Welcome to Diasporas, migration & identities

Findings and Achievements

Networks and Workshops

Professor Humayn Ansari
Professor Desmond Bell
Dr Daniela Berghahn
Dr Gideon Calder
Professor Helen Gilbert
Dr Encarncion Gutierrez Rodriguez
Professor Peter Heather
Dr Jerry Hunter
Professor Judith Jesch
Dr Seán McLoughlin
Dr Maggie O'Neill
Dr Loredana Polezzi
Dr Maruska Svasek
Ms Carol Tulloch

Forum for the comparative study of Jews and Muslims in Britain, Europe and North America
Professor Humayun Ansari
Co-Investigator: Professor David Cesarani

Findings and Achievements

The primary aim of the forum was to facilitate improved understanding about the experiences of Muslims and Jews living as members of minority faith groups in western societies, often as part of migrant or diasporic communities.
The workshops brought together academics researching Jewish and Muslim studies and practitioners of inter-faith development which resulted in the level of challenging and constructive dialogue required in order to change the way in which diasporas, migration and identities are understood. Academics from the UK, USA and Europe presented their research, both historical and contemporary, on these two important minority faith groups
By organising workshops that brought these various specialists together, the main objective of this initiative was to achieve a better understanding of contemporary Muslim-Jewish relations, and create a solid basis or framework of interaction on which future dialogue can take place
Activities included a two-day workshop with papers presented by academics working in the field in relation to Britain, Europe and North America, and a one-day workshop for practitioners, representatives of inter-faith organisations and community leaders
Outputs include an edited book of academic papers to allow a wider scholarly engagement with the subject and to help establish the field of comparative Muslim-Jewish studies, and a website constructed in order to provide information concerning Muslim-Jewish interfaith activities as well as academic initiatives in the field (http://www.rhul.ac.uk/History/Research/CSJM06/ )

Early cinema and the diasporic imagination: the Irish in America 1890-1930
Professor Desmond Bell
Co-Investigators: Professor Martin McLoone, Dr Lance Pettit

Findings and Achievements

The birth and early development of cinema in America coincided with the period of greatest immigration into the US. The movies were made by and for the new “Americans”. This network explored the relationship of the Irish in America to the silent screen 1895-1919
The project was successful in creating a lively international research forum to facilitate collaboration and innovative practice around the research themes
Collaboration with the Motion Picture Division of the Library of Congress has enabled a range of never-before-seen images to be shown to an Irish audience via exhibition activity and website. These elements have significantly enhanced the knowledge transfer aspect of the project, which will assist the development of early cinema studies in Ireland, which is an underdeveloped field to date. It has also facilitated successful dialogue with similar research initiatives
The project has made a significant contribution to raising public awareness about the relationship between Irish immigration and the history of the cinema. For the first time an Irish audience (and a wider web-based public) will be able to see an important range of early cinema material and to “read” this within a research informed, interpretative context
Two conferences were co-organised on Cinema and the Irish America in Boston and Dublin together with partners the Clinton Institute for American Studies at UCD and Boston College
An edited collection of papers emanates from these seminars, which explore a range of new research insights generated at the interface of Film Studies and Irish Studies. They systematically address the role of popular visual culture and film, in particular, in shaping the formation of a diasporic imagination on the part of the Irish in the US

Migrant and diasporic cinema in contemporary Europe
Dr Daniela Berghahn
Co-Investigator: Dr Claudia Sternberg

