This article reports on the findings of a learning and teaching project exploring the application of flipped classroom models, funded by Macquarie's Faculty of Arts. Scholarship on the impact of flipping in tertiary institutions has been focussed mainly on the sciences rather than the arts. This article reports on the author's early experiments with flipping and reveals the qualitative experiences of students who received instruction in this mode throughout 2015. The flipped classroom has the potential to foster transformative learning, but when students are compelled to become aware and critical of their own and other's assumptions, there is much invisible and emotional labour involved for convenors in and out of the classroom. The flipped classroom allows for potentially more communicative learning. With longer class times requiring active engagement, students can better understand how our knowledge is shaped and how we can best augment and/or question it. The creation of historical empathy, which builds upon a range of key learning objectives and skills, has the potential to be a product of the flipped classroom and to produce significant social benefits over the long term.