Module Directory

The module will examine how 'race' became a defining concept for understanding British society, how mass immigration transformed concept of Britishness, and how Black, Asian and other ethnic minorities had to fight in order to exercise their rights as British citizens.

The module will also examine the history of Europeans in Britain throughout the twentieth century, from anxieties about Jewish immigration in the 1900s, to uncertain welcome afforded to refugees and migrant workers in the 1930s and 1940s, and finally to contemporary debates about the EU and 'Brexit'.

The aims of this module are:

• To introduce students to the history of multicultural Britain, highlighting that British history cannot be understood as an exclusively ‘white’ phenomenon.


• To build confidence in understanding concepts of ‘race’, citizenship, and belonging, and how they are used to analyse the past.


• To explore the history of multicultural Britain in ways which emphasis how the concept of ‘race’ intersected with ideas of class, gender, and sexuality.


• To understand that the history of multicultural Britain, and of the people, who have lived in on this island, is as much about agency and achievement as it is about racism and the interactions between people and the power structures governing Britain.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Have an awareness of key issues concerning the history of multicultural Britain.


2. Have grown in confidence concerning the sophisticated use of key concepts in modern British history.


3. Have analysed suitable primary source material in a coherent and well-developed manner.


4. Have gained key discipline-specific skills in preparation for the final year research project.

Britain is a diverse, multicultural society. Yet traditional histories of Britain often ignore the fact that British society has been remade and its culture enriched by people from a wide variety of different cultures, communities and backgrounds.

This is a module that focuses on the agency and experience of the people in Multicultural Britain as much as on their interactions with power, while never downplaying the enormous impact of racism and xenophobia. It highlights the diverse range of cultural experiences which make up the fabric of British history.

Finally, it makes clear that understanding the history of multiculturalism also requires an understanding of its intersections with race, gender, and sexuality. Multiculturalism in Britain has not gone uncontested, but it is made Britain what it is today.

Syllabus

• Introduction: Britain, Race, and the Legacy of Empire.


• Undesirable Aliens: Intersections of Class and Race Before 1914.


• Marginal Lives? Sex, Violence and the perception of race in the 1920s and 1930s.


• A Tolerant Nation? Jewish Refugees, Colonial Troops, and Black GIs on the Home Front.


• From RAF Pilots to MigrantWorkers: Eastern Europeans in 1940s Britain.


• The Windrush Generation: Everyday Life in the 1950s.


• Racism and Power: Powellism and the New Right.


• Challenging Exploitation: Asian Women Workers and the Grunwick Strike.


• Essay Workshop.


• Brexit Britain: the Limits of Belonging in Multicultural Britain.

This module will be delivered via:

• Lectures.
• Seminars.

The learning and teaching methods acknowledge the different learning needs of students and are designed to enable all students to participate. Lectures will be available on Listen Again.