Findings and Achievements

The Network explored the evolution of migrant and diasporic cinema in contemporary Europe over the past twenty-five years. It was concerned with how films made by migrant and diasporic filmmakers as well as productions which represent migratory or diasporic experiences have shaped and modified our understanding of European identities
The question of how migrant and diasporic European cinema articulates difference across the axes of nation, race, gender, sexuality, religion, language and class was central to the research. The collaborative and comparative nature of the project has resulted in innovative findings which go far beyond existing studies limited to particular national cinemas
The research undertaken by the Network continues to have a major impact on film studies because migrant and diasporic European cinema is still an under-researched and under-theorised field. Despite the fact that transnationally mobile filmmakers have assumed a distinctive place in European film cultures, their significance for European cinema has so far not been analysed from a truly transnational vantage point. This provided the Network with the challenging opportunity to undertake some pioneering work
Two very successful international conferences were held, as well as a number of workshops and other events; further research collaborations have arisen from the Network, which have resulted in additional outputs, including conferences, public film screenings and Q&A sessions with filmmakers, website podcasts and a European film training and funding initiative
The Network has disseminated its work as widely as possible, targeting the academic and non-academic community. The website (www.migrantcinema.net) provides accessible information about all aspects of the research and activities. Members of the Network have contributed to the book arising from the project (European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe, Wallflower Press 2010). Further publications include a number of special issues of journals (e.g. Journal of South Asian Popular Culture; New Cinemas) and a significant number of journal articles
Members of the Network are continuing their research in this area by applying for funding from other sources and the AHRC and by building on links made during the lifespan of this project

Toleration and the Public Sphere
Dr Gideon Calder
Co-Investigators: Dr Jonathan Seglow, Dr Phillip Cole

Findings and Achievements:

This project aimed to explore the prospects for a productive and inclusive transformation of the public sphere in Britain and Europe, especially the legal and political dimensions of that transformation. It did so by involving participants from diverse backgrounds, both within and beyond academe, in the discussion of pressing, difficult issues concerning the negotiation of cultural difference and the contemporary meanings of ‘toleration’
Five one-day workshops were held during 2006, in London, Newport, Stirling, York and Belfast. Thus by holding workshops in a range of geographical contexts, each with themes related to their location, and with different voices represented each time, we sought to establish a distinctive forum for the exchange of ideas, in a way which emulated the overall theme of the workshop series itself.
More specifically, and with each seminar topic, a deeper sense of how different factors, themes and issues are perceived and ‘pan out’ from diverse angles. The broad range of backgrounds and experiences among participants has provided genuine insights into the different preoccupations and frameworks that inform the actions and expectations of various 'stakeholders' in this important area, and highlighted the complex relationship between competing values, discourses and priorities.
The whole nature of the project has been inter-disciplinary both in design and execution; this has been a key part of its success.
Written outputs have included pieces in the press and in mainstream periodicals, a book, Citizenship Acquisition and National Belonging, co-edited by three of the workshop chairs (published in 2009 by Palgrave), and a symposium in the philosophy journal Res Publica.
Five participants in this series (Calder, Cole, De Wispelaere, McBride, Seglow) have since made a successful bid for a related, consolidating project under the Religion and Society networks scheme – entitled ‘Religion, Justice and Well-Being: the normative foundations of public policy in a multi-faith society’. This will commence with a workshop at University of Wales, Newport in April 2008.

Performance and asylum: embodiment, ethics, community
Professor Helen Gilbert

Findings and Achievements

This transnational network examined issues concerning refugees and asylum seekers in specific parts of the world. The main objective was to develop new and critically robust frameworks for analysing a range of different performances by and about asylum seekers and refugees. When the network started in 2006 this was an under-researched field
This project has been important in advancing the quality, rigour and amount of available and on-going research in the field of refugee and asylum seeker arts practice specifically and in the broader fields of refugee studies and performance studies. The network’s investigation of performance adds an unusual and important perspective to the more sociological, anthropological and political approaches
It has foregrounded two key issues that pertain to the broader field of performance studies but have not been well explored in this field, namely the issue of ethics, especially in post-traumatic situations that involve cross-cultural work, and the issue of advocacy in performance practice.
A highlight of the research has been the enthusiastic participation of early-career researchers, with a number of PhD projects benefiting from the network
There have been various conference panels in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia at meetings of national and international scholarly bodies; conference keynote in Denmark and invited lectures in Dublin and Amsterdam. Special issue of refereed online publication: Performance Paradigm
Edited, peer-reviewed, special issue of Research in Theatre Education (Vol 13, issue 2) containing 16 essays by early-career and established researchers. The network has also informed the practice of refugee theatre companies. The network website: http://www.cameronius.com/helen/refugee-network/ has a substantial resources section that a number of researchers have found useful.

