Monday 23 August 2021

Online workshop on Transnational and Diaspora Politics and Activism

On 24-25 August, the Histories of Activism Research Group – in partnership with the Global and Transnational History Research Group - is hosting an online workshop that brings together 20 scholars conducting exciting new research on histories of transnational and diasporic political movements and activism. The topics explored at the workshop range from studies into pro- and anti-apartheid activism, to student and green politics, to black power and anti-colonial solidarities, to the politics of museum collecting, and much more. Please see below for the full programme.

Registration is free and open to all. It will take place on Microsoft Teams: links and further details will be shared with you once you register. To register, please visit the Eventbrite page here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/transnational-and-diaspora-politics-and-activism-workshop-tickets-162542169003 

The research presented at the workshop forms part of a body of scholarship, much of which has emerged only recently, that considers global and transnational dimensions to political movements and activist networks. Some of this explores various forms of international advocacy, civil rights campaigning, ‘long-distance nationalism’, anti-colonial struggles, sites of interaction and cooperation, and the transnational layers of connection and influence played by migrant and diaspora communities. This has been manifested in the realm of formal political processes, such as election campaigning and voting, as well as in numerous forms and hues of activism. Understanding these histories may have repercussions for how we make sense of transnationalism, citizenship, diaspora, sovereignty, cosmopolitanism, political ideology and praxis, and democracy itself.

The workshop has a particular (but not exclusive) focus on the 1970s. This decade - following the upheavals of the late-1960s - seemed to witness a number of significant expressions of transnational mobilisation, many of which have received little or no academic attention. By reflecting on the 1970s - in the context of decolonisation, the Cold War, evolving diaspora communities, and new forms of globalisation and transnational connectivity - we hope to explore concrete or theoretical ties between different episodes and movements during this important historical period.

For further details please email Dr Edward Anderson (Edward.anderson@northumbria.ac.uk).

 



 

Tuesday, 24 August 2021 

 

Panel One (10:00 - 12.30)

 

Transnational Solidarities and Racism in the Long 1970s

 

Chair: Liam Liburd (Durham University)  

 

JoAnn McGregor 

University of Sussex

Southern African Liberation Movements and Networks of Military Support: ZAPU’s Diplomatic Offensive in the Early 1970s

Benjamin Bland 

University of York 

‘Against All Reason’: British Anti-Racism and Transnational Opposition to Apartheid in the Long 1970s     

Evan Smith 

Flinders University

From Wellington and Sydney to Salisbury and Johannesburg: Anti-Communist and White Supremacist Solidarity between Australasia and Southern Africa, 1950s-1980s

Emily Sharp 

Northumbria University 

British Students and Transnational Solidarity Networks in the Long 1970s

 

Break (12:30-13:30)

 

Panel Two (13:30-15:30)

 

Long-distance Nationalisms and Diaspora Activism 

 

Chair: Virinder S. Kalra (University of Warwick)

 

Edward Anderson 

 

Patrick Clibbens 

Northumbria University

 

University of Cambridge

The Indian Emergency (1975-77) and Transnational Networks of Solidarity 

Pamela Pennock 

University of Michigan-Dearborn

Free Palestine, Free Ourselves: Arab Americans and Transnational Activism in the 1970s

Sharon M. Quinsaat 

Grinnell College

The Long Arm of the Dictator: Ferdinand Marcos and the Transnational Repression of Overseas Filipinos

 

Wednesday, 25 August 2021 

 

Panel Three (10:00 - 12:00)

 

Transnationalism, the State and Non-State Actors

 

Chair: Daniel Laqua (Northumbria University)

 

Priya Swamy

 

Sarah Johnson 

Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen

The (a)politics of Representation: The Dutch Ethnographic Museum and Afghan Collections 1970-1990

Ian Sanjay Patel 

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

'A Diplomatic Offensive': State Mobilisation During the 1972 Uganda Expulsion

Kevin O’Sullivan

National University of Ireland, Galway

Environmental Futures: Green Activism in Britain and Ireland in the 1970s and early 1980s

 

Break (12:00-13:00)

 

Panel Four (13:00-15:00)

 

Transnational and Diaspora Identities: Class, Race and Ethnicity

 

Chair: Kennetta Hammond Perry (De Montfort University)

 

Simone Battiston 

Swinburne University

Transnational Experiences of Diasporic Political Activism in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s: Exploring the Case Study of Pierina Pirisi

David Featherstone 

University of Glasgow 

Seafarers’ Struggles for Equality and Transnational Class Formation in the Conjuncture of Decolonization 

Robin Bunce 

University of Cambridge

The Black Eagles: The Changing Face of Black Power in Britain

Fatima Rajina

 

Victoria Redclift 

De Montfort University

 

University College London

Remembering the Liberation War of 1971: Transnationalism and Racism

 

Concluding thoughts and comments (15:00 - 15:30)