RESEARCH GROUPS
Writing British Asian Cities
Convenors: Dr Seán McLoughlin, Dr William Gould, Dr Ananya Kabir, and Dr Emma Tomalin (all from the University of Leeds)
This research group began its life as a network funded between 2006 and 2009 under the AHRC’s ‘Diasporas, Migration and Identities’ programme.
It is a multi and interdisciplinary network, with an emphasis upon the existing and potential contributions of the Arts and Humanities and the Social Sciences towards understanding the local, regional and transnational diversity of Asian Britain and how this has changed over time. The network has sought to achieve this by reflecting comparatively upon the dynamics of five distinctive ‘British-Asian’ cities (Birmingham, Bradford, Leicester, Manchester and London's East End) and the way they have been ‘written’ and represented from the 1960s to the 2000s. We have begun to evaluate the contributions of various genres of ‘writing’ from ethnography to local and oral history, as well as literary and cultural production, the media and official reports. The network is also interested in the distinctive contributions of, and interactions between, differently located ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, seeking especially to interact with, and be challenged by, those active and / or working in civil society and the ‘cultural’ and ‘community’ sectors.
Future activities
The first phase of the network has now been completed and key outputs include an edited volume (forthcoming 2010) and an interactive website which hosts reports of events held in the five cities, as well as a series of working papers and other resources (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/writingbritishasiancities/). The convenors are now seeking to advertise the activities of the network to more scholars working in this area and to expand its original focus. We seek participation from senior, new and postgraduate scholars researching and aim to organise an annual meeting:
- the dynamics of British-Asian cities/towns/spaces (not limited to those listed above) and how they have been written about and represented since the 1960s, e.g. other British-Asian Londons, the Pakistani Muslim North
- how these issues play out in respect of non-UK cities of South Asian diasporas e.g. in East Africa, Europe and North America
- silences in the representation of the cities of the South Asian diaspora, e.g. in terms of gender and vernacular languages
- other forms of writing and representation
We welcome approaches for joint funding bids to extend the network.
Other active members
- Aki Nawaz (Nation Records)
- Irna Qureshi (oral historian and writer)
- Pippa Virdee (De Montfort University)
- John Eade (Roehampton University)
- John Zavos (University of Manchester)
- Virinder Kalra (University of Manchester)
- Richard Gale (University of Birmingham)
- Shailaja Fennel (Cambridge University)
- Jasjit Singh (University of Leeds).
For further details, please contact Dr Seán McLoughlin at S.McLoughlin@leeds.ac.uk