Migration and diaspora cultural studies networks (MDCSN)
Dr Encarnacion Gutierrez Rodriguez
Co-Investigator: Professsor Margaret Littler

Findings and Achievements

This project was a collaborative framework for academic research into the cultural transformations brought about by the global movement of peoples, languages, objects, images, sounds, beliefs and ideas. It contributes to a developing body of theory and method, and promotes international comparative research, based in the UK and beyond, which reflects the interpenetration of Europe with the Latin American, African and Asian continents
Highlights of the network have been the three workshops held, the conference, monthly reading group and homepage. The workshops involved colleagues from many different disciplines and universities in this country and abroad
The network has contributed to developing a distinctive new research area by drawing on existing and new research on migration and diaspora from a cultural studies perspective by establishing the Migration and Diaspora Cultural Studies Network in the North West at the University of Manchester
MDCSN has become a renowned hub for attracting postgraduate students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines
It contributes to a developing body of theory and method, by interrogating through comparative international research, topics such as “queer diasporas”, “border theory”, conceptualizing “cultural encounters” through creolisation, transculturation, mestizaje, hybridity, lusotropicalism and minor literature
An interactive website was launched in February 2006. A journal special issue was published based on the first workshop, as well as a volume drawing on the second workshop, and a volume drawing on the workshops and the conference entitled “Creolising Europe” has been submitted for publication which includes the keynotes of speakers at the workshops and conference. This volume discusses creolisation in relation to migration and diaspora in Europe.

Migration in the first Millennium
Professor Peter Heather
Co-Investigator: Dr Helena Hamerow

Findings and Achievements

The workshop programme was designed to break new intellectual ground in attempting to find new approaches towards and around the impasse over migration which currently affects the history of first millennium Europe. The aim was a wide range of opinion both from within the UK but also from across Europe more broadly, where different intellectual traditions have responded to the challenge of the new paradigms in a wide variety of ways
A key aim of the workshops was to generate a fully informed interdisciplinary discussion between historians and archaeologists. Another aim was to reconsider any evidence for migration that might emerge from the technical types of discussion in the light of models and insights gained within the field of migration studies
The project was able to re-examine the four first-millennium case studies outlined in the original grant proposal, both with a more critical view of the available evidence, and with a heightened awareness of the way in which migration tends to work in better documented contexts
The workshops marked an important new beginning, bringing together a hugely diverse range of interested opinion to think about a major intellectual problem afresh. The discussions and insights reflected in the collected papers will mark an entirely new beginning in the way that migration in the first millennium is understood and approached
An edited book is a result of this project, which will mark a step-change in thinking about migration in the first millennium

Language, religion and print cultures in the Welsh diaspora
Dr Jerry Hunter
Co-Investigators: Professor Densil Morgan, Dr Margaret Deuchar

Findings and Achievements

This Network explored the formation of identity in the Welsh diaspora, focusing on the intersecting of language, print culture and religion in communities in North and South America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Network’s investigations have sought to identify, explore, define and contextualise ways in which immigrants and their descendants have employed a variety of linguistic, cultural and religious resources as part of the process of constructing and negotiating identity in the diaspora
The Network has brought together scholars from 15 different universities, a number of different nations and a range of academic disciplines. By means of four formal workshops and through informal communication, the largest and most diverse community of specialists ever brought together to discuss the experiences of the Welsh diaspora has been created. It will continue beyond the period of AHRC funding with institutional support from the School of Welsh, Bangor University
The wide range of expertise and experience has enabled the experiences of the Welsh diaspora to be contextualised in a number of ways. Collaborations on related research are also taking place with scholars who worked together through the Network
Discussions and communication between scholars involved in the Network has led to several applications to other bodies for further funding for research in this area
An edited volume will contain chapters by five of the research Network’s members and will present many subjects and themes first explored by them during meetings of the Network
Research Network discussions comparing Welsh-American communities with other language-based “ethnic” communities in the USA has led to a new television documentary project under the auspices of the Network PI

