"Britishness" in the 21st Century

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Posted on 04 July 2013

An international team of scholars came together at Keele for a one-day conference to debate the meaning of "Britishness" in the 21st Century.  Following on from the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic Games in 2012, the conference presented an opportune moment to critically explore notions of Britishness and evaluate the key issues involved in formulating shared understandings of British national identity. The event which was organised by Professor Farzana Shain (School of Public Policy and Professional Practice), Professor Bulent Gokay (SPIRE), Dr Monica Mookherjee (SPIRE), and Ilia Xypolio (RI for Hums and Social Sciences) generated considerable local and national media interest and was profiled in Radio 4s 'Thinking Allowed' programme.

Speakers at the conference included Professor Pnina Werbner (Keele), Dr Daniel Bursdey (Brighton university) and Dr Nasar Meer (Northumbria Unviersity). Among the topics discussed were the contradictions of British liberalism and imperialism and their legacies for national identity today; multiculturalism and the politics of inclusion; Scottish perspectives on the 'new Scots'; Multiculturalism, religion and British identity; urban doom and the populist politicisation of the multiculture; Britishness and the politics of belonging; contemporary British Islamophobia; the 2012 'Jubilympics'; the Falklands War and Britishness; and New Labour's reforms to the UK citizenship process.

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