Annual conference of the Regional History Centre, UWE, Bristol
Identity and cultural diversity in British towns, 1000-2001.
Saturday 16th September 2006, St Matthias Campus, UWE, Bristol
How have host communities in British towns responded to the many kinds of minority social and cultural groups that have grown up within them or on their peripheries over the last 600 years? By what means and to what extent have those groups represented themselves as a community within a community, or as a community apart from mainstream ‘national’ culture? How complex are the points of intersection between one cultural experience and another; or the relationships between (for example) ethnicity, regionalism, and faith within a single urban centre? How have civic elites sought to contain, mould, govern and organise cultural diversity, and how have those communities responded? How have assumptions and arguments about the development of an over-arching ‘Britishness’ impacted upon other concepts of social identity amongst minority communities, or sought to resolve/accommodate difference? This conference explores the ways and means of ethnic, regional, sexual and religious acculturation in Britain in a comparative context and over the long duree.
Proposals of approximately 300 words are invited for 20 minute papers. Please send by e-mail attachment to Pat Diango, administrator, Regional History Centre ([email protected]); proposals to arrive by Monday 24th April 2006.