Viking Identities Network (VIN)
Professor Judish Jesch
Co-Investigators: Dr Jayne Carroll, Dr Christopher Callow

Findings and achievements

The main aim of the network was to establish a variety of fora in which the Scandinavian expansion of the Viking Age would be discussed in the light of theories of migration and diaspora.
These fora consisted of four academic seminars, two non-academic outreach events, and two sessions at international conferences, with participation in each, in varying degrees, by academic staff, postgraduate students, heritage professionals, and interested members of the general public. In particular, the events specifically encouraged interdisciplinary dialogue and brought together scholars who had previously not had contact.
These events and the VIN website (http://vin.nottingham.ac.uk) have brought the concept of the ‘Viking Diaspora’ into the public domain, and we find that this is now widely used in both academic and non-academic contexts, often with specific acknowledgement of VIN.
Participants in the network are generally agreed that the concept of ‘diaspora’ has brought new ideas and approaches into the study of the Viking Age, with particular impact on our understanding of the translation of cultures, and the significance of gender, in those migrations.
Questions of language and gender in the Viking migrations continue to be the focus of the follow-on British-Irish project Genes of Gallgoídil (see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~aezweb/conference/doku.php?id=genes:home).
VIN has reached an agreement with the journal Viking and Medieval Scandinavia (http://vms.asnc.cam.ac.uk/) to publish selected papers from the academic seminars and conference sessions in a dedicated section of the journal, over four issues – the first of these has already appear in VMS 4 (2008).

From Diaspora to Multi-Locality: Writing British Asian Cities
Dr Seán McLoughlin
Co-Investigators: Dr William Gould, Dr Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Dr Emma Tomalin

Findings and Achievements:

The purpose of the project was to investigate the local character of multiply configured British-Asian locations. Five meetings of academics and non-academics were held in restaurants and community centres in Bradford, London’s East End, Manchester, Leicester and Birmingham
The purpose of the meetings was to examine how each city space has been “written” about and represented by different constituencies in terms of different sorts of “texts”
An interactive website, www.leeds.ac.uk/writingbritishasiancities.ac.uk, has been set up which reports on discussions at the events and provides links to working papers on each city and other resources useful for learning and teaching. There is a web montage of local people speaking about British-Asian Bradford and Manchester prepared by oral historian, Irna Qureshi.
A two-day symposium was held in Leeds, March 2008, attended by other scholars working on South Asian diasporas in the UK. Panels were organised at other conferences.
The network has been accepted as one of the British Association of South Asian Studies’ research groups, the only one concerned with the UK diaspora. Annual meetings are planned. The network will be maintained electronically through a database of interested parties.
A journal article about the network has been published in Contemporary South Asia 17(4) 2009. An edited book is also to be published by Routledge reflecting research on the five cities and reflections on key cross-cutting themes including history, literary and cultural production, religion and gender.

Making the connections: the arts, migration and diaspora
Dr Maggie O’NeillFindings and Achievements
Co-Investigator: Dr Phil Hubbard

This Network examined the transformative role of arts and culture in fostering interaction, integration and belonging for new arrivals in the East Midlands at the levels of history, experience, theory and policy
The project has enabled the academic community to explore the potential of arts practice to articulate and otherwise represent the experiences of new arrivals in the UK, and has stimulated the production of new research proposals, academic paper presentations and collaborations between those working on questions of diaspora and migration in different disciplines. The Network has developed meaningful and perhaps unquantifiable connections between newly arrived groups, arts organisations and those within the academic community, producing new understandings of arrival and underlining that a participatory approach opens up debate and dialogue important to the generation of policy and practice
The inter-disciplinary project has significant potential impact for the research community in the areas of Cultural Studies, Sociology, Cultural Geography, Cultural Policy and Community Arts. It has advanced participatory action research methodology as well as partnerships and collaborations across the horizontal and vertical processes of social inclusion in the East Midlands region
Nine workshops and two conferences were held, and a website (www.makingtheconnections.info/) was created to disseminate the work of the Network. Over 400 people participated in the Network programme
A successful Knowledge Transfer Fellowship application was a direct outcome of relationships built through this Network. Other Network members have also submitted bids to the AHRC linked to their involvement in this Network
Conference papers have been presented at regional, national and international conferences, and two special editions ('Crossings: journal of migration and culture' and the 'Journal of Vocational Behaviour') are in process drawing upon work produced during them lifetime of the project and as a consequence of collaborations with colleagues at Loughborough University Business School (ESRC network on career and
migration) and the Dept English and Creative Writing at Lancaster (AHRC funded project Moving Manchester Mediating Marginalities)

