Race and Ethnicity

Understandings of race have changed throughout history – including conceptions of race as malleable and based on environmental factors, notions of scientific racism utilised to justify pseudoscientific racial hierarchies and eugenics, to a more recent general acceptance of race as a social construct. Some have adopted a position of racial eliminativism; an argument to discard the concept of race entirely, as discrete, essentialist, biological races have been proven not to exist. However, to describe race as a social construct is not to deny its social reality with significant consequences, and the issues of 鈥榥ot seeing colour鈥� have been well documented.

The idea that race is a social construct does not remove its analytical utility for historians. The influential scholar Stuart Hall described race as a 鈥榝loating signifier鈥�, whose meaning is never fixed but is dependent upon cultural context. Differing understandings of race have, unsurprisingly, impacted on how history has been written and can tell us much about the societies and periods producing them. Panikos Panayi highlighted how writing about race developed differently in different locations, for instance between the USA and Britain – where increased postwar immigration prompted social scientists in 1960s Britain to turn their attention towards so-called 鈥榬ace relations鈥�. This week will consider how the concept and study of race relates to power and identity, the intersections of race, class and gender, developments of critical race theory and whiteness studies, and raises key methodological questions such as approaches to the study of race that seek to avoid replicating oppression.

Lecture SlidesLink opens in a new window

Essential Reading

See Moodle for links to readings.

Miles Rosenberg, 鈥楻ace, Ethnicity and History鈥� in Stefan Berger, Heiko Feldner and Kevin Passmore (eds), Writing History: Theory and Practice, 2nd edition (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010), pp. 313-29.
Caroline Bressey, 鈥楩orgotten Histories: Three Stories of Black Girls from Barnardo鈥檚 Victorian Archive鈥�, Women鈥檚 History Review, 11:3 (2002), 351-74.
Deborah Cohen, 鈥榃ho Was Who? Race and Jews in Turn-of-the-Century Britain鈥�, Journal of British Studies, 41:4 (2002), 460-83.
Harry Garuba, 鈥楻ace in Africa: Four Epigraphs and a Commentary鈥�, PMLA, 123:5 (2008), 1640-8

Overview: CWHT, ch. 22.

Truffle Hunt

As demonstrated by the readings for this seminar, histories of race or racialised people have often been characterised as 鈥榝orgotten history鈥� – but how and why have these histories been 鈥榝orgotten鈥�, and by who? It has frequently been suggested that existing sources need to be 鈥榬ead against the grain鈥�, in order to identify who is recording these histories and to locate the gaps and silences: from whose perspective has the source been produced? Whose voices are not present? What does this suggest about how the past is being constructed, and by who? (For an exploration of these questions, see for instance: Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995).)

The University of 海角社区 holds the collections of both the Sivanandan Collection of the Institute of Race Relations and the Collection of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations. This is an invaluable resource for the study of race and ethnic relations, spanning the mid-1960s to the present with a UK and international focus. The collections provide access to pamphlets and reports, periodicals, newspaper titles and press cuttings. Most of the holdings are in the University Library catalogue and can be searched for by selecting 鈥楢dvanced Search鈥� and choosing 鈥楨thnicity & Migration鈥� or 鈥楽ivanandan Collection鈥� in the Collection field under the 鈥極ptions for Catalogue tab鈥� section.

Oral history interviews have been of great significance and importance for the study of race. For instance, the understanding and use of oral traditions in African historiography has questioned 鈥榯he misconception of [western] historians to equate documentary materials with history and absence of these definitely means no history鈥� (Monsuru Babatunde Muraina). As with all methodologies, oral history is not without its issues – but it can be a uniquely productive way to engage with oral traditions and to attempt to counteract the inequities of written historical records. There are many collections of oral history interviews that you can engage with, as well as potentially undertaking your own oral history research. An interesting reflection on a researcher鈥檚 involvement with the Black Cultural Archives鈥� oral history project on the Black Women鈥檚 Movement can be found here:

Most general primary source collections can be searched to find relevant sources, for instance through newspaper or media archives, governmental records or parliamentary papers, research projects such as Mass Observation, etc. etc. There are also various specialised archives or collections, including:

The Black Cultural Archives, the only national heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain:
海角社区鈥檚 Modern Record Centre holds a number of documents (many digitised) relating to migration, policing, employment, community activism, etc.: /services/library/mrc/studying/docs/race/; /services/library/mrc/studying/docs/rem/
鈥楲egacies of British Slave-Ownership鈥�, a database of claims for compensation (by former enslavers for a loss of income) following the abolition of slavery in 1830s:
鈥楤orn in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers鈥� Project, 1946 to 1938鈥�, contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts and 500 photographs of formerly enslaved people:
鈥楤lack Presence: Asian and Black History in Britain, 1500-1850鈥�, collection from The National Archives:
鈥楤lack and Asian History and Victorian Britain: Early Photographs in the Royal Collection鈥�, the Royal Collection Trust oversees the British royal family鈥檚 private art collection – the largest in the world:
Loomba, Ania, and Jonathan Burton (eds), Race in Early Modern England: A Documentary Companion (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
Mintz, Steven (ed.), African American Voices: A Documentary Reader, 1619-1877 (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
Panayi, Panikos, The Impact of Immigration: A Documentary History of the Effects and Experiences of Immigrants in Britain since 1945 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999)

海角社区

Department of History