Migration and the free movement of people have a history as long as that of humanity itself. This course explores the relationship between migration and the cultural make-up of societies within the British Isles from the arrival of the Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans in the medieval period, through the era of imperial history into the modern post-colonial era. Students will examine the range of communities that have travelled to and settled within British society, the history of their integration or segregation, the culture they created and the positive or hostile reactions to their arrival and continued presence. Here, particular attention will be paid to the economic, military, religious and political history that underpins this movement of people, as well as the ways in which historians can trace (on the one hand) the social changes that brought about campaigns for equal rights and (on the other) the developing history of racism and anti-racism. We will consider the way in which different communities have been viewed by successive generations of historians of the British Isles, introducing the concepts of colonial and post-colonial ways in which history has been and can be written, and examining how perceptions of race and gender shape views of the past, present and future of multicultural Britain and the identities within it.

Knowledge and Understanding:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how historians have interpreted migration as an aspect of the history of British society.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of methods of historical analysis such as political, military, social, economic, colonial and post-colonial history.
• Show understanding of how to analyse a range of sources and source types to obtain information about the history of British society.
• Demonstrate the ability to work with the underlying concepts and principles associated with the study of historical records, and show an understanding of the analysis of such material.
• Demonstrate the ability to use information from class and independent research to construct an academically-sound argument.

Academic Skills:

• engage critically with both literary and historical evidence.
• assimilate and understand the arguments of modern scholars.
• offer their own interpretations of the past based on a synthesis of the evidence and ideas provided by historical sources and modern interpretations.
• engage critically with modern attitudes and assumptions about the past.

The module will be delivered through nine 2-hour sessions, initially on weekday evenings from 7-9pm. These sessions will consist of a 1-hour lecture followed by class discussion and group work on specific topics relating to the module. The discussion and group work will enable students to think critically and contribute to the debates and topics presented during the lectures. The discussion-led sessions and the lectures will be supplemented by resources available to students via Learning Central.

• The ability to communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in class discussion or in written form.
• The ability to work effectively with others in groups and to learn collaboratively through discussion and interaction.
• The ability to think critically, analyse sources, evaluate arguments, and challenge assumptions.
• The ability to formulate and justify arguments and conclusions and present appropriate supporting evidence.
• The ability to locate relevant resources in the library and online and use them appropriately in academic work.
• The ability to use a range of information technology resources to assist with information retrieval and assignment presentation.
• The ability to independently organise study methods, manage time effectively, and prioritise workload.

Type of assessment % Contribution Title Duration (if applicable) Approx. date of Assessment

Assignment 1: source analysis  30%   From a selection of sources discussed in class: exact nature of the task will vary from year to year 500-600 words End of week 5

Assignment 2: essay  70% From a selection of questions, exact nature of task will vary from year to year 1000-1200 words End of course

The opportunity for reassessment in this module

Students who fail one or both assessment elements will be given the opportunity to re-submit coursework in response to different titles over the summer once the Exploring the Past exam board has met.

1. Introduction and course overview
2. Migrations to medieval Britain
3. Migration and early modern Britain
4. Empire & its impact on the writing of history
5. Empire & its legacy: Britain’s Asian community
6. Empire & its legacy: Britain’s African community
7. Multicultural Britain and war
8. The Windrush Generation and the later 20^th century
9. Non-traditional narratives and the modern writing of multicultural history

Essential Reading

D. Dabydeen, J. Gilmore and C. Jones (eds), The Oxford Companion to Black British History (Oxford, 2007)

J.T. Davidann and M.J. Gilbert, Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History, 1543-Present (London, 2019)

T.M. Endelman, The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000 (Berkeley and London, 2002)

P. Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (London, 1982)