Mobility and identity formation: an interdisciplinary approach to the “Italian case”
Dr Loredana Polezzi
Co-Investigator: Dr Jennifer Burns Findings and Achievements

The project comprised four half-day workshops and a closing two-day colloquium. The workshops adopted a multi- and interdisciplinary approach to mobility and identity, with the aim of creating a dynamic interchange of ideas, using the Italian experience and its particular complexity as a primary framework through which to examine and understand other comparable situations
As a result of the ongoing discussion among participants in the workshops (many of whom attended all events) what had been envisaged as a possible conceptual framework for the study of the nexus between mobility and identity turned into a “methodological toolkit” linking insights, theories and conceptualizations derived from the study areas
Mobility and migration is still an under-developed area of research which, significantly, is often fragmented into separate fields. This workshop series has brought together specialists from these different fields, highlighting the need for exchange and collaborative work aimed at producing an integrated picture of the impact of mobility on Italian identity
The importance of the project was to establish a more flexible and integrated approach which addresses the peculiarities of the Italian context while underlining points of contact with other historical and cultural experiences
Outcomes of the project include an interactive website; two chapters in an edited book and one article arising from the workshop series
Both project investigators have been invited to visit Italian, US and Australian institutions in connection with their work on mobility and identity. Further funding applications to continue this work are planned

Migration: emotions and human mobility
Dr Marŭska SvašekFindings and Achievements

The main aim of the project was to examine emotional aspects of human mobility, thus stimulating interdisciplinary debates about migration and diasporic identification processes which explicitly theorise “emotions”
Three workshops were held which focussed on the emotional dynamics of migration and migrant identification, and explored themes of emotions and belonging in transnational families, between migrants and members of local communities, and the emotional dimensions of migrant art and artefacts
The project engaged with public and community bodies in Northern Ireland through migrant speakers who represent migrant organisations, and through speakers involved in policy and policy-related research to share knowledge, and develop outcomes of mutual interest and benefit which will lead to future collaboration
High quality research has been stimulated and interdisciplinary collaboration encouraged. The workshops and publications created new theoretical tools to examine and understand an aspect of migration that has been under-researched (emotional dimensions of migration)
Outcomes of the project include a book, several journal articles and an art exhibition
Other applications for research funding in this area to further develop the project themes are ongoing

Dress and the African diaspora
Ms Carol TullochFindings and Achievements

The project addressed this under-researched area of study through a series of workshops, reading groups and an international conference, where established scholars, new researchers and fashion industry specialists could explore aspects of dress, textiles and beauty regimes across a range of historical periods, in Africa, Europe, the USA, the Caribbean and South America
The closed workshops were invaluable to debate the research connections between participants and to provide academic support
The network illustrated that the dress culture of people of African descent is rich in history and cultural significance, and integral to dress studies. It reiterated the creative knowledge and value of the subject of dress and the African diaspora to dress studies in general
The network has a lifespan beyond the funded period, creating conference panels, developing comparative studies with other diasporas, as well as continuing a reading group which will expand into other countries represented in the network project. Research relationships have been established between stylists/designers and academics
The international symposium highlighted new terms to unpack the idea of diaspora in general
Outcomes include a number of conference papers given at national and international conferences, a special edition on dress and the African diaspora for the journal “Fashion theory”, as well as other journal articles