Although history teachers frequently work with academic historical writing, direct face-to-face encounters with academic historians are rare in secondary history classrooms. This article reports a collaboration between an academic historian and a history teacher that aimed to engage 13-14 year-old pupils with developments in contemporary historical research on global approaches to the history of the Middle Ages. The article describes the collaboration and evaluates it from the perspective of the academic historian and the history teacher involved. The article demonstrates that collaborations of this kind are practical and achievable, it explores the value that they can add for pupils and the professional learning opportunities that they can create for both academics and teachers.