Our Migration Story: https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/

P. Panayi, An Immigration History of Britain: Multicultural Racism Since 1800 (Harlow, 2010)

Recommended Reading

R. Ahmed and S. Mukherjee (eds), South Asian Resistances in Britain, 1858–1947 (London and New York, 2011)

J. Bailkin, The Afterlife of Empire (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 2012)

S. Bourne, The Motherland Calls: Britain’s Black Servicemen and Women 1939–45 (Stroud, 2012)

S. Das (ed.), Race, Empire and First World War Writing (Cambridge, 2011)

M. Dresser and P. Fleming, Bristol: Ethnic Minorities and the City 1000-2001 (Chichester, 2007)

U. Erel, Migrant Women Transforming Citizenship : Life-Stories from Britain and Germany (Abingdon and New York, 2009)

M. Harper and S. Constantine, Migration and Empire (Oxford, 2010)

S. Howe (ed.), The New Imperial Histories Reader (Abingdon and New York, 2010)

T. Kushner, The Battle of Britishness: Migrant Journeys, 1685 to the Present (Manchester, 2012)

T. Kushner, ‘Alienated Memories: Migrants and the Silences of the Archives’, in Memory and History: Understanding Memory as Source and Subject, ed. J. Tumblety (London, 2013), pp. 177-93

Onyeka Nubia, Blackamoores: Black Africans in Tudor England their Presence, Status and Origins (2013)

P. Panayi, Immigration, Ethnicity and Racism in Britain 1815-1945 (Manchester, 1994)

C. Parry-Jones, The Jews of Wales: A History (Cardiff, 2017)

E. Smith and M. Marmo, Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control: Subject to Examination (Basingstoke, 2014)

R. Visram, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London, 2002)

B. Taylor, Another Darkness, Another Dawn: A History of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers (London, 2014)

E. Wasson, A History of Modern Britain: 1714 to the Present, 2^nd edn (Chichester, 2016)

Additional material for inclusion in module handbook

(a) Medieval and Early Modern Periods:

R. Gwynn, Huguenot Heritage: The History and Contribution of the Huguenots in Britain (London, 1985)

N. Higham and M. J. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World (New Haven and London, 2013) (esp. chapters 1-3)

S. McSheffrey, ‘Evil May Day, 1517: Prosecuting Anti-Immigrant Rioters in Tudor London’, Legal History Miscellany: Posts on the History of Law, Crime and Justice [https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2017/04/30/evil-may-day-1517/]

P. Panayi, Germans in Britain Since 1500 (London and Rio Grande, 1996)

H.G. Richardson, The English Jewry Under Angevin Kings (London, 1960)

C. Roth, History of the Jews in England (Oxford, 1941)

J. Selwood, ‘Jewish Immigration, Anti-Semitism and the Diversity of Early Modern London’, Jewish Culture and History, 10 (2007), 1-22

A.T. Vaughan, Transatlantic Encounters:  American Indians in Britain, 1550-1776 (Cambridge, 2006)

(b) Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century:

L. Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 (New Haven and London, 1992)

D. Feldman, Englishmen and Jews: Social Relations and Political Culture: 1840-1914 (New Haven and London, 1994)

C.J. Jones, Immigration and Social Policy in Britain (London, 1977).

P. Knepper, ‘“Jewish trafficking” and London Jews in the Age of Migration’, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 6 (2007), 239-56

A. Lentin and G. Titley, The Crisis of Multiculturalism: racism in a neo-liberal age (London and New York, 2011)

K. Lunn (ed.), Hosts, Immigrants and Minorities: Historical Responses to Newcomers in British Society 1870-1914 (Folkestone, 1980)

S.L. Tananbaum, ‘Making Good Little English Children: Infant Welfare and Anglicization Among Jewish Immigrants in London, 1880-1939’, Immigrants and Migration, 12 (1993), 176-99

R. Visram, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: The Story of Indians in Britain, 1700-1947 (London, 2015)

(c) Twentieth and twenty-first centuries:

S. Allen, New Minorities, Old Conflicts: Asian and West Indian Migrants in Britain (London, 1971)

E. Bar-Yosef and N. Valman (eds.), The Jew in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Culture: Between the East End and East Africa (Basingstoke and New York, 2009)

B. Bebber, ‘“We Were Just Unwanted”: Bussing, Migrant Dispersal, and South Asians in London’, Journal of Social History, 48 (2015), 635-661

M. Berghahn, Continental Britons: German-Jewish Refugees From Nazi Germany, rev. edn. (New York and Oxford, 2007)

G.G. Betts, The Twilight of Britain: Cultural Nationalism, Multi-Culturalism and the Politics of Toleration (New Brunswick, NJ, 2001)

J. Black, ‘Celebrating British Multiculturalism, Lamenting England/Britain’s Past’, Nations and Nationalism, 22 (2016), 786-802

