Mixed Relationships - Racialised Boundaries

Project timeframe
2 October 2023 - 2 October 2024
Theme
Dimensions of Inequality
Amount awarded
39,084
Funder ID
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Project leader: Dr Iris Wigger

This AHRC Networking project will foster collaboration in our new international research network on 'Mixed relationships and racialised boundaries in Europe' 1920s-present. Our diverse interdisciplinary team is working with the support of our project partner Runnymede Trust and the Mixed-Museum, London, on a research programme, that is novel in its international, intersectional and postcolonial, anti-racist perspective and will generate substantial knowledge on and community-centred, creative and digital engagement with the complex histories, negotiated identities, lived experiences and cultural representations of black and white mixed-heritage families in Europe.

Key aims of our Research Network and current Project are:

1. To develop an interactive, communicative research programme to actively engage with people of mixed-heritage and their communities, drive knowledge exchange, and organise creative activities, that benefit them.

2. To use creative/digital methods that enable us to share and communicate Mixed-heritage experiences and research insights beyond the academic realm with the support of Runnymede and other NGO partners (Website, new Runnymede Blog) and to generate broader public and cultural impact from our research. This will be part of a wider discussion of new creative and digital methods and strategies in our network to highlight and transmit marginalised histories of black/white mixed-heritage relationships and raise broader public awareness.

3. To work on a large follow-on AHRC Research Grant application with the 4 overarching project aims to:

    • Gain an original, historically grounded insight into the complex histories and shifting experiences and identities of black/white mixed-heritage families in European history (focus on UK, Norway/Sweden, Germany, Poland and Italy).
    • Explore the role of intersecting markers of identity and difference in the identity constructions of mixed-heritage families and different generations (Life-history interviews with families).
    • Investigate the role of digital media as a space for mixed-heritage peoples' self-representations - that can be mobilised to generate (counter-)-narratives, challenge stereotypical perceptions and provide a sense of belonging and support (digital methods).
    • Examine media representations and public discourses about interracial relationships in a postcolonial perspective to capture the historical legacy of racist/eugenic stereotypes, identify their contemporary repercussions and contribute to Decolonisation (Archival work/historiographic rhetorical analysis).

Current members of the Mixed-relationships – Racialised boundaries Network:

Iris Wigger, LU; David Herbert (Project Co-Lead), Uni Bergen; Elizabeth Mavroudi, LU; Margaret Byron, Uni Leicester; Line Nyhagen, LU; Paul Weindling, Oxford Brookes Uni; Karis Campion, City University, London; Lucy Bland, Anglia Ruskin University; Elena Zambelli, Uni Lancaster; Chamion Caballero, Director The Mixed-Museum, London; Bolaji Balogun, Uni Sheffield; Tony Sandset, Uni Oslo; Tracey O. Patton, Univ. of Wyoming; Marcus Collins, LU ; Sayaka Osanami Törngren, Malmö University; James Esson, Queen Mary Uni; Rebecca Chiyoko King O’Riain, Maynooth Uni; Denise Coles, LU; Rhianna Garrett, LU; Alex Yendell, Uni Leipzig

Current Project Partners: