Postcolonial Birmingham Network

The University of Birmingham boasts an exceptional level of expertise in research linked to colonial and postcolonial studies, homed in a diverse range of departments, including Languages & Cultures, English Literature, History, West African Studies, Archaeology, American and Canadian Studies, Sociology, and Education.

The City and the University are together rooted in this tradition: Joseph Chamberlain, the first Chancellor of the University, was in his time a fervent advocate of the imperial cause, and the city’s unparalleled multi-cultural community is the direct legacy of the British Empire.

The Postcolonial Birmingham network aims to foster cooperation between specialists in colonial and postcolonial issues in the University and the West Midlands, to enhance academic teaching and research, and to exchange knowledge and understanding with wider communities in the Midlands and beyond.

Within the university, the network seeks to encourage the development of inter-disciplinary academic dialogue (especially through seminars and conferences), with a view to developing common research initiatives, and increased cooperation in postgraduate and undergraduate curriculum and course design.

Beyond the university, the Postcolonial Birmingham network provides a portal giving easy access to a range of experts in colonial and postcolonial studies. Researchers, research students, journalists, authors, librarians, teachers, and all non-academic specialists working in these areas, will find below a list of Birmingham scholars working on colonial and postcolonial topics, whom they can contact directly to seek and exchange information and ideas. The network also has its own mailing list through which requests for information, announcements, and calls for papers, can be circulated.

The Postcolonial Birmingham network works in close partnership with cognate research clusters in the University such as the French Studies FRANCOPOCO.