October 2023 Newsletter

James (he/him) is a PhD student in History at Birkbeck College, University of London.

His research employs queer oral histories to examine the life and work of England’s queer teachers from the post-partial decriminalisation era of the 1970s to the repeal of Section 28 in 2003.

In this way, the project historicises this particular intersection of the professional and the (putatively) personal and provides the first detailed and sustained account of the ways in which queer teachers' lives were shaped by factors within and outside of the school environment over this 30-year period.

The research is motivated by his own experiences as a gay secondary school teacher in East London. Prior to his PhD, James was a school teacher, and has been a policy advisor within the Civil Service since 2018 where he worked on forestry and the UK Net Zero Strategy. In 2020, he attained an MA in European History at Birkbeck having been awarded an Eric Hobsbawm Postgraduate Scholarship. His MA research explored mid-century print media representations of queer people in public service occupations.

He passionately believes in the importance of queer space and is an advocate for queer-led social organising to improve LGBT+ health and educational provision and outcomes. He is a mentor with MOSAIC LGBT+ Young Persons' Trust and a member of KNOCKOUT LGBTQ+ boxing club.

July 2023 Newsletter

What did it feel like it to submit your viva?

"Finishing my PhD and passing my viva was an incredible feeling. I spent almost five years developing my study, carrying out my research, doing interviews and writing the thesis, and the majority of this took place during COVID, with all the additional challenges that brought. So there was a real sense of relief to have finished, as well as just a sense of accomplishment to have passed."

Tell us what you're doing now.

"Right now, I'm working as a social researcher for a health and social care organisation in Greenwich. Our work is concerned with how people experience publicly funded health and social care services in the borough, with a focus on communities most likely to experience health inequalities. The work is really varied and I've completed projects on a wide range of issues, including young people's access to different contraception methods, as well as how migrant women experience maternity care. My experience doing the PhD was essential to getting this position and it's been really interesting to use my research skills in a non-academic setting."

July 2023 Newsletter

My current research project looks at the work of the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women (JAPGW) in the campaign against ‘white slavery’. A broad term used to describe sex trafficking, prostitution and sometimes other illicit sexual practices, white slavery became heavily associated with Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century. In the late 1880s, the JAPGW founded a series of residential homes intended to ‘rescue’ Jewish girls from the traffic.

While historians have often presented the leaders of the JAPGW as either feminist liberators or classist assimilationists, my research complicates these narratives by focusing on the day-to-day realities of institutionalization. Reading the JAPGW’s own minute books and records ‘against the grain’, I attempt to unearth the voices of ‘inmates’, probing at instances of disobedience and displays of affection in order to build a fuller picture of their lives.

I hope to consider rescued girls as agents in making meaning out of the work done by the JAPGW, focusing on the dynamics of class and power in interactions between reformer reformed. I am also interested in the role that anti-white slavery campaigning played in constructing and producing new identities for British Jewish women, and its significance in early movements for Progressive Judaism.

July 2023 Newsletter

There seems to be a gap in the research when it comes to examining the experiences of black women police officers in the U.K with academic research, reviews and inquiries into police conduct, treating racist and sexist discrimination as two separate and distinct issues.

I am keen to focus my dissertation on exploring the experiences of black women police officers in the Met police force, by interviewing current and former officers, and examining reviews and inquiries into police conduct e.g. Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and the Casey Review.

I want to understand how racist, sexist, classist, and potentially other discriminations, converge and diverge to oppress black women, as well as illuminate moments where these intersectional discriminations may have been manipulated to work in black women’s benefit. I’m interested to understand the coping mechanisms and survival strategies black women have adopted in response to their treatment in the Met, and whether they were able to achieve any structural change.

Though I will be approaching this work using an intersectional framework, I will also be critiquing intersectionality’s capacity and limitations in capturing the full breadth of black women police officers’ experience in the Met.

I have chosen to focus on the Met specifically because I am London based so can more easily access ex or current Met officers, I also grew up in London and therefore in and around the Met, and there has been an increased level of scrutiny directed at the Met in the wake of Wayne Couzens murder of Sarah Everard; serial rapist David Carrick; the Casey Review into police conduct and the historical Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, all of which resonate with the themes of my research.

July 2023 Newsletter

On the 24 May, the Bonnart Trust convened a public seminar to platform its recent scholars’ research. Chaired by Dr Omar Khan of TASO, both Jahan and Satya presented work derived from their respective doctoral studies. Jahan shared her research on the experiences of Latin American migrants living in London, with a particular focus on the role children play in supporting their families’ access to essential resources such as education and welfare.

Meanwhile Satya presented his work on South Asian migrants who moved to West London after the Second World War, documenting the changing forms of anti-racist activism that emerged across generations.

Both these presentations highlighted the challenges and complexity of experiences faced by different migrant groups and ethnic minority communities in a global metropolis like London. Though communities separated by geography and time, there was a common thread of inequality and unequal access to rights and entitlements that ran through both these narratives. However, amidst these challenges, we also discovered opportunities for building solidarities and mobilising effective anti-racist movements.

While each migrant community's experiences were unique, we discovered shared themes. For instance, understanding the historical and contextual factors proved crucial in comprehending the challenges faced by these communities. Southall's connection to empire and decolonisation shaped the emergence of anti-racist mobilisation, while the experiences of Latin Americans in London were influenced by the economic crisis and migration patterns, particularly mobility acquired through European citizenship.

During the seminar, we also explored the complexities and hierarchies within migrant communities. The resentment that has been expressed by some ethnic minority communities towards EU migrants and their differentiated rights highlighted the postcolonial legacies and perceived hierarchies that persist. Acknowledging these disparities is crucial; nonetheless space still exists to cultivate a more constructive and inclusive anti-racist political politics.

As the seminar progressed, the conversation explored the resilience of communities and their ability to seek support from community organisations. We found that solidarity existed not only within specific migrant communities but also through interconnections and shared resources. This led us to think about the question of how the increased consciousness of racism and inequality in British society could translate into more productive and sustainable forms of anti-racist politics. We wondered whether the solution lies in grassroots activism and local-level connections as a means of sharing resources, and empowering individuals within marginalised communities to challenge systemic injustices while also building bridges across different migrant and ethnic minority groups.

Reflecting on our conversations, it became clear that building solidarities and mobilising anti-racist movements require localised efforts as well as broader national awareness. While acknowledging the challenges faced by migrant communities, it is essential to foster connections, understanding, and shared experiences within and across different communities. By acknowledging the historical progress made and learning from successful examples, an opportunity could exist to create a more inclusive and effective anti-racist movement that resonates with diverse migrant communities in Britain.