span>The trip revealed Bath to be a \u2018safe haven\u2019 for the\u00a0Emperor\u00a0and his family between 1936 and 1941<\/span>.\u00a0Italy\u2019s fascist invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 forced Haile Selassie to leave his country and continue his fight for\u00a0independence in the UK<\/span>: a time when their lives were threatened and others offered nothing but hostility.<\/span>\u00a0Whilst\u00a0the Emperor\u00a0was driven out of London upon arrival,\u00a0the community of Bath welcomed\u00a0him\u00a0with open arms.\u00a0As a university and a community, it is vital to recognise and reinforce this positive legacy\u00a0of openness and solidarity. This is the exact reason Haile Selassie gifted the house to Bath, which has since become a symbol of unity and anti-colonialism, two notions that\u00a0remain\u00a0pertinent\u00a0in today\u2019s society\u00a0and current affairs. The guided tour also emphasised the commemorable work of several key figures<\/span>we\u00a0had previously\u00a0explored in the classroom, such as Sylvia Pankhurst, who acted as a forceful\u00a0ally to the\u00a0anti-fascist\u00a0fight for\u00a0Ethiopian Independence.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Exhibit documenting Haile Selassie's globel travels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/span>All in all, this was a lovely opportunity to relate our academic work to the wider world and combat the development of an \u201cacademic bubble\u201d,\u00a0where students and lecturers only discuss educational and academic matters with each other and remain separated from the rest of the city through a lack of participation in educational and informative\u00a0activities outside of the campus environment. We would absolutely recommend this experience to get to know a community and place within Bath that you may be less familiar with, whether you\u2019re new here (like us First Year students) or a longer-time resident of the city \u2013 it\u2019s always worth being curious about what\u2019s around you!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By engaging with historical sites such as Fairfield House, the\u00a0University and the\u00a0Department of\u00a0PoLIS\u00a0give students the opportunity to approach educational topics with a local focus, and to contextualise their understanding of anticolonial resistance in the world around them. This type of activity allows students to feel a greater connection to the larger Bath community and explore its vibrant history.\u00a0This is part of the University\u2019s wider engagement with the local community involving the public with its teaching and research.\u00a0As we highlight below, this kind of extracurricular activity allows students to\u00a0immerse themselves\u00a0into emplaced historical narratives\u00a0and connect their studies to the local community and its lesser-known history. Additionally, the activity enabled a critical reflection on the way locals and tourists engage with the\u00a0visibility of the\u00a0historical narratives emplaced in\u00a0similar sites, and the conversations that Universities and other institutions can foster\u00a0on this\u00a0going forward.<\/p>\n

We would like to conclude by sharing some individual thoughts on the tour\u00a0and its potential to engage the University community with the city of Bath\u2019s lesser-known histories:<\/p>\n

Annabelle<\/span><\/b>:\u00a0<\/span>An exploration of history and culture, that I found to be rich, reflective and at times, unexpected.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grace:\u00a0<\/span><\/b>An eye-opening experience that offers an inspiring insight into the struggle for Ethiopian independence.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reyna:\u00a0<\/span><\/b>An excellent opportunity to explore a historical and cultural site in Bath and to see a clear example of how a small project to preserve a piece of history can grow into something bigger that benefits\u00a0more and more\u00a0people,\u00a0present\u00a0and future.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reyna Dimli, Grace\u00a0Mcmahon, Annabelle Morris \u2013\u00a0Year\u00a01\u00a0students\u00a0in\u00a0Modern\u00a0Languages.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Room
Haile Selassie's mechanical piano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A guest blog from Reyna Dimli, Grace\u00a0Mcmahon, Annabelle Morris \u2013\u00a0Year\u00a01\u00a0students\u00a0in\u00a0Modern\u00a0Languages. Situated on Newbridge Hill, just a couple\u00a0miles\u00a0from Bath\u2019s city centre, stands\u00a0Fairfield House, the historical landmark that\u00a0represents\u00a0its fascinating ties to Ethiopian Independence. This former residence of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie during...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1824,"featured_media":1673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-civic-engagement","category-community-engagement"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2026\/07\/Photo-1-Fairfield-House-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1824"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}