Academic Lead – Professor Richard Phillips (University of Sheffield) The network investigates the ways in which multiculturalism – as a set of ideas and ideals, practices and policies – is being reshaped by those who are most affected by it: cultural minorities. It examines the experiences and perspectives of overlapping and intersecting groups, which are defined around combinations of ethnic, linguistic and religious identity. These issues are investigated through three sets of cultural practices, through which minority groups are working through problems and challenges associated with multiculturalism.
The project involves a multi-disciplinary team from across York, Leeds and Sheffield Universities: cultural geographers. (Richard Phillips and Peter Jackson, The University of Sheffield), a literature specialist affiliated to the Centre for Modern Studies at York (Claire Chambers), political scientists (Baroness Haleh Afshar and Matthew Festenstein York) and sociologists (Paul Bagguley and Yasmin Hussain, Leeds).
This network is awarded as part of the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership in Social Science
Network Projects
Memory and Empathy in Northern Ireland’s Post-Conflict Museums and Memorial Sites. (working title)
Student: Katie Markham
This project investigates the role that museums and memorial sites in Northern Ireland play in shaping relationships between post-conflict communities in Belfast and Derry. In doing so it aims to unite a disparate literature on empathy, and explore the limits of this in relation to difficult memories
Multiculturalism, Culture and Controversy: literary representations of Muslims in contemporary multicultural Britain.
Student: Hannah Charlotte Kershaw (University of York)
This project explores how contemporary British literature approaches Muslim experiences of multiculturalism in Britain. I hope to discover a variety of insights and representations of multiculturalism through looking at a variety of British authors and their narratives of integration, segregation, cultural sensitivity and issues of gender.
The construction of Black British Muslim Women’s identities through clothing practices
Student: Azeezat Johnson
This project focuses on the clothing practices of Black British Muslim Women. By understanding how Black British Muslim Women perform shifting identities through their clothing choices and presentations of self in different spaces, this project moves away from the headscarf debate and advances literature on the relationship between performances and agency whilst troubling rigid understandings of supposedly separate identity categories.
This network holds seminars that are open to others, and if you are interested in attending, please contact Richard Phillips
