Location
University of Winchester
Speakers: Dr Anna Maguire (UCL) in conversation with Dr Emily Stiles (University of Winchester), Dr Xavier Guégan (University of Winchester) and Dr Graciela Iglesias-Rogers (University of Winchester)
Few topics generate so much heated debate than that of migration. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, we are currently experiencing the largest increase of international migration on record, with this trend set to continue as the world faces increasing pressures from climate change, warfare, and demographic growth.
This hybrid event will focus on the UK reaction to the phenomenon from a historical perspective, opening with a talk by Dr Anna Maguire (UCL) who will question the role played by Britain as a sanctuary, particularly during the period 1951-2000. She argues that claims to a proud tradition are politically useful, either to leverage for more intervention – through aid, entry or resettlement support – or to further restrict access to preserve sanctuary only for ‘genuine’ refugees. This ‘invented tradition’, through its connections to the distant past, is partial at best. Even in prime examples like the Kindertransport, the limits of what the state has offered to refugees are swiftly demonstrated. She will explore the processes which have supported refugee, migrant and asylum seeker arrivals, settlement and rights in the UK in the second half of the twentieth century beyond ideas of sanctuary as a fixed space to which only the Home Office can grant access. Her talk will open a wider conversation with three leading members of the MHRC who have also been investigating the subject from different perspectives.
Dr Anna Maguire is Lecturer in Public History at University College London (UCL). She is a historian of migration, war and empire in twentieth century Britain and the British Empire. She is currently working on a history of sanctuary for refugees in Britain from 1950 to 2000. She is also interested in history education and co-production and collaborative public history approaches.
Dr Emily Stiles is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Winchester where she specialises in the history and representation of forced migration. She is a member of the University’s Forced Migration Network and is collaborating with Winchester City of Sanctuary to create a series of exhibitions on the theme of forced migration.
Dr Xavier Guégan is Senior Lecturer in Colonial and Postcolonial History at the University of Winchester. His area of expertise is South Asian history under British colonial rule and North African history under French colonial rule, including imperial culture and ideologies, as well as on violence and anti-colonial resistance. He is on the editorial board (Book Review Editor) of Britain and the World, an academic journal published by Edinburgh University Press, which focusses on Britain’s relations with the wider world since the seventeenth century.
Dr Graciela Iglesias-Rogers is Senior Lecturer in Modern European and Global Hispanic History and leading convener of the Modern History Research Centre (MHRC) at the University of Winchester. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Principal Investigator in the international research network ‘The Hispanic Anglosphere: Transnational networks and global communities (18th – 20th centuries)’ in partnership with The National Trust (Tyntesfield) and the Centre of American Studies of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, a project funded by the AHRC and the University of Winchester.
Chair: Prof. Chris Aldous, co-convener of the MHRC (University of Winchester).
Everybody is welcome. Book your tickets at https://store.winchester.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/faculty-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/school-of-history-archaeology-and-philosophy/migration-why-it-matters (including for accessing the Teams link).
Tickets are FREE for all members of the University of Winchester (please register with your university email address) and MHRC subscribers (information on how to subscribe here). Otherwise, Individual entry cost £6 and £3 for concession.
More information available here: https://www.winchester.ac.uk/research/Our-impactful-research/Research-in-Humanities-and-Social-Sciences/Research-centres-groups-and-networks/Modern-History-Research-Centre/