Thursday, September 02, 2010

The Impact of Diasporas on the Making of Britain: Evidence, Memories, Inventions

What constitutes ‘Britishness’ is turning out to be more complicated than many people previously believed. An innovative multidisciplinary research programme led by the University of Leicester is set to investigate its many dimensions and components.

The University is to receive a £1.37 million Research Programme Award granted by the Leverhulme Trust, over five years, to carry out a major study on The Impact of Diasporas on the Making of Britain: Evidence, Memories, Inventions. This wide-ranging project will investigate the impact of the movement of people in the distant past on the cultural, linguistic and population history of the British Isles. It will also examine the influence of ancient diasporas – remembered or suppressed, perhaps exaggerated or even invented – on the construction of British identities, past and present.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net