Distant Britons?
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:17:00 GMT
Research into the ‘British World’
The University of Huddersfield is to be at the centre of a major new global network of leading historians researching outward British migration.
On Friday 27 January, some of the biggest names from this field participate in a workshop organised by the University’s Academy for British and Irish Studies to discuss the current state of research into the ‘British World’, as it is known, and to explore new areas for scholarly investigation.
Professor Paul Ward welcomed academics by noting that the people researching ‘distant Britons’ are as dispersed as the people under investigation, and that putting scholars in this field in touch, and defining key themes around which researchers might congregate, will help produce new insights into Britain’s overseas history.
Dr Liz Buettner from the University of York suggested that it is time for historians to turn their attention towards migration from Britain and the Empire to Europe, something that would help us understand our current relationship with the continent and the large number of British expatriates living there.
Organiser and Research Fellow, Dr Jodie Matthews (pictured), hopes that “this will be the beginning of fruitful intellectual exchanges between the University of Huddersfield and historians working all over the world on the subject of Brits abroad throughout history”.
The organisers were financially supported in organising the workshop by the University’s International Networking Fund, and are now seeking external funding to build on the work already completed.
Organiser Dr Jodie Matthews