L. Bland, ‘White Women and Men of Colour: Miscegenation Fears in Britain after the Great War’, Gender & History, 17:1 (2005), 29–61

C. Brown, ‘Moving On: Reflections on Oral History and Migrant Communities in Britain’, Oral History, 34 (2006), 69-80

E. Buettner, ‘“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain’, Journal of Modern History, 80 (2008), 865-901

E. Buettner, ‘“This is Staffordshire not Alabama”: Racial Geographies of Commonwealth Immigration in Early 1960s Britain’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 42 (2014), 710-40

A. Dawson, Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain (Ann Arbor, MI, 2007)

F. Fuhg, ‘Ambivalent Relationships: London’s Youth Culture and the Making of the Multi-Racial Society in the 1960s’, Britain and the World, 11 (2018), 4-26

B. Gainer, The Alien Invasion: The Origins of the Aliens Act of 1905 (London, 1972)

P. Gilroy, After Empire: Melancholia or Convivial Culture? (London and New York, 2004)

D. Glover, Literature, Immigration and Diaspora in Fin-de-siècle England: A Cultural History of the 1905 Aliens Act (Cambridge, 2012)

R.A. Hansen, Citizenship and Immigration in Post-War Britain: The Institutional Origins of a Multicultural Nation (Oxford, 2000)

G. Hirschfeld (ed.), Exile in Great Britain: Refugees from Hitler’s Germany (Leamington Spa, 1984)

C. Holmes, ‘The Tredegar Riots of 1911: Anti-Jewish Disturbances in South Wales’, Welsh History Review, 11 (1982), 214-25

C. Holmes, John Bull's Island: Immigration and British Society 1871-1971 (Basingstoke, 1988)

J. Jenkinson, Black 1919: Riots, Racism and Resistance in Imperial Britain (Liverpool, 2009)

H. Jones, Y. Gunaratnam, G. Bhattacharaya, W. Davies, S. Dhaliwal, K. Fokert, E. Jackson, and R. Saltus, Go Home? The Politics of Immigration Controversies (Manchester, 2017)

T. Kushner, ‘Memory at the Margins: Matter out of Place: Hidden Narratives of Jewish Settlement and Movement in Britain’, Jewish Culture and History, 9 (2006), 177-93

M. Matera, Black London: The Imperial Metropolis and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century (Oakland, CA, 2015)

H.S. Mirza (ed.), Black British Feminism: A Reader (London and New York: 1997)

S. Nasta and F. Stadtler, Asian Britain: A Photographic History (London, 2013)

R. Natarajan, ‘Performing Multiculturalism: The Commonwealth Arts Festival of 1965’, Journal of British Studies, 53 (2014), 705-33

P. Panayi, ‘Immigration, Multiculturalism and Racism’, in Twentieth-Century Britain: Economic, Cultural and Social Change, ed. J-M. Strange and F. Carnevall (Harlow, 2007), pp. 247-61

K. Paul, Whitewashing Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Post-War Era (Ithaca, NY and London, 1997)

M. Phillips and T. Phillips, Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (London, 1998)

S. Rose, Which People’s War? National Identity and Citizenship in Britain (Oxford, 2003)

E. Smith and M. Marmo, ‘The Myth of Sovereignty: British Immigration Control in Policy and Practice in the Nineteen-Seventies’, Historical Research, 87 (2014), 344-369

R. Smith, ‘The Multicultural First World War: Memories of the West Indian Contribution in Contemporary Britain’, Journal of European Studies, 45 (2015), 347-63

S. L. Tananbaum, Jewish Immigrants in London, 1850-1939 (London and New York, 2014)

Online resources:

The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave Related by Herself with a Supplement by the Editor to Which Is Added the Narrative of Asa-Asa, a Captured African (1831) [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RTJcAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA40&dq=history+of+mary+prince&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false]

Black British History : https://blackbritishhistory.co.uk/

British Library: Asians in Britain: https://www.bl.uk/asians-in-britain

England’s Immigrants 1350-1550 : https://www.englandsimmigrants.com/

Gersum Project ; The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary: https://www.gersum.org/

Historical Association: South Asian British History 1600-1800: https://www.history.org.uk/podcasts/categories/849/podcast/55/south-asian-british-history-1600-1800

People of Colour In European Art History: http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/